Welcome to How Humans Heal. In this episode, I’m joined by Shivan Sarna, best-selling author of Healing SIBO: Fix the Real Cause of IBS, Bloating, and Weight Issues in 21 Days, TV host, and producer of the Women’s Health Rescue Summit. 

Today we’re talking about the information gap in women’s healthcare, the connection between trauma and physical health, and why so many women are still not getting what they need.

The Information Gap in Women’s Health

One of the things I see constantly in my practice is that women come to me after years of being told everything is fine. Their bloodwork is normal. They’re told they are just getting older. And yet something is clearly wrong. This is one of the most frustrating patterns in women’s healthcare, and it’s exactly why conversations like this matter so much.

Whether we’re talking about fertility, abnormal pap smears, perimenopause, bladder health, or heart disease — which is the number one cause of death in women — there is so much that doesn’t get covered in a standard medical appointment. More and more women are waking up to this and saying: this is not acceptable anymore.

Shivan has been on a mission to change that. After her own years-long struggle to get a diagnosis for SIBO, she became determined to connect people with the experts who actually had answers. Twelve summits later, she has built something remarkable. 

The Women’s Health Rescue Summit brings together 35 speakers covering a wide range of topics that women need to know about at every stage of life — from their teenage years through menopause and beyond. Every presentation is backed by research as well as real clinical experience, because the most valuable knowledge often comes from years of working with patients, not just from published studies.

What Women Need to Know

The topics in this summit reflect exactly what I see women struggling with and not getting enough support around: vaginal health, pelvic floor health, urinary tract infections and interstitial cystitis, breast health including breast implant illness, biological dentistry, vision support, perimenopause, how to talk to your daughter about her period, and how to actually understand your lab results.

On that last point — specialized lab testing exists that goes far beyond basic bloodwork, and I want women to know about it. There are tests that can give you real, actionable information, and in many cases you can now order certain labs directly without waiting for a doctor to suggest them. Walking into an appointment already armed with results shifts the entire dynamic of your care. It moves you from passive patient to informed advocate for your own health.

Rather than relying solely on what the internet tells you, having access to vetted experts with genuine clinical experience gives you a far stronger foundation. Shivan has evolved the summit format over the years into something closer to a medical conference for everyday people — master classes with slides, research references, and now AI-powered search so you can find exactly what any speaker said about a specific topic. That kind of access is genuinely powerful.

Narcissistic Abuse and Physical Health

Something came up in our conversation that I want to speak to directly, because it is connected to women’s health in ways that are still not widely recognized. Shivan shared that for 38 years she was in a relationship with a narcissist — not a romantic partner, but a spiritual teacher who entered her life during a vulnerable time. 

The relationship brought real gifts at first, but became consuming and damaging over many years. She eventually found the clarity and courage to create distance, and the healing that followed was profound.

Her story opened up a discussion I feel strongly about. Narcissistic abuse has been part of my own healing journey, and as a naturopathic doctor I am identifying it more and more in my patients. Research is now showing that narcissistic abuse has direct physical health consequences.

In my own work, I have found that women who have experienced narcissistic abuse, whether in childhood or adulthood, have an increased risk of abnormal pap smears and cervical cancer. Trauma of all kinds impacts our physical health, and narcissistic abuse is one of the most under-recognized contributors to women’s chronic illness.

Recovering from that kind of relationship is also where women begin to reclaim their health. When you have been conditioned to let someone else make decisions for you — whether a controlling partner, a family member, or even an authoritative healthcare provider — it becomes hard to advocate for yourself. That is exactly what summits like the Women’s Health Rescue are designed to change.

Reclaiming Your Health

Women who have been in a toxic or abusive relationship often struggle to advocate for themselves, because they have been conditioned to let someone else hold authority over their decisions — including decisions about their health. Healing from trauma and reclaiming your health are not separate journeys. They are the same journey.

That is what this episode is really about. You don’t have to accept “everything looks normal” as a final answer when you know something isn’t right. There is so much information available now, from specialized labs to expert practitioners working outside the conventional model. Your health is yours to take back.

If you want to learn more about Shivan and her work you can find her on Instagram @sibo_sos and Facebook SIBO SOS® Community. You can also find her book Healing SIBO: Fix the Real Cause of IBS, Bloating, and Weight Issues in 21 Days here or sign up for the Women’s Health Rescue Summit here.

Helping people understand how diet, food, nutrients, herbs, supplements, detoxification and stress recovery can support their health and longevity is essential, especially because modern life has disconnected us from the very things our bodies need to heal.

Optimizing your health is absolutely possible. There are more and more ways to support healing at the cellular level, from home, that don’t require expensive treatments or complicated protocols.

For this, it is important to address the underlying causes of health issues by working with a practitioner who can help you look deeper to uncover the root causes of your health issue, so that you are finally able to break the pattern. 

And that’s exactly what I do in my one-on-one practice, and group programs, including my 14-day Detox Program, where I teach you to balance your blood sugar levels by following a meal plan I developed. You can read about it and join in here. 

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Common health issues that arise when our bodies and blood sugar levels are dysregulated include: fatigue, hormone imbalances, digestive issues, autoimmunity, anxiety, depression, infections, including vaginal infections (HPV, BV, and yeast), and so many more.

In my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health, I explain how stress, trauma, toxins, and a lack of recovery, can keep us stuck in “stress mode” and turn on our genetic susceptibilities — and how an individualized approach to recovery makes all the difference. 

Start by taking my Stress Type® Quiz to understand how stress is impacting you today, and then follow my Stress Recovery Protocol and C.A.R.E. Method to support your body and nervous system to heal using diet changes, and natural approaches including time in nature. 

TAKE THE FREE STRESS QUIZ TO FIND OUT YOUR STRESS TYPE:

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If you’re dealing with HPV and want to prevent cervical cancer, I welcome you to join me over on Instagram @drdoniwilson and on my website at clearhpvnow.com. You can download my free HPV Recovery Guide and watch videos of women who’ve implemented my HPV Protocol and found freedom from high-risk HPV. I want for you to feel hope that you can heal too.

If you’d like to get a better sense of my approach, I welcome you to join my next free How to Get Rid of HPV online workshop where I help you to create a plan to get HPV out of your life for good. From there, you might choose to join the Heal HPV Kickstart Program, for the initial steps of my protocol, including diet changes and supplements, over the next 30 days.

Sign Up Now (Free!)

Register Now

Or you can begin with the comprehensive Say Goodbye to HPV Program, which includes everything you need to implement my full protocol and to address all eight susceptibilities to HPV, including helping you to resolve underlying emotional stress and trauma. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office. My team and I would be happy to connect with you and help you. Click here to set up a call with my team.

Thank you, everyone, for listening in to How Humans Heal and learning all about how Shivan is helping women reclaim their health by bringing together the experts, the research, and the conversations that mainstream medicine has been missing. If you haven’t already subscribed, I welcome you to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. 

We’re here to help you!

Disclaimer: This specific article and all other Content, Products, and Services of this Website are NOT intended as, and must not be understood or construed as, medical care or advice, naturopathic medical care or advice, the practice of medicine, or the practice of counseling care, nor can it be understood or construed as providing any form of medical diagnosis, treatment,  natural HPV cure, or prevention of any disease.