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Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
Jun. 18th, 2007 03:59 pmSuddenly, I'm way behind, both in reading and in writing reviews. I often request new books, either before we get them or adding myself to a list of other fans. Last week, six books came in. That means two books a week to have them all back in on time. Several of them want to be read by both adults in the household. Wish us luck!
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christine Northrup Dr. Northrup, an OB/GYN, illuminates the tricky connection between mind and body in this superb book on women's health. She opens in a rather new-agey way which nonetheless struck close to home, as she talked about chakras and the diseases connected with them. For example, being required to fit into an extremely masculine environment is a second chakra issue which can cause uterus and cycle problems. Chakras are pretty new to me, but her descriptions closely fit my experiences. As a Western medicinal background, she advocates combining emotional therapies with traditional medicine, never saying, "Just get over yourself and the problem with go away."
The next section covers specific areas of women's health – cycle problems, childbirth, menopause, to name just a few. Each section includes potential problems and cures ranging from least to most invasive, nutritional therapy through surgery. Also included are the specific energy issues from the first section. All of them include both personal stories and research from studies, both of which I find very helpful.
After the health problems, she turns to how to create “vibrant health”, including diet, sex and exercise. Her diet recommendations were somewhat confusing to me, but included a lot on the dangers of carbohydrate addiction, and on the need to get calcium from more varied sources than just dairy. Mindfulness is key. I found her coverage of exercise particularly nice, since she acknowledged that she herself did not exercise when her children were small, and discussed how she made time for it and got her children to accept her exercising. I am now recommending this book to every woman I know, especially to those suffering from health problems that are difficult to identify or cure. It’s a tome, but you can easily skim the introduction and then flip to your specific problem. Unless you get sucked into it, as I did.
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christine Northrup Dr. Northrup, an OB/GYN, illuminates the tricky connection between mind and body in this superb book on women's health. She opens in a rather new-agey way which nonetheless struck close to home, as she talked about chakras and the diseases connected with them. For example, being required to fit into an extremely masculine environment is a second chakra issue which can cause uterus and cycle problems. Chakras are pretty new to me, but her descriptions closely fit my experiences. As a Western medicinal background, she advocates combining emotional therapies with traditional medicine, never saying, "Just get over yourself and the problem with go away."
The next section covers specific areas of women's health – cycle problems, childbirth, menopause, to name just a few. Each section includes potential problems and cures ranging from least to most invasive, nutritional therapy through surgery. Also included are the specific energy issues from the first section. All of them include both personal stories and research from studies, both of which I find very helpful.
After the health problems, she turns to how to create “vibrant health”, including diet, sex and exercise. Her diet recommendations were somewhat confusing to me, but included a lot on the dangers of carbohydrate addiction, and on the need to get calcium from more varied sources than just dairy. Mindfulness is key. I found her coverage of exercise particularly nice, since she acknowledged that she herself did not exercise when her children were small, and discussed how she made time for it and got her children to accept her exercising. I am now recommending this book to every woman I know, especially to those suffering from health problems that are difficult to identify or cure. It’s a tome, but you can easily skim the introduction and then flip to your specific problem. Unless you get sucked into it, as I did.
