The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root, w/Guest Donya Fahmy

🎧 Episode Summary:
In this powerful conversation, Tracie sits down with Donya Fahmy, Alchemist-in-Chief at Sustainable Health Solutions and creator of Dropwise Essentials. Donya shares her long, bumpy “healing journey”—from years of chronic symptoms and frustrating dead-ends in traditional care to reclaiming her personal power and finding real relief through natural solutions. You’ll hear how essential oils became a surprising turning point, why Donya believes the future of health is personalized, and how her “whole life detox” approach helps clients create sustainable wellness without fear, guilt, or extreme restriction.

✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Donya’s decades-long health challenges led her to build a wellness business rooted in lived experience
• Why symptom-treating alone often isn’t enough—and what to do when the “standard protocol” doesn’t work
• The surprising role essential oils played in Donya’s breakthrough moment
• Donya’s Health Snatchers framework: the 3 root drivers behind chronic illness and poor health
• What “detox” really means (hint: it’s not just food!)—and how to reduce toxic load in everyday life
• How stress and guilt can sabotage healing—and what to do instead
• Why finding a collaborative health practitioner matters (and how to trust your own inner knowing)

🛠️ Actionable Tips from Donya Fahmy:

• Use the “helping or hurting?” filter. Ask: Is this food/product/environment choice increasing inflammation, disrupting hormones, or weakening immunity—or supporting me?
• Start with what you can control. Swap one household or personal care product at a time (laundry + fragrance is a big one).
• Think beyond food. Evaluate what you’re breathing, what you’re absorbing through skin, and what you’re surrounded by at home, in your office, and even in your car.
• Support your nervous system. Donya highlights how nerve pain and stress connect—prioritize foundational support like rest, minerals, and stress reduction.
• Don’t wait until it’s “bad enough.” Seek support earlier—small changes are easier to make and easier to undo.
• If it’s not working… stop. If you’ve tried “the thing that should work” and it doesn’t, it’s time for a new approach.

🎤 Memorable Quote:
“Don’t give up… and don’t give in.”

🔥 Bold Moment of the Episode:
Donya’s boldest turning point wasn’t a product—it was a decision: she fired her doctors and stopped outsourcing her power, choosing instead to become her own advocate, researcher, and leader in her healing journey.

🚀 Join the Bold and Brilliant Podcast Community:
If this episode lit a fire in you, come hang with us inside The Gather Community—where bold women build real connections, get supported, and learn from experts like Donya along the way.

🌟 Rate & Review:
If you loved this episode, please leave a quick rating + review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps m

Transcript

Tracie: 0:00

Ready for bold moves and powerful transformation. Welcome to the Bold and Brilliant Podcast where women share the decisions that changed everything. Today's guest is Donya Fahmy Alchemist, in chief at Sustainable Health Solutions and creator of Dropwise Essentials, a natural health and wellness expert with over 20 years of experience. Donya is also a number one Amazon international bestselling author. He used plant-based living and natural solutions to heal herself after decades of chronic health challenges, which traditional medicine couldn't. In this episode, Donya shares the bold decision that reshaped her health, her work, and her mission, and the insights that can help you step into your own version of optimal wellness. Welcome Donya to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. Alright, Donya, welcome to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. I'm so excited we're getting a chance to record this.

Donya: 0:54

Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm, I'm pretty excited about it too.

Tracie: 0:58

Yay. Me too. Okay, so. We've known each other for a few years now. You've been in the Gather community? We both live in, well, I'm not technically in the Bay Area, but we're kind, I'm kind of Bay Area ish, so we're kind of neighbors. Um, and through the Gather community, I've had a lot of chances to hear you speak, to learn how you work, what you're passionate about, health, and how you mentor people to wellness, success, and health, and all the good stuff. Um, but this platform is gonna reach people who haven't met you yet. And honestly, while we learn a lot about how you work with people, I think there's people even in our community who don't know kind of the origin story of how you got into this line of work and why you're so passionate about it. So give us a little origin story. Tell us about how you got started. I usually don't talk

Donya: 1:48

about it'cause it's kind of a long, bumpy rock. Well, let's, you know, try to, we'll try to keep it, but yeah. So we'll just, uh, I mean, you know how it is with a lot of entrepreneurs who end up, um, creating a business, either a product or a service based on some personal experience they've had. Right. So that's what it's for me, which is my, had my whole big, what I call my healing journey, um, was what gave birth to what I do now, but to proceed that, just to give a little bit of background, it kind of all started when I was in my twenties in college. And it started with like, you know, I call like your garden variety allergies. And then allergies turned into sinus infections and sinus infections turned into bronchitis. This is over a period of couple years. Uh, and then, so I was living in New York City where I grew up. And, um, you know, I'd go to the doctor and they'd be like, oh, you're young, you're healthier, you're men's strong. There's nothing wrong with you. Okay, well my roommate's there. Nothing wrong with me yet. My face

Tracie: 2:44

is dripping and I feel

Donya: 2:45

terrible. Well, and my roommate's about to kick me out'cause I'm keeping her up all night with my cough. Hmm. You know, that kind of thing. I was like, okay, whatever. Uh, just go with the flow.'cause I've always been a go with the flow kind of person anyway. But, uh, so that was, those were the early experiences. And then I moved to California in the late eighties and I developed adult onset asthma, which was kind of weird. I didn't smoke. I mean, I smoked a little bit when I was in high school, but, you know, we all go like through our little phases, cigarettes. Um, and so I was doing, I was getting treated for that. You know, cortisone inhaler and all that kind of stuff, and everything seemed fine, but in between, sort of woven in between these main issues were a lot of other things. So I had migraines, you know, occasional migraines a couple times a year I'd had migraines. I had bouts of chronic fatigue. This was when I was still in New York, actually, serious bouts of chronic fatigue, where there were days where I'd wake up and I couldn't get outta bed. I was just so wiped out. And then, because I'm in my twenties and I'm a little bit foolish, on the days that I was feeling good, I'd get up and go out and party. So, you know, go out, drinking, whatever. And then of course, a couple days later, I'd have another one of these days where I just couldn't get out of bed. And so this was kind of difficult. And then combine that with these other things. And then when I moved, well, before I moved to California, actually it started, it's hard to, it's been such a long time now. It's hard for me to. Get the exact, yeah. Pinpoint it all. But I was going through a lot of digestive issues. Right. And then when I first moved out here in California, I was getting treated for the, uh, for the asthma. Uh, and then I got a diagnosis. I'll never forget this. I got diagnosis. They told me I had IBS. This was back in 1990, right? Like more than 30 years ago before IBS was a thing. Now it's, yeah, no, I've heard about it, but back then it was like a kind of a newish thing and I remember the doctor saying to me, she said, oh, don't worry. It's very common. A lot of people have it. We don't know what causes it. There's no cure for it. And I'm like, in my mind's eye, I am like scratching my head going, what? I'm like, huh, isn't that what you guys are supposed to do? Isn't that what doctors are supposed to do? Figure this stuff out. You know? So I, it kind of planted that seed of doubt in my mind and it was, um, you know, it kind of shrugged it off at the time. I was like, okay, that kind of sounds f cold. Like, we just don't know. We don't know. We don't know what we're doing. Didn't give it much thought. And then fast forward a couple years, maybe two, three years, and that's when my personal healing crisis started, or my health crisis. Uh, thankfully nothing major, but I basically developed a really nasty case of eczema.

Audio Only - All Participants: 5:16

Mm-hmm.

Donya: 5:16

And it dogged me for the better part of seven years. During that time. So when it first came on, I was working in corporate at the time, and when it first came on, it was so intense. I would scratch myself in my sleep until I bled at night and I didn't even know I was doing this. Right. You're just kind of, you're sleeping. Yeah. And you're scratching and you wake up and then there's like stuff on the sheets and you're like, gross. You know? Um, and at the time it's, like I said, I was working in corporate. I would like, there'd be days, I'd get up, I'd shower, I'd get dressed for work, put on my suit. And within five minutes of putting on the pantyhose, the unbearable itching would start again, and I'd have to get undressed put on like a cotton T-shirt and call in sick. And then when I was at work, I'd have to sneak off to the bathroom several times a day to have a secret scratch fest in the stall. Right. It was just, it was awful. That was really, it was a really stressful time. Because I was like, what the, and the stress isn't

Tracie: 6:06

helping any of that. Right? It

Donya: 6:07

makes it worse. Yeah. And what the hell is this? Where did it come from? Why? Like, you know, and then, um, and then I so fi so initially, um, I was at, uh, UCSF, which is a teaching hospital, and they had like a dermatology clinic or something like that. So I went there and then you had like student, like, you know, interns and people who are still in med school doing their stuff. And so the guy that was seeing me. He offered me prescription antihistamines, you know, like stronger antihistamines and um, hydro prescription hydrocortisone cream. And I tried that and it didn't work. I was just like, and a week goes by and I'm like, ready to jump out of my skin. I was like, I wanna jump out the window. I'm so well, and I'm sure

Tracie: 6:45

they were baffled because that's what you give people who itch like there's no other option. Oh, they didn't even like,

Donya: 6:51

and he just didn't seem like. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I, I was not really focused on that so much. I just wanted, relief is all I wanted. Right? Yeah. So I went in again a second time and um, I'm sitting in the exam room with the little cotton thing. It's open in the back and he says, Hey. Do you mind? He's my professor's here, like doing rounds with the students. Do you mind? Can I, I'm just gonna call him in for a consult. So he brings a professor in, a professor at me, and then the professor says, do you mind if I bring my students in here? And I'm like, she just, anything, all look at John, just gimme some relief. I don't care. So all these students come in and they're all standing around me in a circle, you know, it's kind of, was awkward, weird, you know, but it's fine. And he's. Teaching, right? So he is telling him, he's saying, you know, he's like, this woman's had it. He says to the guy that had been treating me, he goes, you know, if she came to me in my private practice, I'd give her a cortisone shot. But here we were in a teaching environment and they frown upon that because there are some serious long-term side effects from cortisone, right? So I'm hearing all this and absorbing all that. He's like, give her a shot. You know, she needs it. So he gave me the shot and like within less than two days it cleared up. So I'd been miserable for weeks and weeks and weeks, you know? And then we tried it like the easy way with the antihistamines and the whatever. Mm-hmm. And I was like, okay. The only thing that worked was this quarter. I was like, all right, like I'm grateful now that I have some relief and it's clearing up and now I can get back to my life normal. So now, like six months down the road, all of a sudden it comes back. Not as intense. The first time was the most intense, like it was the hardest. After that it was less intense, but just, it was just troublesome, right? Like, and then you're, it's uncomfortable and then you're, you know, trying to hide your stuff from people. Um, and so then I was like, okay, I'm gonna go see a der another dermatologist, like a private practice dermatologist. And so this larin repeat, this happened over and over, over seven year period. And I went to a parade of dermatologists looking for answers and solutions and got none. None of them could tell me what was causing the problem. None of them had a different protocol offer. It was all the same thing. A prescription was sent antihistamines, prescription strength hydrocortisone. And when that didn't work, boom, we'll give you a shot.

Tracie: 8:57

Yeah.

Donya: 8:58

And the whole time that this was going on, I was just, it was stressful and frustrating and like, you know, a lot of people, I think most of my Fahmyly and friends didn't really know what I was going through'cause I was kind of keeping it to myself. Um, but I was frustrated and stressed and I was thinking to myself like, what? Like, uh, this is not sustainable. Every time my skin breaks out, go get a shot. I mean, they said already upfront, he said there's a lot of long-term potentially, you know, adverse side effects from, from using cortisone. And if we're not figuring out what's causing the problem, how are we gonna ever solve it? Am I gonna have to just like accept this as my new normal and look like this all the time? I was like. Um, this is not working for me. Uh, so the next time I had a breakout, I went to my primary care physician at the time, uh, instead of a dermatologist thinking, all right, maybe she has a different solution. And I said, you know, this is what I've been up to. I hadn't seen her in a couple years. I, this, it's been what's been going on with me and. You know, I'm just fed up and frustrated. And she, and so she said, well, I'm not gonna give you a cortisone shot. And I was like, okay, well, and I thought, oh, maybe she has a, a new better protocol. Like she says, I'll just give you cortisone in a pill form, right? We're gonna step up the dose gradually over week and step it down over another week. And I just kind of was like, okay. She goes, she goes, and this is straight from the horse's mouth. She said, we as doctors don't really know how cortisone works in the body. We don't know if we give you this thing now and it clears up your issue and then your issue comes back. We don't know if it came back because the effects of the cortisone wore off or if like it's coming back for another reason. But in that moment, that little seeded doubt that had been planted in my mind a few years earlier, just burst forth and I was like, oh my God, they really don't know what they're doing. Why am I still here? How much worse could it be if I stopped doing this and tried something else? So it was a lib, a mom, a liberating moment for me in that I was like, okay, I'm just firing all my doctors and my, and my dermatologist, and I'm gonna figure this out for myself. I've always been a kind of do it yourself gal. Um, but to be honest, I didn't really know what I was gonna do. I didn't. Have any solutions Yeah. Or anything ready at hand. I just knew I needed to make a major pivot from this whole experience. It was just left a, a sour taste in my mouth. And now I started to like not trust the medical system anymore. I felt like, you know, they don't seem to have a handle. You go to a skin doctor, you should, they should be able to tell you why your skin is breaking out and if, when they can't tell you, that's a clue right there, you know? Uh, so I fired all the doctors. It was a liberating thing. And then it was like. An interesting thing happened. It was like, you know, along the way, as soon as I relinquished my personal power to quote unquote authority figures and experts, the answers and solutions started dropping in.

Audio Only - All Participants: 11:33

Hmm.

Donya: 11:34

So I, I'm like a bookworm, not a bookworm, but I am like a seeker of knowledge and truth, and so I'm a lifelong learner, and so I just dove into. Natural remedies, natural solutions. I found my initial salvation with essential oils, aromatherapy. I had already been playing with essential oils just for fun. A little hobby. Had a small collection and a small library of books about aromatherapy and how to blend and do all this kind of stuff. Liner in here. Yeah. There you go. So, um, so I started looking at like, okay, what oils are good for the skin? What oils are good for inflammation? You know, I mean, at the time I had not connected all the dots right. To me, like, yeah. The skin thing was, I was thinking it was coming from an external source, right? You still think it's just the skin, not a systemic thing. Coming from internal. I thought it was coming from, you know, maybe something, a product. I started looking at all the labels on my products and thinking like, what, what is in, in here? Like, could be causing the problem. I don't know. Um, and that's when I started. Coming hit to all the toxic ingredients that were in our personal care and beauty products. A lot of chemicals, a lot of things you can't pronounce, you know? Right. So that was the beginning of one journey. The essential oils. I made a little blend, you know, based on what I'd found in my books, and I put it in a base of organic ha hoba oil, like a body oil. And whenever I'd start itching, I. Put that on and amazing. It worked remarkably well to control the itching in a way that nothing else ever did. Like cow and I, the oatmeal baths, the, all the stuff that I tried over the years that never worked, this worked. And I was like, light bulb, bulb moment, another light bulb moment. Okay, we

Tracie: 13:08

have to, let's stop there just for a second. Okay. That's crazy that because for generations. Healers in all around the world have been using plants and exactly the oils from the plants and all of these natural ways to heal people, whether it's topically or you eat them or you, it's the aroma or you burn them and it's the smoke or like all of the things. How did we get to the point where modern medicine totally negates all of that? Was it colonialism? Like where did that come from? No,

Donya: 13:45

it was, I mean, honestly it's from research I've done and what I know, it started in the fifties with a Rockefeller. Rockefeller, okay. Started. The American Medical Association. Mm-hmm. He controlled the, um, the curriculum in medical schools. He basically started the pharmaceutical industry and it was all designed to work together. Not to heal. Yeah. But to treat, like, to treat symptoms because, sad to say it, but it's all about the money. Right. So, and do you

Tracie: 14:14

think that people like took that on as truth because he was just so influential? And Rich and all of those things. Or like, why did they, well, we didn't

Donya: 14:24

take it on from him directly. Right? He created the industry.

Tracie: 14:29

Yeah,

Donya: 14:29

industry became like the, the standard, the gold standard.

Tracie: 14:32

So,'cause I'm just thinking of like, why would. Women, for example, who are taking care of their Fahmylies.

Donya: 14:39

Yeah.

Tracie: 14:39

Stop doing what they've been doing for, for decades, centuries, whatever, for their whole lives that their moms did and do something else. Well, I think it's a

Donya: 14:49

generational thing, right? So if you were born around that time in the fifties and the, and like basically you

Tracie: 14:55

thought it was the new, modern way, maybe.

Donya: 14:57

Yeah. Or Right. So you grew up in a household where you'd go to the doctor? Like, we had a Fahmyly doctor. We'd go, I went to until I was like, I think 12 or something like that. And he was a cool guy. I liked him. He is an older guy and then he, he ended up retired. He retired,

Tracie: 15:10

yeah.

Donya: 15:10

Um, you just didn't question it.

Tracie: 15:13

Yeah.

Donya: 15:14

Right. You just accepted that the experts are telling you this and that. And I mean, think about it, up until late sixties, you know, they were telling we didn't question anything. Right. They didn't question cigarette smoking, right? Yeah. Even doctors were smoking cigarettes and some of them

Tracie: 15:28

still do, and there was the whole, like, you don't question authority, you don't question your elders and all of that stuff too. So like parents, there's like this, this is what you're gonna do, this is what you do. Yeah, it's like a,

Donya: 15:40

it's kinda like a unspoken permission structure. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And if you, if you step outside the bounds of it, then you're ostracized in a way, right? And people think, because, you know, if you look at the Amish, you know, the Pennsylvania, Dutch, Amish, they don't do former skills, right? They're very much down and, and they're shunned for it. People think that they're nuts and they're crazy, or they're, you know, they're, oh, they're drinking raw unpasteurized. Dairy. What, like, so there's a lot of stuff around that. And I talk, I talk about this sometimes. I've, I've written about it on my blog in the past. This sort of whole, um, era of germophobia. We were taught like, you know, to be afraid of germs and that germs are what make you sick. And you know, then there's this heavy emphasis on sanitation and, you know, detergent, you're using soaps that detergent your skin is so there's not this, um, and, and not all of it was intentional I think. Like we just evolved and we grow as humans, as we learn things. Sure. You know, you learn that some of these. Products that you used that you thought were keeping you safe from germs are actually harming you?'cause they're chemicals and they're toxic, right?'cause they're chemicals and they're

Tracie: 16:46

blocking your natural. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I just

Donya: 16:48

saw an expose recently about polio and the whole thing around, um, polio, which was that. The time that polio was a thing. It was also a time when the government was promoting, um, DDD. Is it D-T-T-D-D-T,

Tracie: 17:03

yeah. The,

Donya: 17:03

the

Tracie: 17:04

PE time.

Donya: 17:05

Yeah. And it showed footage. It was shocking. It was like black and white footage of them spraying school children with it. Right? Like, so it's the same principle. It's like you took this poison and you, and you made it. Okay. You made it, you normalized it. But people thought, okay, then it has to be good. The government's telling us good, or the public health people are, or the doctors or whoever telling us it's okay. And it turned out that that was a big contributing factor to polio

Audio Only - All Participants: 17:31

that was hidden

Donya: 17:32

from us. So like, you know, if you screw up like that, you're not gonna come out. Unfortunately. Yeah, they're not gonna go on later. I wish they would. I wish people come back out and just admit their mistakes and apologize rather than trying to hide it, you know, double down that that was the right thing to do. And we still see this happening today in a lot of areas of medicine. So, um, I basically have, uh, left the medical system way back then when all that stuff happened. So, I mean, for me it's like my. My results are this, I haven't set foot in a doctor's office in 25 years. Oh, 20 years. I think it was 2005. Wow. So that's fine. And, and when I went in for that appointment, it had been already eight years since my last MD visit, and they couldn't find my records. They said they'd ship them off to cold storage. I was like, okay, after seven years you're in the back room. Yeah. You're, you're, you're a nobody. You're over here. You're delegated. I mean, I was like, I was kind of in the perimenopause stage at that point and I wanted to check. I thought like, I make sure it's not a thyroid thing, you know? I was feeling a little depressed. Yeah. Or whatever, and then the doctor berated me for not coming to see a doctor. I was like, well, I go see a chiropractor once a month. He's like, you go see a chiropractor, but you won't see your doctor. I was like, okay, I'm not doing this. No. And that was, so that was the end of that. I stopped going after that, so, yeah.

Tracie: 18:51

Yeah, it's so, it's such a hard, um, everyone has like their own story about their, you know, their medical experience. And I saw someone post today about, I'm at the dentist's office and I'm freaking out'cause dentist. And then the next person commented, I love my dentist, but I don't wanna go to the OB GYN or whatever. Yeah. And you know, everyone has their thing that has their bad experience, shape their view. I personally don't my Yeah. About health in general, about who really is out there to help you and who's just doing what they're told. To do by whoever doing it to make a buck,

Donya: 19:29

you know, or Yeah. To make money. Yeah. I, yeah, I mean, I know people who've had like, good experiences throughout. Yeah. And so they, they have a, so they're fine faith. They have a blind faith in the system. I feel like it's not a good thing. Even if you've had a good experience, you should always be very like, uh, discerning. Afraid.

Tracie: 19:46

Afraid about what the deal is. For sure.

Donya: 19:48

I mean, the thing about it is like we've given doctors this sort of god-like status, right? Where we can't question, we can ask questions, but we can't challenge em. Mm. That's not allowed.

Tracie: 19:59

It's not Well, and their response, right. Tends to be a very, uh, like. Because dismissive, they said so dismissive. They're dismissive.

Donya: 20:09

You know, like, you know, oh, you're gonna be a difficult patient. You don't wanna do what I tell you to do.

Tracie: 20:14

It was a Seinfeld episode. Do you remember that? Where they would write down Elaine and Elaine's chart that she was a difficult Oh,

Donya: 20:20

yeah's, right? No. Where she went, she would get the shoulder. Yep. Well, hey, that's, you know, kind of where they're trying to move us to centralized data systems, right? Surveillance systems where they can actually surveil you and your health and monitor and then dictate like what your treatment. Uh, hopefully that's not gonna happen, but some people, there are forces out there that are trying to move us in that direction. For sure.

Tracie: 20:42

For sure, for sure. Yeah.

Donya: 20:43

Yeah. And COVID was where, and more

Tracie: 20:44

than just medicine started, you know,

Donya: 20:47

uh, with pa you know, I have vaccine passports and all that kind of stuff is, it's, that's all connected to that.

Tracie: 20:53

So, okay, so you left the medical world, you found your own solutions, and I know from my experience with you that you know, there's been things that have come up and you've handled them, whether it's through your naturopath or you know, like you said, you got see your chiropractor and other specialists that. Work the way that you like in a way that you can collaborate with them as opposed to just take what they say as a gospel.

Donya: 21:24

Well, and again, this is something that's not necessarily just restricted to the medic western medicine.'cause I worked with a classical homeopath for about 15 years ago, for a couple years. And she was very dogmatic and it was difficult for me'cause I like work in a spirit of collaboration and I, I always worked in a spirit of collaboration with my chiropractor. Like I'd share information with her, she'd share information with me. We'd compare notes on stuff, you know, oh, send me the link to that website. You know, like. And so I felt like we're on the same page, whereas this woman was like, do it my way or the highway.

Audio Only - All Participants: 21:57

Yeah. If

Donya: 21:57

you screw up, then it makes it impossible for me to know what I'm doing is working. And so I respected that and I went along with it, but I didn't like it very much. Mm-hmm. And then I had, then I had started having dental problems and that's hereditary. My mom had lost all her teeth by the time she was in her sixties. Uh, but. This homeopath couldn't handle it. She's like, you know, you know there's a gold mine to be made in your mouth. And, and you know, she's like, you should just stop doing homeopathy and do what they tell you to do and don't ever do homeopathy again.'cause it could kill you. And I was like, huh, I do, by the way. Yeah. She was the homeopaths. Uh, I've never had an issue there. Um, yeah, so it's like. I feel like everyone has to really pay attention to what matters to them in terms of their relationship with their healthcare provider, whatever that is. I, I mean, other than the homeopath, it's only been chiropractic for me, and I get massages. You know,'cause that's an important part. Yeah. Um, and then fitness, you know, like in doing, I did Zumba classes for like, oh God, like almost 10 years, you know?

Tracie: 22:58

Yeah. Combination of Zumba and chiropractor. You got it all covered. You got your ex, you got your muscles, you got your exercise. They're gonna fix anything that goes wrong. Right. Well,

Donya: 23:07

they do them. The chiropractors I go to, they do structural and they do, uh, what's energy resonance testing. Yeah. I love that they do that testing to see what's going on in your body. And then they recommend supplements. To fix that. Mm-hmm. So that's how I've been working in that model. And it was, that was also a bumpy ride, I ought to admit, you know, with my chiropractor. My first main chiropractor was with, for like, God, like 25 years. Um, and then she closed up shop and left California. So, um, now I'm with one of her colleagues. I've seeing her for the last three years. But, um. It was bumpy ride. You know, it was two slash forward, one step back, two slash forward, one step back. But I was kind of supporting her as she was acquiring more knowledge and experience and, and kind of more cutting edge stuff that she was doing that you wouldn't mind necessarily at any chiropractor. Um, but I was allowed my, I allowed myself to be her Guinea pig. You know, while she was working through stuff and then when, if it got to be too much, I'd read her the riot act. We'd just kind of rein it in and start reset. Yeah. And so, uh, so what's good about that is it's helped me to increase my intuition about myself. Right? So like, now I have all these different supplements and sometimes because I'm only going like once a month and sometimes stuff comes up and the time in between. Mm-hmm. And I don't have the luxury of being to run over and get another. You know, reading or whatever. Um, but I can kind of intuit and go, okay, I'm gonna try. Like, so recently I had a really bad case of sciatica. It lasted almost a month in my hip, which is not something normal for me. I don't, doesn't, I don't even know how it happened. And I was trying all these different things. I did go in to see the chiropractor twice, you know, in a two week period. She was doing some very. Specialized things that she doesn't normally do on me. And um, you know, someone had recommended St. John's wort, so I was trying that. Um,'cause painkillers don't work for that.

Tracie: 24:54

Mm.

Donya: 24:55

cause it's nerve stuff,

Tracie: 24:56

right, because it's nerves. Yeah. It's not

Donya: 24:58

like muscle. And the thing about it is that nerve stuff is brain stuff. Right. It's all the same system. It's a signaling, the signals being muddled from your brain. Pain, pain in general. Um, and so I was like, okay, what supplements can I take to support brain health? So b, B vitamins B12 especially, and B six and some of the others. And, um, and magnesium. And, um, I did an essential fatty acid. I think I called liver oil. So I, I, I went online and I looked up, um, supplements for sciatica'cause people are offering that. I was like, what's in it? Let me see what's in it. And I got the gist of it and then I went, said, what do I have in my collection here already?'cause I have a pretty large collection. Um, and then I emailed my chiropractor. I was like, so, um, I'm thinking about adding these things to my protocol. Oh, oh, oh, hi baby wants to always go right on the computer. Um. I'm thinking about adding these to the, to the protocol. What do you think? So she wrote back, she said, yeah, take two of those, three of those. One of those. And honestly, within like two days, the pain subsided.

Tracie: 26:01

Amazing.

Donya: 26:02

Wow. I mean, it could have been a coincidence, but I don't think so.'cause it was pretty steady. Yeah, in spite of everything. It did pretty steady. It wasn't like a gradual lessening of the pain. It was steady, steady, steady. And then.

Tracie: 26:13

Yeah.

Donya: 26:14

Drop. Well,

Tracie: 26:15

and, and a lot of times it comes down to, you know, I mean, did it, was it because of that? I mean, maybe it wasn't, but maybe it was, and you might as well do what you can Yeah. To try to get the results that you want,

Donya: 26:29

right? Yeah. But what I like to tell people is, um, don't give up. Yeah. And don't give in. And don't give in. Yeah. Like when you think that something is, you know, is. Like not fixable.

Tracie: 26:41

Yeah.

Donya: 26:41

No one offered you a specific solution. It doesn't mean it isn't. It just means you're gonna have to probe a little deeper to find that solution.

Tracie: 26:48

If they're, if they don't, you know, I mean, that's so true in so many areas. Like if that's not the right piece of advice or piece of information or person or personality or any of the above, it's not the right thing for you. Find the right thing. Right. That was my other.

Donya: 27:03

My other pearl of wisdom is like, if you keep doing the thing that's supposed to work and it doesn't work, stop doing the thing that's not, yeah, it's supposed to work, but

Tracie: 27:11

every human is different.

Donya: 27:12

Right. That's the, that's the ticket. It's like, it's not a one size fits all. So that's the point of the problem with the Western medical system is that it's based on a, a kind of a cookie cutter approach. Yeah. Well end like the diagnosis. Sys this pill or this procedure, right?

Tracie: 27:27

Yeah.

Donya: 27:28

Um, but yeah, I could have that diagnosis, but that pill or that procedure might not work for and not function in your body

Tracie: 27:34

the same way, I guess. Yeah.

Donya: 27:35

And so there's not, I mean, the future of medicine is more personalized, which is encouraging, but I think we're dealing with some really like kinda, um, entrenched. Yeah. Bureaucratic in interests and money interests that are for sure doing everything they can to sort of slow that progress down.

Tracie: 27:53

I agree. I I love that the, that phrase that the future of medicine is more personalized. Yeah. So the future of health is more personalized because. You know, we all recognize how completely different every human is from each other. Even twins are not exactly the same. Yeah,

Donya: 28:09

yeah. Well, my, what I say is my prescrip, you know, my prescription for healing is, is go natural, all natural. Food plan. Yeah. So

Tracie: 28:19

let's talk about like what you share with your fibers, fabrics, everything going after. Yeah. Let's talk about how you work with your clients, because I know that, you know, your whole philosophy in helping people with their wellness is to help them identify what's important to them and then help them figure out how to move forward with that important thing. Yeah. Um. And, and to start where they're at. Right. So share, share a little bit about, like, I could keep going and talk about you doing your work, but tell us how you're doing your work and the whole

Donya: 28:50

rest of my journey. Which again, I, I don't talk about'cause there's like a lot of levels there, but it's okay. I mean'cause it's a process and you evolved. So what uh, what I like to, I'm very education focused in my approach because I believe that when you knowledge is power, when you know better, you do better.

Audio Only - All Participants: 29:05

Yeah. If

Donya: 29:06

I just tell you to do something and you don't understand why I'm telling you to do it or what the benefit of it is or what the. What the hazard is of doing something you shouldn't be doing, depending what it's, uh, is it gonna stick with you? Are you gonna stick with it? Are, is it really gonna, I want embody it, like to understand it and embody it. So I start with a, I'm a big fan of frameworks to. I just start with a framework to help people understand what, to focus on, what's most important for your body to prevent illness, poor health and disease. Right? Um, that's prevention, but, but the, the prevention is really about lifestyle and making better lifestyle choices, right? But that's not always that easy to do. But if you have a framework to which you're working towards or to help you navigate that, I think it comes, becomes a lot easier as you do it and then it becomes internalized and you don't need. To be reminded or to keep learning new things, you just need the basics, right? Yeah. And so I teach a framework called Health Snatchers, and that's like what are the three root core causes of all, uh, chronic illness and poor health and disease, and that's chronic inflammation. Hormonal imbalance and immune system weakness or deficiency. Mm-hmm. And immunes, uh, if you have either, uh, chronic inflammation or hormonal imbalance, or both, you by default have a weak, a weakened immune system. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And your immune system is, is everything. I, and I, I can't really emphasize

Tracie: 30:26

enough. Well, because we live in a world I used to, my old in old elementary used to talk about like, we live in the fishbowl, we're in the water. Yeah. If the water is. Awful contaminated and get out of it. Right? You, that's where you live. So like how can you make your environment as clean as possible?

Donya: 30:44

Right? Safer. So that's the thing is, so it starts with just the framework and understanding like everything you do or everything you eat. Everything you put in your mouth, everything you rub on your skin, everything you allow in your environment can be seen through the lens of is it helping or hurting? Like is it, is it increasing the inflammation or decreasing it or is it neutral? Some things are neutral, have no impact. Is it helping balance my hormones or throwing them outta whack? Is it strengthening my immune system? Is it weakening my immune system? Mm-hmm. So that's just a broad based, uh, framework. Yeah. Then we go deeper into, and really what I do is like, call it my whole life detox process, we're really all about identifying where you're being exposed to toxins in every area of your life. Again, from what you're putting in your mouth, which is a really big key, important one. What are you rubbing into your skin? What's in your environment? Like what are all the toxins in your home or your office or even your car? Mm-hmm. And what your exposure to electromagnetic. Field. So electrosmog they call it these days. Um,'cause that's playing a role too, but it's sound like a hidden killer. Like you don't even realize it. Yeah. You don't think

Tracie: 31:51

about it.

Donya: 31:51

You don't think about it. It's there though. And it could be, except for people who are overly sensitive, it can really make a big difference. Yeah. Um, so there's that and then there's um, you know, last but not, uh Okay. So your environment and then last. What, what's going on up here? I call it your mental, um, emotional and spiritual toxins. Right? Yeah. So because this negative to over here

Tracie: 32:13

Yeah.

Donya: 32:14

Creates stress. All the other stuff that we just mentioned creates toxicity in your body and stress and toxicity are the two biggest, uh, drivers of poor health and, and illness. Yeah. Now I like to go d go down like d drill down to the, you know, cellular level. That's what I'm learning more and more these days. It's like, and once you understand what's happening at a cellular level, then you can start to make, uh, adjustments or needed, you know, improvements that will, you know, radiate outwards. But I, I like to call it, um, you know, detox from the outside in. Is kind of what I focus on. Let's start with everything outside of you that's going into you. Let's fix it. Let's, let's get rid of the stuff that's not helping you, that's hurting you. Let's find, um, uh, replacements for that, that work, you know? But it's all about finding what works for you, but also staying within that framework, right? Like you don't. It's not very open-ended because I think that's what a lot of other health coaches do is that they just kind of like, what do you wanna do and how can I help you do that? Well, there's a little bit of that, but there's also like, you need the bigger picture and then you decide what, what you think you should do in your

Tracie: 33:24

Well, and what you're doing is you're helping people build awareness of what even is happening, right? Like you're talking about the, the environmental. For a, a really good example, like, you know, what is the air quality in your neighborhood? What, what, you know, you get the laundry detergent that is like this. Heavy perfume, right? Perfume is made with X, Y, Z chemicals and all that kind of, you don't even think about it. You're just like, yay, my laundry smells good, but it's actually maybe not so good for you.

Donya: 33:55

Right? We focus on the things you can control. You can't really control air pollution, at least not outside your home. Inside home. There's some things you can do to mitigate, you know, air purifiers and that kind of thing, right? Um, but like you said, like what kind of, what's in all the products that I'm using every day. And how can I replace some something? And it doesn't necessarily have to, you know, there's been a whole lot of this greenwashing going on, and you wanna get things that are environmentally responsible and all that stuff. I said just like if you just take care of you by putting like healthier, natural things in your body, whether it's food or products or whatnot, um, by definition you're gonna help the environment. Right? Yeah. Because it's the, it's the synthetic stuff. That's harmful to the environment, that creates the pollution. It's harm pollutes the environment. It pollutes your body. Right. Well, when

Tracie: 34:41

I said environment, I meant not like trying to fix the environment, but fixing the environment for you.

Donya: 34:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If, if there's things you can do, you can, but those are like really big. Things. Right? Right. Like air pollution and what water you filter, you can do water filtration. Right, right. And you can filter out all the crap that's in your, um, in the tap water, which has gotten really bad everywhere across, across the US anyway.

Audio Only - All Participants: 35:03

Yep.

Donya: 35:03

Yeah. Um, yeah. It's stuff, it's little things like that. And then what are little things like taking care of your mouth, like your dent, your, your teeth, and your, how many people like floss regularly and brush with like non-top? There's a reason why your

Tracie: 35:16

dentist wants to know if you floss, because bad gums equals bad health.

Donya: 35:21

Well tack on your teeth means you're not flossing. I mean, I get it anyway, even though I floss. But that's again,'cause I have this Right. But it would be so much

Tracie: 35:28

worse if you didn't.

Donya: 35:29

Yeah, I mean I do, I do four dental cleanings a year. I go in at once a quarter. I do too.

Tracie: 35:34

Yeah. And I

Donya: 35:34

kind of have to because same unfortunately, this in, in spite of all the effort I

Tracie: 35:38

put into keeping my mouth clean. Well, and that's just again, shows you how every individual is different. I've, I did for a year, for a long time, and then we're like. Well, things are a lot better. We can go back to, or I do. To three or two or two, and then they're just like, Hmm, I think you should come in again sooner. Like, it just showed that it wasn't about what I was doing, it was just how my body processes whatever, and, and the things, you know, the coffee that I drink and, and things like that. It's just like, yeah, I mean, you know, have a little more care and I'm fine with that. Like, let's do it. Because if that means that I'm gonna keep my teeth a lot longer in my life, then it's worth it

Donya: 36:20

because it's darn expensive. Dental, dental work is really expensive. Yeah. Yeah.

Tracie: 36:24

Well, and I don't, I mean, I don't wanna have to pull teeth and get Yeah. No one wants that. So whatever you can do, and that's, I mean, I think that that's whatever you can do to

Donya: 36:33

prevent it. Right? So pre it's prevention, but, but not, um, when we wanna say like, prevention, but not from a perspective of, uh, restriction. Or limitation. Yeah, taking care of yourself, doing the things that are good for you. Just shifting into healthier versions or options of things mean, doesn't mean you have to like restrict yourself, but then you can be practicing prevention in that manner. And that's one of the other things I work with people on. It's like, how to do that? You know? It's not as hard as you might think. You know, once you, yeah, I totally agree. Start getting included into stuff. It becomes a lot easier. It goes a lot faster.

Tracie: 37:08

Well, and that goes back to kind of that awareness and paying attention on a regular basis. And so when someone works with someone like yourself where you're having regular conversations and appointments and discussions about the things that are going well, and the things that aren't going well, and what can you change and all of that, it's in your awareness and you're doing something about it. It doesn't have to be hard, it just, just move yourself forward. You know, you

Donya: 37:34

just, sometimes you just need someone to point things out to you that you, like you said, you're in the role and you can't see it all. Like, the story that I like to share is that, uh, a while back, a couple years before COVID, I started going, uh, working with a personal trainer at the, at the gym here. They were young, you know, college aged kids and stuff. But, um, I had one guy who, uh, insisted that I keep a food journal. And I was like, I don't, why do I wanna do that? I don't wanna do that. I really resisted. I was like, I can eat healthy. I don't, I eat healthy. Why do I need to do that? So I was like, oh, he was just insistent. I was like, all right, fine. So I did the minimum, bare minimum, like I write down what I ate. And then he said, I want you to write down how you feel. And I thought he meant, how do you feel emotionally? I was like, I don't have emotional issues with food, so I just wrote down what I ate. Right? Yeah. And then every two weeks or so, he is like, bring your notebook in. And then he'd go through it and he'd start highlighting stuff. And he is like, look here, see here. You had a beer here. You had a beer there, you had cake over here. You had deserve it out. Oh, busted. Like, oh, you're right. Like I just do that. And I didn't even realize I was doing that. Yeah.

Tracie: 38:33

And you weren't even paying. And

Donya: 38:34

so I stopped. It's like I really reduced my alcohol consumption after that. And instead of having a beer with my dinner, I'd have like a sparkling water or, you know, flavored sparkling water or something without sugar, of course. Or you know, chemical additives or anything like that. But it's just one of those things where. If he hadn't made a fuss about it and pointed it out to me, I probably would've kept going. And I'm going like, why aren't I losing any weight? I'm coming to the gym three times a week. I'm not losing any weight. What's happening over here?

Tracie: 39:00

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So true. Well, Donya, I know that we could just keep talking because that's how it always goes with both of us. We could just keep, keep talking about all this good stuff, but. I think it's time for us to wrap up. I want to make sure that everyone knows that. As I mentioned, Donya being in the Gather community, there's always opportunities to learn more when Donya is speaking or at our summits or doing workshops. Different things come hang out with us in the Gather community and you're bound to run into Donya'cause she's always around. Um, also. We've got some things in the show notes of how to reach her, how to get engaged, a little bit more about how she works with clients to help them, uh, you know, take these steps that we've just been talking about and find what it is that's the most important thing for you to start with. And how to start there without it being, like we said, restrictive or like. Difficult or impossible. Scary. Scary. Yeah. Scary. All those good things. So I'm thrilled to get to have this conversation because I always love bringing what you have and all of your experience and knowledge to new people. Um, and I'm thrilled to be able to put it on the podcast. Anything that you wanna say to wrap up everything in a little bow before we close? Uh, don't

Donya: 40:18

be hard on yourself. It's always a good important thing.'cause I think, again, the guilt creates the stress and stress. We wanna wanna keep that under control, but don't be afraid to seek support either. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people, a lot of people feel like, I got it under control. I know it's good, I'm good. And then they wait until something develops and it becomes more serious and then, then you need to find help. And then it gets harder to find, it gets harder to find help and then also gets harder to undo. Change, make changes, lifestyle change. Yeah.

Tracie: 40:49

We don't wanna go too far over the edge before it's too hard to come back. Yeah. On the other side of the fence. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. And getting support is always like, that's always my number one thing too. We all need help. We're not meant to do this life alone. We definitely aren't supposed to know everything ourselves. So let's talk to experts like Donya about things that matter in our health.

Donya: 41:09

But also don't relinquish your personal power to Well, that's true, but

Tracie: 41:13

you know, yes. Yeah. With your own, own decisions. But consult people who you know, you can collaborate with on the things that matter to you.

Donya: 41:22

Yeah. And I say like, get other. If you don't, if it doesn't resonate with you, get, it's not,

Tracie: 41:26

yeah. Find someone else

Donya: 41:27

opinions from someone else, you know? If it resonates, then, then, you know, pursue Yeah. Pursue it. And,

Tracie: 41:32

and if it, if it moves you forward. Right. Not only does it feel good, but it actually gives you progress.

Donya: 41:39

Yeah. And sometimes people just need help with that. Like said, figuring out how to set goals and what really matters. Yeah. Yeah, it's not something we're taught how to do when we're in business. We figure out how to do goals for our business. Uh, sometimes if we're trying to find love or whatever, you know, it's easy to set some goals like that, but when it comes to your health, it's kind of open-ended and it's hard for people to just hone in on what's the most important thing I should be working towards to get the result they want, and what is the result I want. Yeah. Awesome.

Tracie: 42:07

Yeah. Amazing. So, okay, everyone out there, reach out to Donya to help to get that help that you need. And come hang us out. Hang out with us in the Gather community and we will see you on the next episode of the Bold and Brilliant podcast. Thanks my friend.

Speaker 2: 42:22

Thank you for listening to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. I'm your host, Tracie Root, and I wanna invite you to check out the show notes, find out where you can connect with our guests, find out more about what I and the Gather community have to offer you, and be sure to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks so much.