We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Wilde a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Heather, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
In early 1999 I was studying Neurobiology at Cornell University, and ready to head to the Amazon to complete a research project on the biochemistry of rainforest plants and how indigenous people use them for medicine. It was the second semester of my senior year; I was in love and excited to graduate and begin my life with my boyfriend.
A high-speed head on car accident due to black ice completely derailed those plans and altered the trajectory of my life. I was driving because my boyfriend, Alex, didn’t feel well. He was snoozing with the seat reclined in the passenger seat as I drove. I remember him waking up, sitting up, putting his seat belt on, and about 15 seconds later, I lost control of the car when the back wheels fishtailed, and we collided with an oncoming truck. I don’t remember much, we were in the country, far from any cities, rescue workers used the jaws of life to get us out and I was rushed to surgery to try and save my left leg, which had been smashed to pieces.
The surgeons saved my life, and my leg. They didn’t, however, expect me to be able to really use it. They told me I may not keep it, could need multiple reconstructive surgeries and bone grafts, and would certainly never run, backpack or downhill ski again.
That is difficult to hear when you are 21 years old, but I had been raised to question and think outside the box, and I was committed to proving them wrong. My grandmother took care of me, and fed me almonds which are full of calcium, to help my bones heal. No one in convention thought to recommend nutrition, or supplements. With her care, and meditations from Louise Hay, I graduated in a wheelchair, but was able to walk three times faster than they projected,
My romantic relationship crumbled under the stress and trauma of the accident, and I missed the opportunity to complete my research and pursue that professional road. I was directionless, and accepted a job with a famous academic that could only write in the most beautiful parts of the world. As her personal assistant, I accompanied her through the cradle of Western Civilization. I was eating a fruit plate on a beach in Greece, and said aloud how I remembered how fruit in my country tasted like that when I was a child, but didn’t anymore, and I couldn’t believe we fed that anemic, lackluster food to our children, elderly, people in hospitals etc. I said: “If I were a doctor, I would do something about this” and I felt like I had been struck by lightning, and thought – “OMG I have to go back to school.”
I had a lot of pressure to go to a prestigious medical school, so I had “authority”, but I didn’t want to go and be brainwashed to only use drugs and surgery. I had seen how my own providers were so myopic, and in order to heal my body I had found an entire realm of healing modalities and alternative medicine that existed about treating the cause, and using natural means. So, I went to Naturopathic Medical School and chose the most difficult profession on the planet because it runs counter to all the major social and economic pressures Americans are inundated with and we are outside of convention, called names, and marginalized. But we are the most effective medical providers for chronic health and preventing disease because we are trained as general practitioners of conventional medicine, and can do minor surgeries, diagnose, treat and prescribe medications, but a good naturopath will also find the cause of disease and coach and mentor patients to wellness and optimization, rather than just throw a pill at it. I regularly help people heal and overcome issues that convention says, “there’s nothing we can do about it” or “get used to it, you are just getting older, take this medication for the rest of your life and don’t worry about the horrible side effects”, or my favorite: “It’s all in your head.”
The accident gave me an opportunity to lie down, give up, take antidepressants and pain killers for the rest of my life and mourn what I lost. I’ve battled depression, chronic pain, and despair for decades. I, however, chose another path. I chose to explore every option, overcome, and never give up. I have backpacked the Grand Canyon, run Tough Mudders, and can even downhill ski. My personal healing journey has been 25 years of exploring how to optimize my body’s ability to heal, its performance, manage the pain and even cheat the march of time. I am committed to my own health, and the healing of mind, body, emotions and environment so I can truly thrive, and my journey has taught me how to lead others to be able to live their best life with vitality and power.
Heather, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am an Ivy league educated naturopathic physician and functional medicine doctor, and an expert in preventive medicine, antiaging, chronic disease management and health fundamentals. Over the past two decades I have mastered the high-skill procedures associated with the elite levels of integrative medicine: chelation and environmental medicine, orthopedic and aesthetic PRP and stem cell therapies, sports performance optimization, bio-identical hormone replacement, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune and chronic disease management and natural aesthetics. With almost two decades of practice and clinical experience, I am able to find the cause of disease with precision, and know that a solid health foundation is critical: you can do IVs, PRP, chelation, and hormone replacement, and none will work optimally if you don’t have a strong nutritional and lifestyle foundation. I am an expert in functional medicine testing and interpretation and love to create elegant and comprehensive wellness plans based on biological markers spanning from your DNA to your mental and unconscious constructs. I am in my late 40s and concentrate on exploring the forefront of antiaging medicine because I aim to maintain my beauty, health and vitality for another fifty years.
I am also a master level practitioner of NLP, Elite Results Coaching, and Hypnosis, an international speaker, the author of The Wilde Way: Unleash Your Vitality https://amzn.to/3SAjcpJ and The Wilde Life Planner https://amzn.to/3UcBQFl These books were written as a guide to not only survive, but thrive in the 21st century by supporting your health and wellness in scientific, and holistic ways.
My clients are world class entrepreneurs and executives, and I created the Wilde Vitality Detoxification Program to offer a course where more people had access to the revolutionary power of finding and treating the cause of disease and health challenges, naturally. I am an educator, author, speaker, survivor, sobriety champion, naturalist, traveler, and host of “The Bad Girls’ Guide to Living Well”. I have circumnavigated the planet with a backpack, hiked the Grand Canyon nine times, sailed down the Nile, and meditated in the queen’s and king’s chambers of the Great Pyramid. I currently travel internationally with different business groups as a wellness consultant and medical advocate and empower and optimize entrepreneurs and executives through education and functional medicine so they are better able to bring their professional and personal goals to fruition with vitality and purpose.
I was the first woman in history to travel to Antarctica with no supplies and attended the first silent disco on The White Continent. I love adventure, great conversations, transformative relationships, traveling, reading, puzzles, children, animals, and nature and my philosophy is that the further our culture gets from nature, the sicker we become.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I did everything our culture told me I ‘should’ do to be happy. I went to an Ivy League school, got a doctorate in an innovative scientific service field that revolutionizes lives, started a business, married a tall, handsome doctor, got purebred dogs, started a family, worked a lucrative corporate job, wore designer clothes, and drove a safe car. I was walking with my son and his father along the beach in Orange County in the summer of 2017.
I said to my son’s father, “I understand why the French say ‘Je suis content.’ I am happy.”
I was content. Everything was nice. It was all fine—pretty OK.
Less than a year later, my life had blown up. I lost my corporate job, was sued twice, started a new business, my brother was hospitalized, my dog died, I had a huge falling out with my family, my cat died, my doctor found precancerous lesions, and I filed for divorce.
It was like the Universe said, “Content? No way, girl, you want to say, ‘Laissez les bon temps rouler!’ Let the good times roll, Cherie!”
The journey to the other side of that experience was not easy. There were times of extreme despair, and I sat in my backyard, got high, and compulsively read fantasy romance novels for more days than I would like to admit. I didn’t eat, move, or feel hope or excitement, and I was alone and isolated most of the time. In hindsight, the experience helped me to erase many of the layers and masks I had built over my true self, and when I chose to peel them off one by one, I unveiled my more authentic self and I became someone else. I became authentically me.
I created a new life, one that evolves more and more into ‘My Best Life.’ I can honestly feel gratitude for the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ because I proved to myself the truth of “what doesn’t kill you, really does make you stronger,” if you choose to allow for it to do so.
I got real with myself about whether I wanted to lie down, give up, take prescriptions for anxiety, depression, and fibromyalgia, and numb out in mediocrity and artificial reality for the rest of my life. Or did I want to get up, examine my shadow, make different choices, and embrace every moment of the incredible miracle called life?
I became sober three years ago and stopped medicating myself and numbing my reality. That gave me the opportunity to know myself better and heal deeper parts of me as my body started expressing the emotions I had been suppressing with addictions for my entire adult life.
My life has not been easy, and I am committed to facing the challenges that I am faced with in the most authentic, and healthy way – even if I might cry and moan about it in the beginning, I pick myself up, and continue the journey to my best life.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
When I was two years old my mother called me into the kitchen for breakfast, I remember toddling in thinking: “Oh boy, oatmeal!” and then a stack of heavy lumber fell on me, and I needed to be rushed to the hospital. I “learned” several things from this experience that have been lurking in my unconscious mind since. One is “I can’t trust anyone”, and another is “things can be going along splendidly and all of a sudden something will happen where I almost die” – remember the car accident? Yeah. It’s a theme. I also “learned” that I am not important. It wasn’t a priority for my father to put the wood away to protect me and keep me safe from that accident.
This happened so young, I’ve had to go deep into the unconscious and the shadow to be able to unwind and unlearn these limiting beliefs.
Life has also given me amazing opportunities to shift and heal: the airline lost my luggage when I went to Antarctica. All the gear I had packed to protect my Californian butt from the elements ended up in limbo somewhere until I returned to Chile. Luckily, I was with a group of people that treated me like Antarctica Barbie, and shared their extra gear with me so I could enjoy the most incredible journey of my life. I was completely vulnerable, and able to TRUST that it would all work out. I learned I can literally go to the end of the Earth with nothing and be taken care of. The experience also helped me learn to ask for help and as well as to receive it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.NaturopathicMD.com
- Instagram: naturopathicmd
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NaturopathicMDs/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-heather-wilde/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@naturopathicmd
- Other: Detox Course: https://courses.wildevitality.com/why-video