Changing the Face of Medicine with Dr. Donese Worden

A Personal Note From Orion

Ever since the pandemic started, health has been the main topic of discussion worldwide. Though the increase of awareness is good, sometimes too much information can be problematic. Some doctors say this, some scientists say that, and everyone’s sharing their opinions on the Internet. And if you’re confused and not sure which is which, this Stellar Life podcast with Dr. Donese Worden will be a huge help.

Dr. Worden is an award-winning physician, researcher, and global health educator who expertly and compassionately bridges the worlds of conventional allopathic and advanced alternative medicine. As a naturopathic medical doctor, she is licensed in prescribing both pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Her passion is in helping people take charge of their health and make more informed decisions.

According to Dr. Worden, your body is your best pharmacy. With the right mindset and habits, you have the power to heal yourself. On the other hand, she doesn’t denounce standard medical beliefs. She believes there should be a balance in the medical and naturopathic fields to achieve the ultimate holistic approach. At the end of the day, it’s you who’s in charge of your optimum health. Tune in to learn more!

In this Episode

[01:11] – Orion introduces Dr. Donese Worden, an award-winning physician, researcher, and global health educator who expertly and compassionately bridges the worlds of conventional allopathic and advanced alternative medicine.
[05:12] – Dr. Worden shares her goal in combining traditional and alternative medicine.
[10:26] – What is Frequency Medicine, and how does it work?
[15:04] – Dr. Worden discusses the types of therapy you can consider in healing scars, such as scars from a c-section surgery.
[19:51] – Dr. Worden describes her approach in empowering patients to become confident in their processes of healing.
[24:30] – Dr. Worden talks about the importance of her being spiritually connected when working with patients.
[30:16] – Dr. Worden shares her opinion on wearing masks in public and the COVID-19 vaccine.
[34:56] – Dr. Worden recommends some ways on how to focus on self-care during this time of the pandemic.
[40:46] – What is the effect of taking supplements that are not personalized for your body?
[46:21] – Visit Dr. Donese Worden’s website at DrWorden.com to learn more about her and get a resource consultation.

Jump to Links and Resources

About Today’s Show

Hi, Dr. Worden, and welcome to the Stellar Life Podcast. Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Orion. I’m so excited to be on your podcast—what a great wealth of information you provide.

Thank you. And you’re pretty amazing. This kind of conversation will be good because you’re not only doing traditional medicine but also combining alternative medicine. You’re so interesting; you have so many sides to you and so many ways to teach and heal people in a very holistic way. And it’s rare because sometimes we just dissect people, and then we treat them by body parts. We don’t treat them as a whole. So what you’re doing is very beautiful and very amazing.

I want to do it. It’s just an honor for me, as a researcher, to constantly gather knowledge and look at that wholeness of a person. It’s just an honor to be able to work with people that way.

Yeah. And I’m glad there are people like you in the world; we need so many more of those. Before we begin, can you please share your passion and how you get to combine traditional and alternative medicine?

Whatever you choose for your treatment is the best because if you're confident in it, your body cooperates. Share on X

As a naturopathic medical doctor in Arizona, I’m licensed to prescribe medicine and to do minor surgery. So we’re a primary care. So I understand medicines. We’re also licensed in clinical nutrition, from IBS to what we need to be doing with gut and brain health. We’re also licensed in homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and manipulation, similar to what a chiropractor or DO used to do. And many other avenues that we were licensed in to be able to look at that whole. When I’m working with someone, the first thing is diagnostics, what’s the root of the problem. And then there are many ways to treat, alternative and traditional. Sometimes, I think we’ve gotten stuck into thinking we have to take sides; we have to say, “Don’t tell your real traditional doctor about alternative things you’re doing because they’ll think it’s out there with no science.”

On the other hand, the alternative guys are saying, “Don’t do any of the traditional because it’s toxic, and it’ll kill you.” And I think we need a voice of reason in the middle and find out what’s affecting the person from a holistic standpoint, mind, body, soul, emotional, mental, all of it. Find out that, and then we can talk about the available treatments. The person identifies with that because I’m a big believer; whatever you choose for your treatment is the best one because if you’re confident in it and believe in it, then your body’s own pharmacy is at work. Because you’re in that parasympathetic relaxed state, so all of your chemicals, neurotransmitters, and all that kick in, and that health healing is available. And I have this conversation with my oncology cancer patients all the time. It’s not what I would use. It’s what after you’re educated, and you understand what’s going on, what your options are, everything that’s credible out there, I provide that. Then, it’s up to the patient to choose.

I’ve been curious lately about homeopathy. How does it work? It’s so mysterious to me.

It is, and it’s come under the gun. In the United States, it’s regulated as a drug. If we take nutraceuticals or supplements, they’re regulated as foods, so it’s a little easier for them to get out there and do some things. But homeopathy is regulated as a pharmaceutical drug. It’s interesting how that’s happened, but it’s coming under scrutiny now all over the world. Homeopathy has been a wonderful adjunctive therapy, and I utilize some of it in my practice. But homeopathy, to make it simple, is called “like cures like.” If you take a very low dose of something that normally would cause a symptom, let’s say you take ipecac; ipecac is something you take when somebody takes something poisonous and wants them to vomit; you give them ipecac to do that. But homeopathy is a very diluted dosage of ipecac; in that instance, you use it for someone who’s nauseated and vomiting to turn it off. So it’s like a vaccine. It gives a tiny little bit of information to the body to say, “Oh, I need to pay attention and stop that symptom.” So it’s the opposite of a pharmaceutical, where we’re trying to block or regulate a symptom. Homeopathy is giving the low dose of something that would normally make you sick, kind of like a vaccine.

What’s the problem? Why do people scrutinize it?

Because of the science, there’s not enough research behind it. There is some research worldwide, but nobody’s put a lot of money behind it to research because it’s inexpensive medicine. Suppose there’s no revenue to make around it like Boiron is the world’s largest homeopathic manufacturer. They flew me out last year to their facility in France. They’re wonderful people. It’s been used in Europe a lot. They’ve tried to help in education and in studying it. They flew me out, and I had them fly out. One of the oncologists from MD Anderson, that we’re using some homeopathy for side effects of their traditional care. They’ve tried, but nobody’s put enough of the science or the medicine behind it to make it valid in the world of insurance and reimbursement. So it’s all about money.

Healing doesn’t have to be one-sided all the time.

It’s always about money. That’s what seems to me. Whatever is going on in the world today is all about money. There is homeopathy that you use. You also told me you use frequency medicine, what is that?

I do. I’ve lectured and taught this biomedical type of medicine to physicians for probably more than 18 years. Cold laser is one. So we know low-level lasers are used for burn and wound management. I’m a co-author on a study that we’re developing right now at MD Anderson to utilize. I can’t talk about the particulars and study yet. But it will be used for radiation burns. Frequency medicine, using light and sound and all that, has always been a passion of mine. And I lectured on what do we know and what do we not. Unfortunately, many urban myths exist out there to say this frequency does this or cures that; we’ve got to be careful with that.

My mentor in this space is Dr. Bill Tiller, who for 40 years was the chair of the physics department at Stanford. He’s still an emeritus professor. He and I lectured on laser physics. I was using it in medicine. And we had him there to talk about the physics of how it all works. And of course, everybody went, “What did he just say?” And I got to say, “Well, this is how you use it in practice.” So frequency medicine, there are different devices that I’ve used over the years. I think it’s the wave of the future. I can’t wait for us to learn and do more. But once again, someone has to fund and do the studies so it can become more mainstream. Light and sound, there’s not a lot of money behind that. But some of the devices have done some studies, and I’m anxious to do this one at MD Anderson to give at least low-level lasers or cold lasers a place.

Frequency medicine is also sound waves, right?

It is. Interestingly, there’s a whole show that we could do on that. There’s an MRI study that showed that it was a group of researchers who said, “Okay, you guys are saying acupuncture can heal.” So they said, “If that’s true, let’s work on vision, and let’s see what you would do.” So the acupuncturist in the study said, “All right, the vision where we would put it in the meridian is a needle in the bottom of the foot.” That didn’t translate to traditional medicine. Well, if that’s true, it should light up in the brain. It’s the back part of your head; in the occiput, it should light up that area if you’re truly affecting a vision. Not only did it light up there, but then they looked at, from the needle; what would happen if we did light? Light got there faster. Guess what was even faster than that; sound.

Wow.

But that doesn’t mean it’s better. It just means it traveled more quickly. And my husband, Barry Goldstein, works with some of the largest thought leaders and people out there. From Joe Dispenza, Neale Donald Walsch, Gregg Braden, all that. His music and the science that he puts behind that have been amazing. So we work with music and try to help people get to the emotion they need to be; that would be a great interview for you to do at some point. He does a lot of them. And it’s just fascinating what we can do with music. Because now we’ve got a non-invasive way to help people get their mind and emotion to a state. Remember, when it’s in peace and calm, then the body can heal. I’m a big advocate of what we can do that’s less invasive. I do regenerative injections. I’ve taught that for years. All these leading-edge things are fun and great. But the first step is always, “Can we help the body heal itself?”

Our body is its own pharmacy. With the right treatment, it has the capability to heal itself. Share on X

Beautiful. I have a baby who is a year and five months old. He’s so cute. I planned a beautiful home birth in the water. I wanted to experience orgasm while giving birth. That was my idea. I was fully open for 12 hours. He was breech, and I had a special doctor that delivers breech babies. And the whole part at home was really beautiful. But after 12 hours, he just didn’t want to drop, and they didn’t know what to do. And I had to go to the emergency room and get a c-section. And going from this beautiful atmosphere to meet this super tired, cranky doctor, it was horrible. The whole thing was traumatic. So I’m left with this scar. I’ve been told that because of the scar, there is nerve damage because they cut through so many layers. So the body is compensating, and different muscles are trying to stabilize the hips and the core. The core doesn’t even engage because there is nerve damage. And that sound wave can help break it, heal it, and activate those nerves.

Very true there. I was just commiserating with you a little bit. My beautiful baby is 30 years old. I planned it all, read it all, all-natural breech had to have the c-section. So what I will say is, we’ve got to be very thankful for modern medicine. Some of that scar that you’ve got there, there’s an emotion attached to that as well. We found that in scar therapy, I studied with the Germans in injection technique for scar therapy, and part of it was having the patient speak about what happened and what emotions they had when that scar was being placed there. Whether it was a car accident or a c-section, those emotions attached to that scar when you release that while you’re doing this injection technique is profound. So I want to always bring back that we need to be grateful for modern medicine, traditional medicine in America. We’ve got the best emergency care around.

Now when it comes to chronic degenerative diseases. We are a miserable failure. The stats show it, but when it comes to emergency, we say thank you to that tired emergency room doctor. To be grateful for it. But what I would suggest to you, and I’ve worked on many scars, you can probably find someone, it’s called neural therapy. Some of us that worked in injections would use homeopathy. But even with that homeopathy, they can use a topical anesthetic and inject it into that scar like it’s new. And if they’re doing the types of techniques I’m talking about and having you talk about the sadness and grief you had around that scar because you didn’t get to have that vision come through. Then, you can let go of all the pieces attached to that scar, not just that scar tissue. There are devices like the cold laser. There are all kinds of devices that can help break up that scar tissue and work on those underlying areas that you’re talking about. But just the scar injection alone on that topical part can release all that underlying as well. Those are just some hints for you to consider.

Wow, thank you. That’s amazing. I like what you said about being super grateful. Because for a while, I was so resentful. I had to come to terms with it and say, “Wow, thank you.” Okay, she didn’t like the smile. She was kind of cranky. But without her, I wouldn’t have my baby. And I like what you’re saying; we need to go through a c-section because all the herbs in the world cannot heal that.

That’s right. We should always be bridging everything in our lives. I’ve always said, “Why do we have to take sides? Why would we have to choose traditional over alternative, and integrative even?” People say they’re integrated, but we like to lean natural, and that’s great. But why choose sides? It’s what’s best for the patient at that moment, and not forgetting that the patient’s own belief system is massive here. We have to take not what the doctor believes always, but what the patient believes. You have to take all of that into account. And I love that part of my mission is to bridge those worlds for us to be grateful for all of it. We need to challenge both sides to their weaknesses and their strengths. I’ve got a show that I signed and we’re trying to find the best home for it. But it’s Health Hot Seat where I’m in the middle, and we’ve got a traditional doctor on one side, and an alternative medicine doctor on the other side; both are stuck and believe their way is the only way. People need to see and hear what the sides say all at once, instead of us hiding from each one and not talking about it. I want to bring it to the forefront. We have that discussion where people can hear it all at once. My part in the middle is to pull out the truth and weaknesses from both sides and remind the patients after they’re educated; it’s up to them to make that decision.

There are tons of options and medical practitioners out there who can help you out. Aside from traditional medicine, there’s herbal, homeopathic, frequency healing, and so on.

Why is it important to give them the power? We’ve been educated to give the doctors the power. The doctors know; we know nothing. And anyone that wears a white robe is smarter than us. And we need to give them the power and the decision. You’re doing something different where you empower the patient, and you’re like, “Listen, you have the power. Your mind is a pharmacy, and you can create healing.”

That’s right. I tell patients all the time because I’ve worked in a lot of space, from oncology to professional athletes. They always say, “Well, my other doctors said… And I don’t feel they’re listening to me, and I feel dumb.” I say, “You know what they work for you; fire them.” You were paying a doctor for their medical expertise. They are not God; they are hopefully doing their best with what they have in their brain. But what they have in their brain is not the full picture for anyone. I always empower patients to fire anybody that they’re working with, from a doctor to a healer to an acupuncturist, if they don’t feel comfortable. How do you think your body’s going to heal in that state? Empower them to fire, and they’re like, “Can I fire my doctor?” And I said, “Absolutely. You can fire them. We’ll find another one.” We want a team. We want a healthcare team that works together for whatever, get the egos out of the way on both sides.

Tell the alternative medicine to stop telling the patient they can’t take this drug at this moment because it’s toxic. If the patient needs it or feels that they need it. So it’s about empowering you because the body is your own pharmacy, the most powerful healer in the world. What we make as a painkiller is 10 to the ninth power stronger than morphine, which is our strongest drug we’ve got for pain management, far stronger, is what your own body makes. So we want to spend more time on how we activate the body’s own healing system, own antibacterials, and antivirals. All the molecules we possess in our body are far more powerful, stronger, and more accurate than any drug. It’s the right dosage at the right moment with no side effects. Why would we not want to activate that even if you’re doing other therapies, you always want your body’s own pharmacy involved?

How do you empower your patients? What kind of tools do you give them to engage the power of their minds?

It depends on how they’re coming in. If they’re a professional athlete and already on top of the game, they say, “Make me faster, better, and stay at the game longer.” Their minds are powerful already. They have stress and anxiety. So we have to work on whatever it is, that personalized medicine, what that patient needs. A lot of cancer patients are coming in fear; they’re anxious, they’re fearful. Others are coming in grief; they’ve lost an arm and a leg, they’re in pain. It depends on the emotion. So that’s how I start. Where is that patient emotionally? They say, “Do you work with this disease or that?” The answer is yes. People say, “What do you specialize in?” And I say health. Take that patient. I’ll look at the physical; I’m a good diagnostician. I have people that come from barrows, and mayo, and everywhere, they’ve had all these diagnostic tests, and nobody can figure them out. I love that patient to get that figured out. But the most important is, where’s that patient at that moment? Do I need to empower them and give them hope and help?

Or do I need to calm them down and say, “Here’s your morning program, an evening program. This is how you need to go to sleep. This is how you need to wake up. Here are the tools that you will use.” Is it music? Is it a supplement? Is it food? Is it a particular type of exercise or diet? I do not have a protocol where everybody that comes in gets the same protocol. It is not how I do medicine. It’s so unique with each patient. The different people could come in with the same disease state, let’s say rheumatoid arthritis. How do you treat it? I don’t know; I haven’t seen the patient. I have many tools on both sides, from traditional and alternative. That’s the easy part. Choosing the treatment is the easy part. It’s diagnosing all the things that need to happen in that patient. And you have to address all those levels that we’ve talked about.

When you diagnose, do you feel like you’re working with a superpower or working with something more spiritual and connected to God, creation, or life force?

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Yes. In my intake for 20 years, I’ve been asking questions that nobody was asking. I said, “Do you have a spiritual practice?” And I said, “I’m not asking about religion. I don’t care, though.” That’s not it. I’m asking the patient if they feel connected to something greater than themselves; that is my opportunity to open the door to have a conversation with the patient and connect with them on that level. Patients that come to me, where they’ve seen an interview on Gaia, or now they’re going to hear from your interview because you’re spiritually connected, they’re already there. And I can start that conversation with them right at the beginning, and I tap in whether they’re connected or not. We’ve forgotten that physician and doctor mean healer and teacher. That’s what those mean; we have forgotten that in medicine. If I am connected in that space, I will always have a better connection with the patient. I do consults that are not patient, so they don’t have to fly in to see me; I do Zoom or Skype and do these things.

So whatever they are with me, however, I’m helping with them. Sometimes I can’t mention spirituality right up top; they’ll be afraid and panic and leave. So I have to wait. When they’re filling out that questionnaire, I asked them that. But I have to guide slowly sometimes, and other times I say, “Tap in. What are you feeling? Are you connected with this? What do you feel is happening with you?” Those that are spiritually connected. It’s very interesting. They usually will know on a higher level what’s causing the physical manifestations that they’re suffering with; they already know it. But sometimes, we have to relieve those physical problems so that they can have the opportunity to feel spiritually connected because there is so much pain, or so much distress, or having a hard time getting there. It’s just very personalized. And yes, to answer your question, very important for me to be in my connected state to work with anybody. Even if it’s virtual on these video conferences, you still can feel and hear the energy coming from someone and work with them at that level. Some are ready to have that conversation; some aren’t. That’s okay; I eventually get them there. Sometimes through laughter. Sometimes you just have to take them where they are in their life journey.

That’s beautiful. When I work with clients, I pray that I’ll be a channel and the right words will come out, and they’ll say the right things. But if I get stuck, I always take a moment, and I breathe. The answers always come, and I say things that I don’t even know where they’re coming from, but they’re helping; they’re moving, they’re shaking. And so I believe in this connection.

We all have it. We need to teach the patients that they have it too. We all have it, but we are disconnected. We are so disconnected as a society. And giving that power back is the best thing that I can do as a physician and a teacher. But in the meantime, I tell them, I’ll dink around on the physical level, and I’m good. And I will get there but just reminding them that the true healing will be at a higher level.

We’re going through a pandemic. It’s a pandemic of stress, fear, and anxiety. I just read today, in Israel right now, the suicidal rates, the kids that are more suicidal, is like 40-42%. It’s crazy. There is so much fear and so much anxiety. Either people are afraid of COVID-19 and are afraid to get sick. The people who are on the other side are so afraid of all the conspiracy theories because they see the darkness of what’s going on and the game behind the game. So everybody’s afraid, not everybody, but a lot of people are in stress and fear. Here in Israel, there is a mask mandate. So I walk down the street, and I see people correcting their masks on their noses or walking in nature and covering their faces. It’s pretty insane. People are in fear. I don’t believe masks work because the signs that I read that the virus can travel through them, so it doesn’t do much. But I heard from Dave Asprey, who said, “Worried not to scare the muggles.” If you don’t know muggles from Harry Potter, the people that don’t have the ability to see magic. I wear it to not scare people or respect people. But I don’t think it’s protecting me or anyone else.

Staying connected to a higher power can be crucial in one’s healing.

In time, we will know a little bit more about it. But right now, just being the physician that I am, I don’t think there’s any mask out there that will 100% block all virus transmission. Okay, I will say that. But what if it blocks a little bit, we know that the more dosage you get, if somebody coughs immediately in your face, and you get a bunch of that virus bug, your body has demanded a quicker, more robust response to that than if they were across the room. You just got a few little particles. In my mind, as a physician and what I know about that, if I can reduce the amount of the viral load coming in, I think it’s worth wearing a mask. I’m not telling the anti-maskers that they have to do it. I don’t think anybody should be mandated this and that. But I think out of respect for those in the fear and the worry, why not? What harm does it do for you if you have to go in somewhere to throw on a little mask for a minute to not cause everybody in the area that you’re at to be panicked and angry because you’re not wearing the mask?

I’m talking more about driving alone in their car.

Oh, I know.

Or the people who are running through a field.

When I’m not near, and I walk my dog, the mask is off. There are so many strains right now that are coming out that are different. That’s what viruses do; they morph. For us to think that one vaccine will fix it all, I just think it is naive thinking. Does it mean that that vaccine or a vaccine couldn’t be helpful? Again, we don’t know enough about it; it was brought very quickly to market. We don’t have the typical science and longevity that we normally do. So when patients ask me about it, I say, “I don’t know.” We don’t know enough. That’s what I know at this point. We don’t know enough. Long-term safety for pregnant women. I have my pregnant patients saying, “Should I get it? Should I not?” None of the studies were done on pregnant women to see what it does with the fetus. So maybe it would be helpful; perhaps they would be worse off getting COVID than the vaccine. Even if the vaccine would be protective, we don’t know all of that yet. So the answer is, “We don’t know.”

Here in Israel it is like the testing lab of the world. People are running and pushing in line to get the vaccine. It’s not being broadcast in mainstream media, but I’ve heard of people who died and got all kinds of side effects for life and horrible things. Here, they want to vaccinate everyone – men, pregnant women, children, babies. I’m afraid of that. But I want to focus more on that fear that I have. So I’m afraid of vaccines; somebody else would be afraid of somebody not taking the vaccine. I have all this fear and stress, and anxiety. What do you recommend doing with it? Like how do you recommend channeling it, releasing it, and dealing with it? Knowing what we know, still, be sane.

That’s right. What we don’t know is the biggest phase. There’s so much we still don’t know. So I would say first, understanding is the fear and worry about your health and a loved one’s health. Is it a financial situation or a job? Support services? Where is the fear? Is it the fear of getting sick? Identifying where your fear is coming from. Where are all the fears and focusing on? Where is it coming from? What’s it causing? Is it causing a change in your sleep pattern or your eating patterns? Do you have difficulty concentrating? Are your chronic health problems that generally bother you a little bit worsen? How’s your mental health? Are you anxious? Are you depressed? Identify these things. Are you doing more tobacco or alcohol, or other substances? The rate of addiction problems is rising and is worse. The first is to identify it and understand it.

The most powerful healer in the world is your mindset. Share on X

And then know, are you a rigid thinker to start with? What does that mean? Rigid thinkers are creatures of habit. They get bent out of shape when things don’t go their way or when a routine ends. As neuroscientists, that trait is referred to as cognitive inflict inflexibility. It’s that inability to roll with the ups and downs of everyday life, let alone in a pandemic. If you are already a rigid thinker, that’s who you kind of are; they’re going to have more anxiety, moodiness, frustration, and irritability. That’s just kind of identifying who you were to start with. Were you a free spirit to start with, didn’t have any worries, did well? Or were you already this creature of habit? Then giving yourself a break to understand who you were to start with. And the thing that I like is keeping people into the idea that no government, no vaccine, no medication will be 100% cure for anything and all things ever. It’s about our own immune systems. It’s about taking care of our bodies.

If you’ve been waiting to start exercising or eating healthy or start doing meditation to relax, to get your brainwaves into the right state, if you’ve been waiting to do that, you’re never going to have a better time than right now. Because it’s up to you. Now is our time to say, “Okay, I’m going to turn around this pandemic, fear-anxiety thing.” And say, “This is a wake-up call. And I’m going to use it personally, as a way to get myself where I need to be anyway, spiritually connected, physically doing all the things.” Turn it around and say, “Okay, now’s the time to focus on self-care.” Yes, you want to support others around you, but you’ve got to take charge of your health. And now is the time.

How do we do that? There are very basics that they can work with alternative doctors, integrative doctors because they’re going to be more along the line of working on all these levels. But we know that if we’re firing up those emotional centers in the brain that make us anxious and stressed and depressed, that affects our immune system. How can your immune system, even take the information from a vaccine and do what it needs to do if your immune system is not able to. It’s got to be in decent shape for a vaccine to work anyway; that’s why vaccines typically are less effective in older patients because their immune systems are already compromised. So we gotta make sure that we’re doing that. What can we be grateful for? And this is what I had people focus on.

The Miracle Mornings by Hal Elrod

What can you be grateful for? What can you do? You can’t take care of all these other things outside of our control, but you can exercise, you can eat healthily, you can find a new hobby or new friends. You can eat right to think right. You can take a break from family feuds. Those old things that are hanging on, it time to heal it or to let it go. Sometimes you have to say, “I’m done. I’m not going to be speaking to this person because every time I do, even if they’re family, it causes stress and anxiety.” Just starting new traditions within your world of family and friends. Keep happy, healthy, old traditions in place, things you might do, or start new ones every Sunday. A lot of people are doing Zoom calls with their family, but if that’s causing stress, that’s no longer helpful. Identifying how we boost serotonin naturally. Let’s talk about serotonin that helps us with our negative thoughts and our behaviors. As we’re discussing in the long run, our overall body health, our overall immune system.

What are the things that can boost serotonin? The I’m-happy-okay hormone, the one that we want. It’s exercise, bright light exposure, get out in sunlight. Eating tryptophan foods like Turkey, eggs, chickpeas, nuts, seeds, seafood, quinoa, sweet potatoes. What are the foods that you like within your dietary program that are tryptophan-containing foods? And there are some natural supplements that can help people, and they’re all tools. The other is music. There’s nothing faster that can take you to a state of happiness. Think about a happy song right now. What’s your happy song? And the minute you think about that song, and if you haven’t identified one, you should. But if you identify it, you immediately feel happy, and all your chemicals, everything’s doing good. What’s the type of music that can relax your brain and get you ready for sleep? When you’re upset, and you’re angry or your grief, what is the song or the type of music that can get you there?

Breath by James Nestor

Think about pet therapy. If you’ve ever thought about maybe getting a dog or a cat now’s a great topic. And they’re great. We can bond together and relax together. Their CDs are called pet waves that help you bond with your pet. It relaxes you and the pet. Then reading or listening to books. A couple of shout outs I’ll say, Miracle Mornings by Hal Elrod. Breath by James Nestor is one of the best books out there right now. James is a good friend. It’s called Breath. You mentioned that you do your breathing to get connected. This is a great, fantastic, fun read. It gives you the science but he’s a beautiful journalist—just a great book. People love it. It teaches you why it’s important to breathe a certain way, what it does in your body, and the different ways to breathe. Another one is The Secret Language of the Heart. That one is about using music, developing a playlist for emotions. What do you need right now?

Barry Goldstein, I have to give a shout-out. He is my husband. But I know why the top thought leaders out there utilize him. Not just the music that he creates, with the products he develops with them, because he’s heartfelt and science-based. It’s just why aren’t we using music more; we should be. But breathing and music, exercise, and food. Those are your main things, and then meditation practices. Those are important. And then there are certain supplements I find that can be helpful.

The Secret Language of the Heart by Barry Goldstein

Would you like to get into the supplements?

We can. But again, I always say more is not better. When patients come to me, and they bring in a bag full of supplements, you’re on more than five or six things I go, “You know what, your poor liver and your kidney are going bad. What in the world are you doing?” And you have no idea how they work with one another. Neither do your doctors; we don’t know. So more is not better. It’s got to be personalized, what’s going on. But in general, the B vitamins can work very well. I would suggest that people get tested for the MTHFR gene, that gene that has to do with methylation. If you take a regular cheap B vitamin, it can make you worse. So you get a methylated B vitamin. So if you don’t want to test, just get methylated B vitamins, controlled-release melatonin. So new hormone testing allows us to see all the pathways. It’s new; we’ve not been able to see this. We’re looking at cortisol and melatonin, and then all the sex hormones; we can see the pathways where they’re going and how they’re connecting. We’re finding that if you just take melatonin and play melatonin right before you go to bed, it’s not blasting through the night; people are still waking up at 3 AM.

I wake up at 3 AM all the time. But I also sleep with my baby.

That’s right. I want to talk about that 3 AM in a minute. It’s a pretty interesting time. But controlled release means a little bit of melatonin all night long. And it’s been helpful; we use it in cancer patients. Omega 3 and the fish oils are just good brain food. If you’ve got a busy, active mind, you can’t shut off, phosphatidylserine and GABA. Then not forgetting and again, a whole nother topic about probiotics. What do we know about the mind-body connection? I just gave a four-hour seminar to a group connected with Cedars Sinai of psychiatrist and people in mental health. The more we know about that brain and gut connection, we know you’ve got to get that gut health under control and get it working well for the brain in the emotions and the mental to work well. And I love that topic—lots of information there. But making sure that you’ve got your gut health working well. And that’s very important.

So I want to go back to the 3 AM topic real quick because I think you’re going to do that. Two reasons why we find cortisol is part of that. So on this new testing that we’ve got, wouldn’t be able to see, are you having a cortisol spike at 3 AM, that means that you’re dreaming, or you’re breaking through your subconscious, all the stuff that you’re worried about during your day, you haven’t let it go before you go to sleep. You think you have because you fall asleep. You can go to sleep, but your brain is still up there in this wild, crazy, non-coherent pattern. It’s all a wackadoodle. And it’s not incoherent, smooth, slow the way it’s supposed to be. You go to sleep, but you still haven’t resolved the fear and anxiety you have during your day because it’s still there. You break through the cortisol that comes up, that natural rhythm; if it’s high at 3 AM, you’re going to wake up.

But another interesting part is that on the Chinese medicine clock, and people can look this up. It’s been around for thousands of years Chinese medicine. And so we’ve got to look back and say, “What did the ancients know?” And if you look at from 1 to 3 AM disturbance. If you’re waking up between 1 AM and 3 AM, it’s the liver channel, and in Chinese medicine, the emotion that it’s attached to that is anger. So angry about having to wear a mask or not wear a mask, and we’re about all the things we could be angry about. Right? So 1-3 AM is unresolved anger; you went to sleep, you were still upset. If it’s 3-5 AM, it’s grief. It could be grief from childhood. It doesn’t have to be something right now. But maybe it’s childhood, or maybe you’re grieving, you can’t go to happy hour. But if you have not done your work during the day, the chances are that you’re going to wake up along those time periods and people that wake up at that golden hour at 3 AM. They’re right in the middle of grief and anger. And they may have a little bit of both. It can be cortisol. But what makes our cortisol come up? What makes our body make cortisol? The stress hormone, grief and anger.

So we’re back to Chinese medicine—the ancient healing traditions. I teach a course at Arizona, I developed the course, and I’ve taught it for almost 18 years. It’s called Ancient Medicine. Anyway, it’s holistic medicine. It’s teaching ancient healing for modern times. And it’s teaching era Vedic, traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy, and indigenous plant medicines. What do all of those ancient healing traditions have in common? They went about it in different ways. They treat it differently. They do different diets and different things. But they were treating the mind, body, and spirit. In that master’s level course, I’ve got doctors and social workers, and they’re all stress balls. They’re there because they want to learn a little bit about these. After all, their patients are coming in doing some of it. They don’t know anything about it. But the beauty is at the end of the course, after those five weeks of these weekends, they say that it changed their life. That’s been an honor as well.

Being grateful and really making it a practice can improve your health immensely. Share on X

Wow. That’s amazing. You’re so interesting, and I want to learn so much more from you. I also want to be respectful of your time. Before we say goodbye for now, and I hope you’ll come to visit us here again.

Absolutely.

Where can people find you? How can they connect with you and get the healing and help from you?

DrWorden.me is my website, but the office number is 480-588-2233, if they’re in Arizona, that can be patients. But I will say in this pandemic-type of atmosphere that we’ve got, just ask for a resource consult, which means I’m going to treat you just like a patient; I’m going to look at your labs and look at everything. I’m going to do everything I was going to do anyway. It’s just you don’t have to be physically in the office for all the exam-type things we have to do in the office. So that’s the easiest thing. I have patients all over the world. And that’s fun to get to part of their journey.

I hope I meet you in person next time when I’m in Arizona. You’re amazing. Thank you so much.

Thank you for the work that you do. They are amazing. Your message is real and true.

Thank you very much, and thank you, listeners. Remember to exercise, get sunlight, music, think about a happy song, use pet therapy, breathe, meditate, relax, and have a stellar life. This is Orion till next time.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓} Find a middle ground between alternative and traditional medicine. It is possible for these two to mesh together. Healing doesn’t have to be one-sided all the time.
{✓} Venture out for a more holistic form of healing. When in pain on a specific part of the body, try to heal your mind so your body and soul may follow through.
{✓} Participate in medical research in any way you can. Medical practitioners may dedicate their time to research, while civilians can always donate to various causes that involve health and medicine.
{✓} Research as much as you can. There are tons of options and medical practitioners out there. Aside from traditional medicine, there’s herbal, homeopathic, frequency healing, and so on.
{✓} Don’t hesitate to change your medical practitioner if you feel uncomfortable or if the treatment isn’t going anywhere. There’s always someone out there who can help you find the best solution for your healing.
{✓} Understand that everyone is unique. What might work for others might not work for you.
{✓} Find ways to strengthen your spirituality. Staying connected to a higher power can be crucial in one’s healing.
{✓} Keep doing what makes you happy. Doing the things you love helps increase energy, reduce anxiety, and improve overall health.
{✓} Take supplements but don’t overdo them. Less is more most of the time. Make sure to consult with your doctor on what you need to take.
{✓} Visit Dr. Donese Worden’s website to learn more about a more naturopathic way of healing.

About Dr. Donese Worden

Donese Worden, The Female Face of Medicine, is an award-winning physician, researcher and global health educator who expertly and compassionately bridges the worlds of conventional allopathic and advanced alternative medicine. As a naturopathic medical doctor, she is licensed in prescribing both pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Her passion is in helping people take charge of their health and make informed decisions.