Latest / Libido Lounge / Holistic Treatments for Stress and HPV with Dr. Doni Wilson

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Holistic Treatments for Stress and HPV with Dr. Doni Wilson · Libido Lounge

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  Welcome to the libido lounge where we focus on all things love, lust, and libido.
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  We believe that fabulous sex is important to health as exercise and good food.
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  Hey,
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  everybody.
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  Welcome back to another episode of The Lounge.
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  I'm your libido host and expert, doctor Diane.
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  And today, we have a special treat.
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  My friend, doctor Donnie Wilson, who is another naturopathic doctor, is an amazing expert on
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  stress, on HPV, and all of the different subsequent things that go with these
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  conditions.
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  So we're gonna get into some juicy stuff today.
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  We're gonna talk about HPV, what to be aware of, how this affects your libido.
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  We're gonna talk about stress and how to manage that and so much more.
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  So welcome.
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  Thank you so much for being with me today.
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  Thank you for having me, Diane.
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  Well, it's a pleasure,
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  and we're just gonna jump right in here.
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  So I wanna start our conversation by talking about HPV, and I wanna start because from a
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  libido standpoint, I know we're gonna talk about this a lot today in our time together, is
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  is there so much impact with something like HPV around shame, around guilt, around am I safe
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  for myself?
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  Am I safe for my partner?
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  So how do you like and you work with so much HPV in your practice, and I think you've done a
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  really amazing job at just not only bringing awareness to this topic, but also helping
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  people work with all of the emotions that that come up with that.
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  So can you just walk us through because this is so connected to our, you know, our sexual
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  health, our personal health.
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  When somebody gets an initial HPV diagnosis, where what is the first thing do you tell them?
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  Where do they start?
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  What do they need to be thinking about?
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  So I'm so glad you're asking.
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  And and, yeah, exactly.
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  First, anyone listening, if you when you go in for your Pap smear, now more and more it's
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  becoming the standard for practitioners to also test for HPV.
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  That was not always the case in the past.
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  Right?
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  We used to only test for HPV if they were abnormal cells, but now HPV is being tested
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  right with the Pap smear before we even know if there's abnormal cells, and so more and more
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  women are finding out that they're testing positive.
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  Also, I think that because we were under so much stress during the pandemic and there's now
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  studies showing that COVID increases risk of HPV and a lot of women were delayed their Pap
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  smear because of the pandemic, So I think all of that combined is why we're seeing so many
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  more women who are coming back testing positive for HPV.
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  And so that's exactly they reach out to me from around the world, I hear from women, because
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  this is the case around the world, is that women are finding out they test positive, and
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  the thing is is that there are some studies, these are older studies, like particularly a
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  study from like ten years ago, that said that in ninety percent of cases, the human body will
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  clear HPV, meaning it will go to negative, within two years of being diagnosed.
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  And because practitioners know about that study, they will often tell women, Okay, you
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  tested positive for HPV.
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  There were no abnormal cells, so it's quite likely it might just go away.
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  How about you come back in a year and we'll recheck it?
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  And so a lot of women are being told that, and they're essentially in this wait and see.
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  Right?
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  Like, you're just gonna wait and see if it's gonna go away.
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  If you're gonna be in this, essentially, the ninety percent that it goes away in two years.
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  The thing I'm also seeing, Diane, is that more and more women are saying, I'm not okay with
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  wait and see.
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  I'm not okay with find out because this, these HPV viruses that we're talking about are high
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  risk viruses associated with cancer risk.
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  Right?
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  So it's associated with cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, also anal cancer, oral cancer,
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  and in men, it's associated with with also penile cancer.
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  So a lot of women are unsettled with that.
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  They're like, Wait a minute.
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  I can't sleep at night.
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  I can't I I don't feel comfortable going into intimate relationship.
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  I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life because I don't know if this virus is
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  gonna cause cancer or not.
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  And so if anyone listening is like, Yeah, that sounds like me.
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  Like, I'm not okay with wait and see.
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  And so I think we're seeing a shift that's happening on the side of what that women are
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  saying, Hey, I don't want to just go by what my gynecological practitioner is telling me to do.
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  And the fact is, is that in gynecology, the only thing they really can do is remove
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  abnormal cells.
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  Right?
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  So if abnormal cells develop, if it's mildly abnormal, right, so if it's inflammation or CA
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  n one, again, your doctor can't do anything.
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  They're just gonna still say wait and see.
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  If it goes to CIN two or CIN three, more severe abnormal cells, they can do a procedure to
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  remove those abnormal cells, let's say a leak procedure or conization.
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  But the important thing to know is that the procedure to remove abnormal cells doesn't kill
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  the virus, and getting a vaccine again doesn't kill the virus.
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  So what tends to happen is women will have one leap, and then six months later, they go back
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  and recheck, and then the virus causes abnormal cells again.
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  And they go into this never ending cycle of Pap smears and colposcopies and leaps and
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  potentially hysterectomy, and the virus never does leave them alone, and no, this is not one
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  hundred percent of the case.
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  I don't want to scare everybody, but there's a potential there, and so I think more and more
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  women are taking their own health into their own hands and saying, I don't want that to
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  happen to me.
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  I want to do something now instead of waiting to see if abnormal cells develop.
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  And so that's the questions women ask me.
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  They say, What can I do now?
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  What can I do to get this to go away?
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  What can I I want to be proactive, and my practitioner is not giving me any idea of what
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  I can do or how quick how I can speed up my body's ability to clear this virus?
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I think there's so there's so many layers with this.
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  Right?
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  I feel like there's a layer of, oh my gosh.
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  This happened.
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  Like, we have this personal relationship to our anatomy, especially the anatomy that kind of
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  defines our femininity, our masculinity, and, you know, breasts, anything that happens with
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  our vulva.
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  I think just, like, it it impacts us as as humans in a way that is beyond, say, breaking a
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  toe.
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  Right.
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  So there's so many layers and so much confusion that happens here.
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  So what do you from a testing perspective because of this, what you're, you know, what
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  you're bringing light to around pap smear doesn't do everything and we're having been
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  testing this.
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  Do you recommend from, say, just like a prevention standpoint that every time people go
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  in for their well woman, they get tested?
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  And can you talk a little bit about men and why we haven't been testing men and and that
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  component of things?
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  Because I think there's a there's a huge problem, right, with that that emphasis on
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  women getting tested.
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  And then, like you said, we can have penile cancer, and I think men are just oftentimes
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  left in the dark with us.
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  I do recommend finding out if you're testing positive for HPV because, of helping women for,
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  and men for over 24, what I find is that I'm able to help them clear the virus and and have
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  it not come back again.
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  So I would rather know if you have the virus so that we know you need my protocol.
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  So then you have a clear action step, like, okay, it's positive.
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  Let me go into action and make these diet changes, figure out why I'm susceptible.
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  Because really when it comes to HPV, and we can talk about more of this, is that it's about why
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  is it coming up positive now?
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  Because we can we're all we're most all exposed to this virus.
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  They the studies show that by age 50, we are most all exposed to this virus.
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  It is not a rare thing.
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  Men and women are exposed to this virus.
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  So if that's the case, then we would should be able to clear it if we address the root causes
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  of why it's there in the first place.
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  So I would rather know it's there and start taking action and help you clear it and protect
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  yourself from it in the future.
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  And in terms of men, the thing is is in The United States, there's not a standard screening
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  test for men for HPV.
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  Now, there is for women, and I'm I'm actually grateful that as women we can find out early.
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  Like, we actually get to, thank goodness, we get to find out before it causes cancer,
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  hopefully, that it's present and potentially causing abnormal cells, and then with the work
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  that I do, we can prevent it from hopefully causing cancer or prevent it from causing
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  cancer again.
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  And for men, they don't have that opportunity.
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  For men, HPV can cause cancer, and they only find out they had HPV once they got cancer.
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  Now that's not the case in other countries, by the way.
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  There's countries in the world where they do screen men for HPV, and I believe that in the
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  near future, that will become available in The United States.
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  But it's interesting because, as you're mentioning, it's going to open up this big
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  conversation of how do we talk about our intimate partners, talk about this with our
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  intimate partners?
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  Because this is a lot of times what women will say to me is they if they mention it, say to
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  someone they're dating, that other person may not have that information or knowledge about
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  it, and so they might freak out and leave the relationship.
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  And there's actually studies that show that testing positive for HPV does have a very
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  significant psychosexual impact on women's lives, meaning, you know, you you first of all,
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  it could be in your own mind where you test positive and then you're afraid to have sex and
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  you're afraid.
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  Is this gonna impact your fertility, for example?
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  Because when you have multiple procedures on the cervix, it can increase risk of
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  miscarriage, and so it can impact women's fertility.
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  And it can also impact when, if they do choose to say something about it with their partner
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  and their partner's not informed, that can create a lot of tension, and it can also, by
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  the way, it can bring up, I think, very unfortunately, it has led to a lot of
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  conversations with couples where they're saying, hey.
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  How did you get this virus?
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  And so there's accusations of, did this person have sex with in in another relationship, and
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  that's how they got exposed to HPV.
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  And I wanna just right away say we cannot know that because the HPV virus, each person could
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  have been exposed years ago, and it maybe wasn't testing positive until now.
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  Also, it's it's it's you can't tell based on an HPV test that shows positive.
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  It doesn't tell you from whom you got it or when.
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  So it's simply information that we cannot have.
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  And so I I as much as, you know, sometimes we get into this drama of how did I get this?
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  Who did I get it from?
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  Was my partner, you know, not being loyal to me or honest with me?
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  Those questions have to be, I think, separate from the conversation with HPV because we can't
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  we can't tell that based on simply having a positive HPV test.
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  Yeah.
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  I think it's really important because, obviously, that that comes up a lot.
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  And then and especially, like, not testing males, it's super possible that a female gets
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  HPV and is actually from her current partner that didn't have any symptoms and is not being
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  tested.
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  And, you know, or like you said, it could also be from somebody a long time ago.
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  So I like that idea a lot of just, like, these are separate conversations that never should be
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  intertwined because there's literally could be absolutely zero relationship.
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  Of course, there could be a relationship, but there's no way there's no way to know.
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  So let's talk a little bit about the why because you brought that up, and I think that's
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  a really important thing to make sure we get covered today.
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  So somebody, like we've said, could this could be dormant for years.
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  This could be going on for years.
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  So then why all of a sudden is somebody gonna manifest symptoms or test positive?
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  And what's going on to really prevent the body from eliminating or preventing that virus from
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  setting in?
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  What I find in, Diane, this is from, again, from working with thousands of patient patients
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  over a couple decades.
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  And all and I'm always asking them, as nature of other doctors, we're always asking, like,
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  what's happening in your whole environment?
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  What's the root cause of this?
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  What's happening?
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  And one of the most common questions I ask is, has there been a significant amount of stress
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  in your life in the past two to five years?
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  And women consistently report that, yes, they have been under significant stress, whether
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  that was relationship stress, let's say from either an abusive relationship or a divorce or
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  separation.
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  It's also often reported that they have had a death in their family or more than one death in
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  the family, someone close to them who passed away, or even a pet who passed away.
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  Also, if they've had significant job related stress or maybe they're a graduate student and
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  they've been under a lot of stress because of that, or they recently moved from one area of
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  the country to another area of the country.
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  And as I mentioned before, maybe they were had a significant illness, either significant COVID
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  or other illness or injury or car accident.
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  So these are the types of things when we start looking back and say, why now?
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  We end up finding, oh, okay.
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  Their system went through a significant stress, and what we know is that when humans go through
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  significant stress or even chronic stress over a long time is that it disrupts our stress
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  hormone levels.
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  Our cortisol levels can go too high or too low.
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  And when cortisol is too high or too low, that disrupts our immune system.
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  So now we're more susceptible to infection.
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  So that's one of the connections with stress is simply cortisol on the immune system.
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  But we also know that stress disrupts our digestion.
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  It causes leaky gut.
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  It causes an imbalanced microbiome, and now we're seeing studies connecting imbalanced
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  microbiome in the gut to imbalanced microbiome in the vagina.
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  And when that happens, we become more susceptible to HBV.
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  Also, we know it can have to do with toxin exposure, which is really another stress.
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  So I see a lot of women who've had mold exposure, for example, and then they become HPV
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  positive, so we have to help their body to detoxify.
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  So I'm always looking for what was the what was it that was the stress?
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  In some cases, Diane, it's all of those things, right?
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  Sometimes women are having hormonal changes and emotional stress and an infection of some type
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  and a toxin stress, and then it all just crumbles from there.
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  And, of course, HPV just takes advantage of that.
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  It's really a type of virus that takes advantage when we're worn down and depleted.
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  Yeah.
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  Thank you for all of that.
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  And and you bring up so many, like, vicious cycles.
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  Right?
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  I feel like I talk about vicious cycles a lot of my work around microbiome of the gut,
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  microbiome of the vagina, and HPV there, and stress, and how it relates to all of it.
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  And I think we should kinda wrap up our episode before we tell people where to find you with
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  actually breaking down one of my, like, most common vicious cycles that I talk about, which
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  is really the stress libido vicious cycle from a standpoint of we get stressed, we don't wanna
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  have sex, and then we don't release oxytocin, and that's our master stress hormone.
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  So I talk about that all the time on this podcast.
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  So I want I'm wondering if you especially with you being also, in addition to an expert in
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  HPV, also an expert in stress and stress resiliency, and you have your book, Master Your
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  Stress, Reset Your Health.
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  So can you break down besides my favorite way of of modus of working with stress, which is
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  working on the libido, what other ways do people get out of this vicious cycle to set
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  their microbiome, to set their selves up for a better capacity to just be healthy and to
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  recover from things like HPV?
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  I love that you're mentioning oxytocin as a anti stress hormone.
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  You know?
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  So that's exactly it is we need to because it's not about trying to eliminate all the stress.
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  You know, we're yes, we can do our best to reduce our stress and avoid stress when we can,
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  but we're gonna have stress as humans.
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  So, it's more about how do we how do we recover from it, and then how do we become master it.
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  That's why the name of the book is is like that is because it's how do we continue to support
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  ourselves.
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  And so, yes, choosing those anti stress activities.
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  Also looking at diet, we look at what are the dietary, exposures that reduce our immune
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  system, like, sugar, alcohol can reduce our immune function, as well as food sensitivities
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  that are inflammatory.
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  So we look at that, and then we look at the I look at those adrenal hormones, cortisol and
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  adrenaline.
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  How do we optimize them?
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  How do we look at all your nutrient levels?
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  Are you deficient in iron or b vitamins?
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  Let's get you know, address what got depleted by stress.
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  And in doing so, including rebalancing hormones, rebalancing microbiome through, yeah,
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  diet changes, adequate sleep.
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  Right?
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  These recovery activities, like sex is one of them as well that I list in my book as a I call
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  it a recovery activity, something that gives us these anti stress hormones.
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  It could also be spending time in nature, you know, connecting with a friend, you know, just
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  by even talking or a hug or or pets.
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  All of these things are activities, meditation, music, that help us to counteract and recover
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  from stress and then become resilient to stress ongoing.
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  Also, of course, movement and exercise.
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  You know, so it's I walk women through, let's figure out what it is for you as an individual
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  that got affected by stress, including from potentially toxic or abusive relationships.
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  Let's recover from that, and then let's help you really learn what your body needs ongoing
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  to stay healthy even if you get exposed.
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  See, this is the thing I always like to clarify is, you know, women are afraid to have sex
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  again because they're like, I don't want to get exposed again even if you're married.
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  And I really teach them that based on my patience, that's not the case.
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  I I work with women who are still in the same relationship with the same person, so that
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  person, there's likely still HPV around.
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  But now based on really learning how to take care of themselves, they can keep fending off
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  that HPV.
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  They can be resilient to it even if they're exposed to it again, and I really think that's
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  what we're aiming for.
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  We're aiming for we should not have to shut down our sex life, based on fear of HPV or risk
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  of HPV.
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  We should be able to feel empowered about protecting ourselves and still be able to be
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  intimate as much as we choose in our lives.
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  Yeah.
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  I really love the belief, like, a healthy body is a resilient body, and that's exactly what
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  you're talking about.
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  Right?
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  When our body is truly healthy and when we're in balance, we are more resilient to the
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  toxins, to infections, to stress and all of these things.
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  And we are running out of time.
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  I want to remind everybody that's listening that we are going to invite our top podcast,
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  the ones that have the most downloads.
• 19:53
  We are inviting these speakers, the top four people back at the end of the year for much
• 19:57
  longer deep dive.
• 19:59
  So please do download this, share this with your friends.
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  If you want doctor Donnie to come back, which I certainly do, please, please, please make sure
• 20:07
  you download this and share this around.
• 20:09
  I know we're gonna have a link to your book in the show notes, and then I also wanna make sure
• 20:13
  everybody knows about some of your workshops and some of the other cool things that you do.
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  Can you just tell us about them, and we'll put that in the show notes as well?
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  Absolutely.
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  So if you're resonating with this and you wanna learn more what you can do to address HPV once
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  and for all and just now be resilient to it so you can move forward in your life, then I
• 20:32
  encourage you to join me for the HEAL HPV workshop.
• 20:36
  We offer this workshop on a regular basis, and it's a live workshop where I really teach you
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  all the details of what I've just been mentioning here about how you can take steps to
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  get to get HPV to negative.
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  So, yeah, we can put the link for the Heal HPV workshop.
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  I also have an HPV recovery guide, and I'm happy to share a link for that as well.
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  Those are both free ways for you to learn more about you how you can gain freedom from HPV.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you so much for being here with us and for all of this information.
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  I really appreciate you, Donnie.
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  Thank you so much.
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  I'm really glad to be here.
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  And thank you everybody for listening.
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  This is another episode on the lounge.
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  Doctor Diane signing off here reminding you to always be sexy, always be classy, and always
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  stay a little badass y.
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  See you next time.
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  Thank you for listening to the Libido Lounge.
• 21:27
  Please don't keep me a secret.
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  Please share this with your friends.
• 21:30
  You can find me on YouTube, on Instagram, as well as how to work with me at mylibidodoc.com.