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Episode Summary:

Dani Williamson, FNP, a graduate from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Nurse-Midwifery and Family Nurse Practitioner program, combines traditional and integrative therapies to practice medicine and help patients achieve optimal health. In today’s episode, we sat down with Dani to discuss the current state of women’s healthcare, treating chronic conditions, why you shouldn’t have electronics in your bedroom at night, and how to lower your stress levels in midlife.

 

First, we asked Dani for her thoughts on how the current healthcare system treats women. She told us that like most women, she’s experienced medical treatments that are reactive, not proactive. Rather than finding the root cause of her issues, Dani instead spent years being treated solely for her symptoms. It left her with a list of diagnoses miles long and chronic issues that refused to go away. After studying nursing at Vanderbilt, Dani realized that many of the diseases we experience are affected by our lifestyle. Diseases can be triggered by our diet, exercise, and environment. However, changes to our habits can help reverse them as well. There is a plethora of outside factors that can trigger chronic issues, and one of the most common is childhood trauma. About 60% of the population has had at least two adverse childhood experiences. What happens to you in childhood can set you up for a lifetime of chronic disease, and through the ace questionnaire, a person can figure out how much they’re being affected. Developed by the CDC and an insurance company, the questionnaire looks at childhood traumas that occurred before the age of 18 and determines how it affects us. Dani herself grew up in chaos, and as a result developed IBS, anxiety, and other issues.

 

When treating her own clients, Dani always starts at the undertone of most chronic diseases: inflammation. Inflammation is commonly caused by diet, so she starts them on an anti-inflammatory diet, cutting out foods such as gluten, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, eggs, and peanuts. Other ways to help with inflammation are to start a good probiotic, sleep well, eat healthy, poop, and de-stress when you can. Sleep is especially vital, since the human body heals when we’re resting. Without a proper night’s sleep, a person is less likely to exercise or eat well. To help with sleep, Dani suggested making sure your bedroom is a sanctuary for sex and sleep only, not having alcohol during the night, and removing active electronics from your bedroom. Electronics have electromagnetic fields that can interrupt our sleep. People will spend thousands of dollars on an electric bed, when in reality, it only further impedes their rest. The best advice Dani has to counteract the effects of electronics is to set the electronics you know you’ll need close by and unplug them to decrease the electric current.

 

Everybody poops; it’s a fact of life. And according to Dani, the more a person poops, the better they’ll feel. Some of the main reasons for constipation are stress and dehydration, and when helping her clients struggling to go to the bathroom, she first suggests upping their water intake and decreasing the amount of coffee they drink. Dani also tells clients to chew their food more thoroughly, exercise, eat a clean diet, and try taking at least 300 milligrams of magnesium glycinate, malate, or citrate. For midlife women, they struggle with not only constipation but increased stress levels. When asked for recommendations on how to alleviate anxiety, Dani offered the AED method: automate, eliminate, and delegate. Midlife women should make sure numerous aspects of their lives are automated, from their bills to landscaping to other obligations. They should also eliminate any part of their life that isn’t serving them well, including a negative person causing them stress. As women, we tend to hold onto stuff and never share our true feelings, so it’s vital to delegate and set boundaries that allow us space to breathe. Women don’t have to wait until post-menopause to be happy; we can start learning what’s important to us and how to only say yes to the things we truly want now. Finally, we asked Dani about the importance of community in midlife. She explained that when you’re surrounded by supportive people, your cortisol levels go down and your immune system goes up, helping you to feel better and get sick less. In-person hangouts are especially important, since the one-on-one interaction allows you to feel supported and loved by your friends and family.

 

Dani Williamson

 

A graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Nurse-Midwifery and Family Nurse Practitioner program, Dani practices the art of medicine by balancing traditional and integrative therapies. Dani encourages her patients to step out of the realm of “normal” and reach “optimal” health.

 

Dani was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome in 1985. She struggled with chronic itching of her arms and legs for several years, was diagnosed with Lupus in her early 30’s and then, not surprisingly, prescribed psych medications to manage her emotions. Not once was she ever told “your diet controls your pain” or asked, “what are you eating?” by the 10 specialists she saw over 24 years. She continued eating a Standard American Diet as her symptoms progressed, and prescriptions to treat those increased as well. It wasn’t until she began practicing integrative medicine after graduating from nurse practitioner school that she was educated on the importance of healing the gut. Her story of healing is an inspiration and source of hope to her patients.

 

In this episode, we discuss…

• [0:01] Introduction
• [0:25] Guest Introduction
• [3:51] Start of Interview
• [4:13] Current State of Women’s Healthcare
• [6:07] Ace Questionnaire
• [8:29] Treating Chronic Conditions
• [15:10] Having Electronics in Your Bedroom
• [22:12] Pooping
• [25:57] How to Lower Stress Levels in Midlife
• [33:03] How Isolation Affects Our Health
• [36:37] Outro

 

Useful Resources:

Dani’s Website I [https://daniwilliamson.com/]

Dani’s Facebook I [https://www.facebook.com/DaniWilliamson]

Dani’s Instagram I [https://www.instagram.com/daniwilliamsonwellness/]

Dani’s YouTube Channel I [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUKkJABUSE1Z95g0grgGefw]

Dani’s Book

Wild & Well I [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild-well-dani-williamson/1138927474?ean=9781631955594]

 

Can’t Get Enough? Find Us Here!

Website I [http://hotflashescooltopics.com/]

Mail I [[email protected]]

Instagram I [https://www.instagram.com/hotflashesandcooltopics/]

Facebook I [https://www.facebook.com/hotflashescooltopics]

Twitter I [https://twitter.com/CoolFlashes]

YouTube I [https://www.youtube.com/@HotFlashesCoolTopics]

Pinterest I [https://www.pinterest.com/hcooltopics/]

 

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