We recently connected with Carolyn Dean and have shared our conversation below.
Carolyn, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I’ve been a lifelong wellness advocate. Professionally, I’m a doctor, naturopath, author, business owner and dietary supplement formulator and distributor. Meanwhile, on a personal level, I have supported family farming as far back as I can remember. From early memories of simple, backyard gardening with my parents, to leading a CSA in the Bronx, wellness through food and farming has been a central motif guiding my heart’s journey.
I live on an island you may know and love — the honeymoon island of Maui in Hawaii. It’s a fascinating place of beauty and a tropical, temperate climate. A place endowed with an almost worldwide adoration, where tourism is a major stimulant of the economy. I consider the degree of favor the world offers us as a sustaining flame that, with loving attention and care, has become incredibly special for humanity.
My journey through wellness advocacy took a wonderful turn over the past decade, when I decided to invest my time and resources supporting a local family farmer, owner of ‘Oko’a Farms. The decision led me to even found a public charity devoted to promote organic farming and food security for my community. I made these commitments amidst the global pandemic and the devastation brought about from the Maui wildfires. To some, these investments could certainly be reasoned as risks, but for me, these were next logical steps to ensure resilience for our community. This was a continuation of the dedication I’ve had to living the “great work” of my life that I first dreamt of in my teens.
It’s a precarious decision to invest your money and time into family farming. Those with any frame of reference to the current challenges in agriculture know that very few family farms survive in the current agribusiness model. The more you produce, the more you can provide for the community, the more regulation and hoops tangle up your path. Banks lending to farm businesses are rare, and it’s no wonder the old adage “he bought the farm” is used to describe someone that has died. It’s a hellish undertaking to steward land for the purpose of growing you and your neighbors’ food!
In 2020, when the world shuddered from the pandemic, I elected to become Okoa’s private banker because I saw the increasing demand for organic produce and believed Ryan, the farmer, could rise to the occasion of growth amidst global constriction. The pivotal milestone in this endeavor came three years later, when his produce market launched with a permanent storefront open 7 days a week. The investments paid off! The store’s opening brought about an immediate four-fold increase of food access for the community. And that success continues to manifest.
You can see the fruits of our efforts at OkoaFarms.com, and our charity ParaGeniusFoundation.org.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a lifelong wellness advocate and I began my medical journey nearly five decades ago at Dalhousie Medical School. There, I explored nutrition, homeopathy, and alternative therapies alongside my MD studies. After graduating, I pioneered functional medicine in Canada, integrating these modalities into my practice as a certified dietician-nutritionist, naturopath, and Chinese Medicine herbalist. My work spanned Canada, the US, and international communities, reflecting a commitment to accessible and holistic healthcare.
In 2004, I published a book, The Magnesium Miracle. It became a best-selling resource on magnesium’s role in health and supplementation. Believing in the body’s inherent healing capacity, I emphasize nutritional and lifestyle support, advocating that wellness is achievable regardless of circumstance. This philosophy led me in 2014 to launch of RnA ReSet, my line of unique formulations designed to provide essential building blocks for sustained health.
I’ve long recognized the detrimental effects of processed foods, coupled with a dedication to integrating lifestyle, nutrition, and supplementation, and I’m committed to education and share what I’ve learned over the years through over 50 published books, seminars, and a weekly podcast. I aim to empower individuals to make informed choices about their complementary and alternative care.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Stepping into the realm of philanthropy has called for a slightly different approach than I’ve projected in my professional career. I’m a self-starter and a DIY type person; Gandhi’s adage of being the change you wish to see in the world shares similar ground to my own worldview: When I spot a need, I simply take action. My motto has long been: I’ll Never Stop.
Here’s a funny story to illustrate how directly I take action. In my first week in med school, I was one of just 33 women in a class of 100. It was a different era then, where the culture was far less considerate of the female persuasion, and women “put up” with far more than we do now. Warning: I never was one of those types. In one of our introductory lectures, our instructor had included several nude female slides into his presentation. I retaliated, not by complaining to the Dean and demanding change, but by taking matters into my own hands. Mind you, this was when Playgirl had just launched their inaugural magazine. Only two days after that first lecture, I had nude male slides made up from that inceptive issue of Playgirl and snuck them into the projector. When the slides came up one after the other, the instructor was mortified! He grabbed his briefcase mid-lesson, in fact, and was never seen again. Along with him went all the crass female posters and pictures he had adorned throughout his corner of our school.
That memory, albeit colorful, illustrates my inherent drive to address challenges or situations head-on. Founding a public charity, however, has come with a new invitation and a reassessment of my action-oriented paradigm. This is a lesson that’s quite in-process this very moment. A public charity, more than inviting others to join my charge, requires community input and collaboration to enact change. On a very simple level, this is not just my mission to manifest anymore. I also cannot do it alone. The question of “How can I help” has shifted to “How can I empower others to join me in the call to help?” Perhaps you could say I take more pause than I normally would as I allow this adaptive quality to emerge.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
Absolutely. Health and wellness is an endless wellspring of inspiration and importance to me.
Contact Info:
