Transcription of Dr. Masina Wright for the show Vitality, #82
Dr. Lisa: We’re into a new season and it’s spring. We’re all feeling energized and excited to go out in the world and wake up after this winter of dormancy and looking inward. I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to a woman who is the Wright Doctor, right? W-R-I-G-H-T. This is Dr. Masina Wright, who is a Naturopathic physician, practicing in the area and she has a special interest in women’s vitality. So talk to us about why you decided to make this a topic of interest for yourself?
Dr. Wright: Women’s health is something that I specialize in. As a woman, I always feel like I’m better equipped at helping other women get better rather than man, who I don’t always totally understand and that’s not to say that I don’t treat men, but I understand women’s health because of my own body and my own health. So many people that come to see me just don’t feel good. They have low vitality. They are drained and they’re tired and they feel like their hair isn’t thick enough or their skin is too dull or various signs of low vitality. I started to focus more on finding ways to help women enhance their vitality using Naturopathic medicine.
Dr. Lisa: It’s a fascinating take on it. Instead of saying, “fatigue,” which is I think often what we talk about. We talk about all things that are bad. We talk about fatigue and we talk about being tired. You’re talking about the other side of the coin. You’re talking about vitality. So whatever it is that’s holding you back from that vitality, let’s move you forward. Why did you decide to go for the positive?
Dr. Wright: I think you always get better results if you think about things that make you feel good and look towards what you want in life, rather than focusing on the things that bring you down or the things that you don’t want. That’s part of the whole law of attraction. As a human, I want to be a more positive person myself. So I feel like it’s good medicine to think about the things that you do like and not get too caught up in what brings you down. I started with a list of things that drain vitality: age, illness, disease, grief, sadness, infection, hormone deficiencies. All of these things drain vitality, but it’s not helpful to focus on those things. It’s helpful to figure out what are the sources of the depleted vitality and then look at ways to replenish them.
Dr. Lisa: I want to talk about that because I know our listeners are going to relate to that topic very much. Talk to me a little bit about why you chose Naturopathic medicine? What drew you to that?
Dr. Wright: I think about this one a lot. Basically, my story is one of those kids that at age 5, “What do you want to be?” “I want to be a doctor or a hairdresser.” So I went for the doctor thing. My junior year of college at Middlebury, I just took a real sharp left and got off the straight and narrow track towards med school and started doing a lot of anthropology of medicine and sociology and feminist studies and religious studies. That’s what I was interested in and it’s what I was good at back at the time. Somebody came from a Naturopathic college out west and presenting on Naturopathic medicine and, I was like, “This is it. This is what I want to learn,” how to look at medicine from a more humanistic perspective and less of a science-based, but still having the foundation of medicine. I decided at that point to become a Naturopathic doctor and here I am.
Dr. Lisa What is Naturopathic medicine?
Dr. Wright: Naturopathic medicine is an umbrella term. It’s a philosophy of medicine as well. The umbrella that we hold that we offer includes botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, homeopathy, stress management, lifestyle counseling. We’re trained in physical medicine, like chiropractic manipulations, which I’d don’t you because I’ve always worked with a chiropractor. We’re also trained in some hands-on body work which some people of and some people do less of. Every Naturopath is an individual and we can choose which of our modalities that we focus more on. In some states, we have prescribing rights and some states we don’t. We can also prescribe antibiotics and female hormones and topical products and some pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Lisa: How do you approach somebody coming into your practice says, “I just don’t feel energetic as I once did?”
Dr. Wright: Let’s see, there’s a few different answers to that so I’m not sure answer you want to hear. I always let people tell their story of what’s been going on with them because that’s where the clues to the depleted vitality come in. Is it stress? As people are telling their story, I’m analyzing for classic signs and symptoms for adrenal deficiency, thyroid deficiency, reproductive issues. I’m always analyzing the case as they are telling me their stories, even if they’re talking about their mother. I’m putting the pieces together in my brain.
I always talk about digestion and nutrition because food is a huge part of our vitality and our health and wellness. I break down in my mind, we have physical vitality which is our inherent sources of vitality that comes from our hormones primarily and anybody who has a formal efficiency will tell you how depleted they feel. So sometimes it’s actually just replenishing a physical state. Then there’s the energetic vitality. The vitality that we get from other things, primarily from nature, whether it says food or nature, the actual environment that we live in.
People do too much. Not enough people sit around and watch the tide come in or go out. That’s one of my prescriptions is to rest and to relax and to watch the flowers grow. I feel like nature is actually an amazing resource for vitality. People who are low and depleted and exhausted, sit outside for 20 minutes twice a week and just absorb. Sometimes we do too much, even take this vitamin. Take this pharmaceutical. Take this hormone. Take this prescription. Make this movie. Do this thing. Do that. It’s exhausting.
Dr. Lisa: The irony is that you’re working so hard to feel better that you’re actually depleting yourself in the process.
Dr. Wright: Sometimes I’m into Superfoods and green smoothies. That’s one way that I think is important to replenish vitality. That is going to give back eventually, even if you have to go to the store and buy the things and make this movie. It’s going to give back and so will supplements and so will hormones and so will a lot of other things, but resting is really important.
Dr. Lisa: You start with rest. What are some of the nutrition recommendations that you make with people?
Dr. Wright: The thyroid is an important part of our energy levels. A lot of people are like “My thyroid’s been tested 20 times and my doctor says the level’s normal.” I take a look at the same test that the doctor does and a holistic doctor or a doctor more trained for this kind of stuff can see that even though it’s in the normal level, the TSH actually needs to be within a fairly narrow range to show that it’s optimal thyroid function and not what’s call sub-clinical hypothyroidism. I look for things like that on bloodwork.
Iodine is necessary for the thyroid hormone to be produced. We don’t get enough iodine from our diet in general. So I make sure that people are eating seafood and fish which are plant sources or iodine. Seaweed is super important. Sushi or seaweed salads or learning how to cook with seaweed, you can just put little pieces of comu in your grains when you cook them. There’s lots of little macrobiotic nutritional tips. Plant sources of iodine are also things that we don’t necessarily eat a ton of like swish charred and mustard greens and cucumbers and watermelon. If you grow those plants in an iodine-depleted soil, you’re not going to get any iodine from them. I’ll make sure that people are trying to eat some of the iodine-rich foods.
Selenium is also needed for the thyroid conversion of T4 to T3. It’s pretty much only in Brazil nuts in any sort of significant amount. So I’ll have people starting to eat Brazil nuts as a snack. It’s a good protein. It’s high in the Selenium. Just looking at food sources of minerals other than just “here take this skill. Take this.” Sometimes that’s not what’s needed. Like I said, Superfoods are something I’m into right now. Superfoods are goji berries and blueberries and kale and maca root, Cacao, like chocolate powder for the real chocolate freaks out there. Making smoothies using dreams and organic fresh fruit and some Superfoods in either water or some alternative milks, getting a super nutrient rich smoothie that’s going to be full of enzymes and vital nutrients and plant nutrients and things that are absorbed really quickly. I always look to food with every patient.
Dr. Lisa: If you need to go beyond food into supplements, what are some of the nutrients that people get depleted in that they might need to look toward a supplement for?
Dr. Wright: When I do supplements, I often do botanicals. I often do herbal medicine. It’s one of my passions and it’s something I’m interested in. I will often look towards adrenal tonics as supplements when people are depleted or somebody’s low energy and they’ve never taken an adrenal tonic in their life. These days I’m seeing teenagers, people in high school that have depleted adrenals. We start burning the candle at both ends pretty early these days. So by the time you’re 25 or 35 or 45 or 55, you’re depleted.
There are a lot of fantastic herbs out there. Ashwagandha is one that I’m into right now for whatever reason. I think a lot of people are into it. It’s a very popular supplement. It’s quite safe. Rhodiola is also one of my favorites. I love Rhodiola, possibly because I’m a rose person and it’s called “Arctic Rose.” Rhodiola grows out on the Siberian tundras and the Russian army did a whole bunch of research studies on it to see what it actually did. It’s classified as an adaptogen. It helps improve mental clarity. It improves stamina to cold.
It increases endurance. You can run longer and think better out in the Siberian tundra when you’re taking Rhodiola so I like that one. There’s also another study on Rhodiola which is the rat on the pole study. A rat can stand on a pole longer when it takes Rhodiola than the rat not taking Rhodiola. There are patients out there they feel like a rat on a pole. It’s like, “I have to stand on this poll one more day and keep going.” Those people, they need the Rhodiola.
Dr. Lisa: What about ginseng?
Dr. Wright: There are a lot of different ginsengs. There was an interesting article, I think it was in Adirondack Today, on American ginseng which you can Google and track down. There’s the original article and then there’s blogs written on the article. There is American ginseng. There’s Asian ginseng, which is mostly Panax ginseng or Korean ginseng which is a specific sub species. Then there is Siberian ginseng which I mistakenly referred to before. Siberian ginseng is most known for its endurance capability and it’s great for athletes. The Asian or Korean ginseng is very hot. It’s mostly recommended for men.
In my training, we did some Chinese medicine in my training as well a lot of Naturopaths can do acupuncture, in addition to the other things I’ve mentioned before as an additional license thing. I tend not to use Panax ginseng or Asian ginseng because it can actually do some damage to the body if you’re not the right kind of person take it because it’s a very potent herb. American ginseng grows from Virginia all the way up to Canada and across to Montana. It’s another adaptogen, another tonic. It’s literally a stimulant. It would be a good option for people who are very fatigued and have very low energy.
Dr. Lisa: What are some of the other tips that you can offer people who would like to improve their vitality?
Dr. Wright: Get your hormones checked. Go to a doctor, either somebody who specializes in age management or who has a more holistic understanding of how the hormones all work together and get your testosterone for both sexes is important to test. Get your cortisol levels, a full thyroid panel. It’s important to do that bloodwork or to do a salivary hormone analysis and make sure that you’re up to par because that’s what lab work is for. You don’t necessarily want to just work in the dark and just buy a whole bunch of things or take stuff if you don’t actually need it.
The adrenal tonics are pretty safe for anyone, but if you’re on multiple medications, there can be a lot of interactions between the herbs and the medications so it’s not necessarily recommended to just go ahead and take a bunch of herbs if you’re on, especially things like some of the more high test cardiac herbs, some mental health herbs, some pharmaceuticals for antidepression are safe, but any of the antipsychotics you should definitely not be taken botanicals without a doctor’s or a Naturopath making sure that the contraindications are in place. Any autoimmune herbs should definitely be double checked. That’s the one thing about herbs is they can have interactions. Get your hormones checked. Spend some time outside. Introduce Superfoods. Have more local fruits and vegetables. Get some of those enzymes in there.
Dr. Lisa: It strikes me that you are an individual who likes to collect local information for patients. I know you have this Master in homeopathic certification. What’s next for you? What keeps you interested in the wellness world? What’s your next adventure?
Dr. Wright: I’m still just getting started here in Maine. I work at the Age Management Center which primarily does improving vitality. I do most of the women’s work. Dr. Bedecs does most of the men’s work. I’m going to keep doing what I already do for the next little while and get really good at it. I’m still learning my way around the Maine healthcare system. I’m excellent with all of the Canadian supplements and products out there, but I’m still learning my way around all of the American resources. I think that I’ve had quite a bit of change and I may not be jumping into something new at this point. I think I might just spend some time perfecting what I’ve got going on.
Dr. Lisa: How can people find out more about your practice?
Dr. Wright: I’ve got lots of social media out there. For all of the online people I’m on Twitter @thewrightdoctor and I’m on Facebook as the Wright Doctor. I have a page on Facebook. I have a website-blog, it does both thewrightdoctor.com. I’ve got a lot of that going on. As I said, I work at the Age Management Center so I can be reached through them and I also do boutique medicine which is an unusual model which is that I will do home visits or office visits for people who have unusual schedules.
I had a phone consult with a patient on 4 July last year who was sick and needed to check in with somebody. I do Skype visits with people in Arizona on a Sunday. I recognize that there’s some people work nine to five and can’t actually just or don’t want to leave for a doctor so I just feel in that because I have a little bit more of a flexible schedule. I’m going to continue doing that. It’s unusual, but it’s worked for me and I like doing the Skype model of care. It doesn’t replace having a primary care physician with that model, but it does help to have the alternative and the Naturopathic support for healthcare.
Dr. Lisa: We’ve been speaking with Dr. Masina Wright, who is the Wright Doctor, W-R-I-G-H-T, about women’s vitality and her own background in changes that she’s made. Congratulations on all these big changes moving from Toronto to Maine and doing it for love.
Dr. Wright: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: I hope that this continues to be successful for you and I appreciate the work you are doing for women and men in the state of Maine.
Dr. Wright: My pleasure, thank you so much for having me.