Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50379 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781401922375
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author

Customer Reviews

A lightweight
I'm a Northrup fan because of her classic, The Wisdom of Menopause, which is a truly useful and amazingly thorough book - - and because Northrup has women's best interests at heart. However, this book was a disappointment. it's well written ... but just a "yawn" to quote another reviewer. I bought it on name recognition. If a newcomer to the women's health and wellness scene had written this book, I have my doubts it would have been published. Hay House, I'm disappointed. Having said all of this ... the book is a light and quick (very light, very quick) read, and Northrup does give women permission to feel good. I suppose some women will find that liberating. Having given myself this permission long ago, the book didn't live up to my expectations.

Prolactin, oxytocin and orgasm
I am perplexed by Northrop's book. In chapter 2, she claims that prolactin is "the hormone of bonding" and that it "makes you feel bonded to the person (or people) you're interacting with at the time." My husband and I have been tracking research on the hormones related to mating neurochemistry for years. Researchers agree that oxytocin, not prolactin, is the "bonding hormone."

We think Northrop's right that the pleasurable feelings from connecting with others are very healthful, but oxytocin, not prolactin, is probably the reason. Indeed, prolactin (which rises after orgasm in both men and woman) may be more closely related to unpleasant mood swings. For example, men with high prolactin levels sometimes report low libido, headaches, erectile dysfunction, and anxiety. Women report similar symptoms. In one study, three quarters of women with unexplained high prolactin levels were suffering from depression, anxiety, and hostility.

This brings me to Northrop's indirect suggestion that masturbation is an ideal source of good feelings for women because of the short-term changes it produces in the body (endorphins and nitric oxide). Unfortunately, masturbation doesn't connect us with others. It's a solo performance. And, although sexologists aren't yet acknowledging it, there seem to be very real differences between masturbation and intercourse. The two are not interchangeable. Consider this woman's experience:

"It has been a year since my husband's death and I decided to see if I was still capable of orgasm. (My husband was very sick for several years before his death, so it has been a while.) The very next morning I woke up slightly depressed. Each night I masturbated again, trying to shorten the time to climax. Each morning I woke up a bit more depressed. After a couple of weeks of this I made the connection, and stopped. The depression is now completely gone, but I'm still horny from all that masturbating. (I wasn't at all horny before starting to masturbate.) I think that climaxing with a loved one is very different from climaxing with empty lips and vagina."

Her experience has actually been borne out by research that links women's masturbation with greater depression and relationship dissatisfaction--as well as less physical pleasure. In other words, those who masturbated more, showed more depression and dissatisfaction. It would be nice if orgasm were indeed a cure all, but if it were, heavy porn users would be the happiest people on the planet, and men would have been outliving women for centuries instead of the reverse.

Very interesting; simple yet powerful!
I found this book a great change from Dr. Northrup's other books, which I have read over and over again. It took me reading this one twice to see its magnificence. It combines ancient simple philosophy with modern science to transform our bodies at the deepest level via our chemistry and biology all done through positive thinking! Dr. Nothrup teamed up with the Noble Prize winning M.D, Dr. Murad and Dr. Edward A. Taub, using their biological theory of the free radical gas in our bodies called Nitric Oxide and how it can transform us on an upward cycle by focusing on pleasure and positive life force energy to create more and more nitric oxide. This is a very healthy free radical just as there is good and bad cholesterol. I found this simple yet profound book exactly what I needed to here. We all do tend to favor negative energy and compete for who has it the hardest, which is destroying our health by depleting our nitric oxide levels. By focusing on the positive and learning to love and accept ourselves we can transform our lives with an abundance of powerful good feelings, joy and hope. It's a new approach to the power of positive thinking with science by Medical Doctors, who won a Nobel Prize for their efforts, to back it up!

I feel very empowered to acheive optimal health through these new theories. I already eat with nutritional excellent from the book, "Eat To Live" by Joel Furham, M.D. and I am at my ideal weight. I exericise a lot and take many suppilmental vitamins and yet I have high blood pressure and suffer from anxiety. Just after reading this book and finding faith in it's words, I feel so much better and I even got my sex-drive back! This is a short easy book to read and I highly recommend it to everyone, not just women.