Product Description

A groundbreaking book on women's physical and emotional well-being, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom has become a classic, with more than 270,000 copies in print in the four years since its initial publication. Now it has been completely revised, offering the most up-to-date information available on women's health issues.

Christiane Northrup's vision of mind-body wellness has received an extraordinary response from women all over the world. Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom powerfully demonstrates that when women change the basic conditions of their lives that lead to health problems, they heal faster, more completely, and with far fewer medical interventions.

Now Dr. Northrup brings us vital new information about the best techniques of Western medicine and the best alternative therapies, showing how to incorporate both into a complementary whole. She guides readers through the entire range of women's health problems, and offers strikingly new, positive perspectives on normal processes, such as menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. This edition includes:

• An all-new nutrition chapter emphasizing individual dietary needs and body chemistry

• New information on improving fertility after age 35—and how to cut the risk of C-section by 50 percent

• A completely updated program for menopause, including how to decide whether natural hormone replacement is right for you

• Holistic ways to prepare and heal faster if surgery is necessary

• Plus dozens of new natural treatments and a wealth of hard-to-find health care resources

Filled with dramatic case histories from the famed Women to Women health care center, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom is contemporary medicine at its best, combining new technologies with natural remedies and the miraculous healing powers within the body itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2325 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-31
• Released on: 2006-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 944 pages

Amazon.com Review
Quite possibly every female over the age of 12 will find this huge book enlightening, pain saving, and perhaps even lifesaving. Think of it as a much more empowering and holistic Our Bodies, Ourselves. Northrup is a gynecologist who acknowledges the power of natural therapies and herbs, but also maintains that allopathic treatments, including surgery, are sometimes best. In Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, she covers the treatment of many physical concerns--among them PMS, menstrual cramps, breast cancer, fibroids, endometriosis, infertility, depression, childbirth, abortion, cystitis, and menopause--explaining how many of these physical problems have roots in emotional upsets. For example, a woman who is unhappy with her marriage may be infertile because deep down, she knows that her husband is not the right man to have children with; a teenager who has cramps may be having problems accepting society's expectations of her as a woman.

Some readers may be put off at first by Northrup's obviously unconventional ways of thinking. Her medical approach is decidedly feminist, blaming our "addictive" and patriarchal society for many of the health problems plaguing women. She clearly illustrates her ideas, however, by drawing upon two decades of experience from her medical practice and citing dozens of her patients' remarkable personal stories. Northrup also delineates the best way to go about tuning in to one's body and mind in order to start the healing process, a self-induced therapy of sorts. She also includes in the book a copy of the eye-opening health inventory she gives her clients. It includes unusual questions such as "Are you bored with your life?" and "Do you have enough friends or neighbors?"

This book will be of special benefit to women who are pregnant or entering menopause. Northrup is an unequivocal believer in natural births and her dialogue on the birthing process will remove the fears of even the most petrified mother-to-be. She criticizes episiotomies (she should know; she's given birth without one) and supports midwifery. She also warns against the harmfulness of cesarean births and includes illustrations of acupressure points that help turn around a breech baby.

For women in perimenopause or menopause, Northrup will help turn this life phase into one of peace and personal growth instead of one of suffering. She was one of the first doctors to use natural progesterone to treat menopausal symptoms, and this revised edition includes a clear primer on the latest in hormone replacement therapy and how to determine if it's right for you. Northrup also expounds upon the benefits of acupuncture and herbalism--as well as emotional self-analysis--for alleviating hot flashes and mood swings. --Erica Jorgensen

From Publishers Weekly
This guide goes far beyond standard self-help books, assessing women's health within the context of their work, families and society. The author, a holistic physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, seeks to illuminate the basic conditions of women's lives that lead to their health problems. A founder of Women to Women, a clinic that practices within the context of conventional medicine, Northrup, in 17 years of caring for women, was led to take a holistic view of women's health. She cites dramatic and affecting cases of women healing from long-term illnesses, through alternative medical methods such as herbal medicine, dietary changes and relaxation techniques. The book begins with an exploration of how society influences the way in which women think about and care for their bodies. Part two provides a comprehensive description of women's anatomy and includes a list of conditions and concerns from fibroids to hysterectomy. The book's third portion discusses what type of guidance to look for in a health care provider: it is essential, Northrup says, to develop a working partnership with a health care team. Her work is based on the belief that the cultural context of a woman's life affects her mental and physical health. And so, women must learn that their wounding, if any--physical, psychological and spiritual--is part of a larger cultural wound. Northrup's book is as accessible as it is empowering.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
While this book offers a great deal of sound and sympathetic advice about healthy living for women, it is accompanied by an excess of feminist rhetoric and New Age mumbo jumbo. (Do fibroids really "result when we are flowing life energy into dead ends, such as jobs or relationships we have outgrown"?) The reader might feel more comfortable skipping those parts of this otherwise excellent work. Northrup, the founder of a women's health clinic in Maine, takes up women's standard health problems and offers spiritual and philosophical counsel along with suggestions on dietary change, confronting one's feelings about disease, visualization practices, and other holistic remedies. Although much of this same advice can be found elsewhere (The New Our Bodies Ourselves, LJ 2/1/93), Northrup's approach is more casual. For example, she feels that the main reason for exercise should be that you enjoy it. With so many people seeking advice on achieving a more fulfilling life, this book may be in high demand. For New Age, alternative health, and women's health collections.
Natalie Kupferberg, Montana State Univ. Lib., Bozeman
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Never Too Old to Learn
This book contains LOTS of important information for women. It is well written and very readable. Don't be put off by the length or the many medical terms. There are many good ideas about nutrition and living well in your own body. Can be somewhat repetitive.

Fabulous!
This is a well-rounded approach to women's physical health, and the mental-spiritual connection that ties it all together. This isn't just a doctor's remedy book, this tells us the power that we hold within ourselves, to visualize a better, whole being.

better than a dictionary
I use this all the time...the section w/info on Chakras are quite interesting..this is what makes you "tick". BUY THIS.