Cod liver oil contains vitamins A and D, EPA (eicosaspentaenoic acid), and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). Its cardiovascular benefits include lowering blood pressure, decreasing triglycerides, and reducing angina.
Norwegian Cod Liver Oil by Douglas Labs provides 1,250 IU vitamin A, 130 IU vitamin D, 33–41 mg EPA, and 34–42 DHA per gelcap. Available from Emerson Ecologics (800-654-4432 or 603-656-9778; www.emersonecologics.com).
ADDITIONAL MUSCULOSKELETAL SUPPORT
Procosa II. This product from USANA (888-950-9595 or 905-264-9863; www.usana.com) contains 500 mg glucosamine sulfate and 125 mg turmeric extract per tablet, as well as vitamin C and manganese. Usual dose: two tablets daily.
Joint Synergy+, by Metabolic Response Modifiers, is a combination product containing 250 mg glucosamine per capsule, with chondroitin, collagen, manganese, bromelain, MSM, ginseng, white willow, and turmeric, among other factors. Usual dose: four tablets daily. Available from Emerson Ecologics (800-654-4432 or 603-656-9778; www.emersonecologics.com).
OsteoKing is a 100 percent natural formula derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine that is designed to optimize bone health. It comes in liquid form and includes a combination of six herbs. Available from Crystal Natural Pharmaceutical Co. (www.osteoking.com).
I also recommend turmeric, ginger, and green tea extracts by Nature’s Way, available from Emerson Ecologics (800-654-4432 or 603-656-9778; www.emersonecologics.com).
Proanthocyanidins. See Chapter 7 Resources for more information.
Strength Training
Strong Women series
The Strong Women books and DVDs by Miriam Nelson, Ph.D. (302-654-5495; www.strongwomen.com).
Pilates For more information on finding a certified instructor or a training program in your area, or on obtaining Pilates method materials, visit the Pilates website at www.pilates-studio.com.
The Firm
(www.firmdirect.com)
DVD programs on aerobic workouts with weights. I personally used The Firm workouts with weights for nearly ten years. I consider these the most effective weight workouts available on DVD.
Chapter 13: Creating Breast Health
See Chapter 8 Resources for more information on where to obtain supplies for castor oil packs.
Breast Cancer Information and Treatment
Voell, J., and Chatfield, C. (2005). The Cancer Report: The Latest Research (How Thousands Are Achieving Permanent Recoveries). Naples, FL: Change Your World Press. (For more information on this research, visit www.cancer-report.com.)
National Cancer Institute Cancer Information Service
(1-800-4-CANCER; www.cancer.gov)
Call this number to request information about genetic counseling and testing services at cancer centers supported by the institute.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America
(800-615-3055; www.cancercenter.com)
Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is a national network of hospitals that offers advanced cancer patients a comprehensive, fully integrative approach to their disease that combines conventional clinical treatments and technologies with scientifically supported complementary therapies. CTCA facilities are located in suburban Chicago, Philadelphia, Tulsa, and suburban Phoenix (with more on the way) and they serve patients from all over the United States. Each patient is assigned a core “empowerment team” that includes a medical oncologist, a naturopathic oncology provider, a registered dietitian, a nurse care manager, and a clinic nurse (among others) who work together to provide coordinated care throughout a patient’s treatment. CTCA’s goal is to present patients with clear and thorough information about their condition to empower them to make educated decisions about their care and treatment, leading to improved results and a greater quality of life.
Lymphedema
National Lymphedema Network
(800-541-3259 or 415-908-3681; www.lymphnet.org)
An internationally recognized, nonprofit information and networking organization to help those with lymphedema, either primary (the kind one is born with) or secondary (the kind one gets after an operation or injury, notably mastectomy and lymph node dissection). They provide referrals and educational courses for health care professionals and patients, publish a very helpful quarterly newsletter, host a biennial national conference on lymphedema, and maintain an extensive computer database.
Supplements for Breast Health
Coenzyme Q10. See Chapter 7 Resources for more information.
Flaxseed/chia seed. See Chapters 6 and 7 Resources for more information.
Revival Soy. See Chapter 6 Resources for more information.
Chapter 14: Living with Heart, Passion, and Joy
Depression
See Chapter 10 Resources for more information.
Forgiveness
See Chapter 2 Resources for more information.
Transdermal Magnesium
Biogenics Magnesium Lotion
(888-242-6105 or 417-267-2900; www.normshealy.com)
The magnesium in this product, developed by holistic health pioneer Norm Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., is absorbed well through the skin. Dr. Shealy is the founder of the Shealy Institute, the first comprehensive pain and stress management facility in the United States.
Supplements for Heart Health
Many of the sources for dietary supplements recommended for heart health are detailed in Chapter 7 Resources.
Cod liver oil. See Chapter 12 Resources for more information.
Vitamin D. See Chapter 12 Resources for more information.
Magnesium. See Chapter 12 Resources for more information on calcium/ magnesium supplements. Also see information on transdermal magnesium, above.
Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha). Widely available in health food stores as berries for tea infusions. Also available in pill form. If you prefer to take this in pill form, look for a standardized extract, a product that contains 10 percent proanthocyanidins or 1.8 percent vitexin-4"-rhamnoside. Take 100–250 mg three times per day. Nature’s Way and Enzymatic Therapy are reliable brands. HeartCare, manufactured by Nature’s Way, is available from Emerson Ecologics (800-654-4432 or 603-656-9778; www.emersonecologics.com). Hawthorn Phytosome is available from Enzymatic Therapy (800-783-2286 or 920-469-1313; www.enzy.com).
Proanthocyanidins. See Chapter 7 Resources for more information.
Vitamin C. See Chapter 7 Resources for more information.
Vitamin E consists of several fractions, including alpha, beta, delta, and gamma tocopherols, plus alpha, delta, and gamma tocotrienols. Vitamin E Factor Tocotrienols, manufactured by Yasoo, delivers 68 mg of total tocotrienols, 49 mg of total tocopherols, and 50 IU of d-alpha-tocopherol. It’s available from Emerson Ecologics (800-654-4432 or 603-656-9778; www.emersonecologics.com).
Notes
Chapter 1: Menopause Puts Your Life Under a Microscope
1. Sams, J., & Carson, D. (1988). Medicine Cards, 150. Santa Fe: Bear & Co.
Chapter 2: The Brain Catches Fire at Menopause
1. Seymour, L. J. (ed.) (Apr. 1999). News from Redbook. Redbook, 16.
2. Oren, D. A., et al. (2002). An open trial of morning light therapy for treatment of antepartum depression. Am J Psychiatry, 159 (4), 666–669.
3. Van Middendorp, H., et al. (2010). The effects of anger and sadness on clinical pain reports and experimentally-induced pain thresholds in women with and without fibromyalgia. Arthritis Care Research (Hoboken), 62, 1370–6.
4. Larsson, C., & Hallman, J. (1997). Is severity of premenstrual symptoms related to illness in the climacteric? J Psychosom Obstet Gynecol, 18, 234–243; Novaes, C., & Almeida, O. P. (1999). Premenstrual syndrome and psychiatric morbidity at the menopause. J Psychosom Obstet Gynecol, 20, 56–57; Arpels, J. C. (1996). The female brain hypoestrogenic continuum from PMS to menopause: A hypothesis and review of supporting data. J Reprod Med, 41 (9), 633–639.
5. Schmidt, P., et al. (1998). Differential behavioral effects of gonadal steroids in women with and in those without premens
trual syndrome. N Engl J Med, 338 (4), 209–216.
6. Larsson, C., & Hallman, J. (1997). Op. cit. Novaes, C., & Almeida, O. P. (1999). Op. cit.
7. Benedek, T., & Rubenstein, B. (1939). Correlations between ovarian activity and psychodynamic processes: The ovulatory phase. Psychosom Med, 1 (2), 245–270.
8. Weitoft, G. R., et al. (2000). Mortality among lone mothers in Sweden: A population study. Lancet, 355, 1215–1219.
9. Taylor, S. E., et al. (2002). Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychol Rev, 109 (4), 745–750.
10. Herzog, A. (1997). Neuroendocrinology of epilepsy. In S. C. Schacter & O. Devinsky (eds.), Behavioral Neurology and the Legacy of Norman Geschwind, 235–236. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; Moyer, K. E. (1976). The Psychology of Aggression. New York: Harper &Row; Albert, I., et al. (1987). Inter-male social aggression in rats: Suppression by medical hypothalamic lesions independently of enhanced defensiveness of decreased testicular testosterone. Physiol Behav, 39, 693–698; Post, R. M. (1992). Transduction of psychosocial stress into the neurobiology of recurrent affective disorder. Am J Psychiatry, 149, 999–1010.
11. Linehan, M. (1993). Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder, 143. New York: Guilford Press.
12. Herzog, A. G. (1989). Perimenopausal depression: Possible role of anomalous brain substrates. Brain Dysfunction, 2, 146–154.
13. Ledoux, J. E. (1986). Sensory systems and emotions: A model of affective processing. Integrative Psychiatry, 4, 237–243. For a complete scientific discussion of this area, see Schulz, M. L. (1998). Awakening Intuition, 113–135. New York: Harmony.
14. Musante, L., et al. (1989). Potential for hostility and dimensions of anger. Health Psychology, 8, 343; Mittleman, M. A., et al. (1995). Triggering of acute MI onset of episodes of anger. Circulation, 92, 1720–1725. For an exhaustive listing of the scientific studies documenting the emotional risk factors for heart attack, see Schulz, M. L., op. cit. (chapter 9, 216–250).
15. Porges, S., et al. (1996). Infant regulation of the vagal “brake” predicts child behavior problems: A psychobiological model of social behavior. Dev Psychobiol, 29 (8), 697–712; Porges, S. (1992). Vagal tone: A physiological marker of stress vulnerability. Pediatrics, 90, 498–504; Donchin, Y., et al. (1992). Cardiac vagal tone predicts outcome in neurosurgical patients. Crit Care Med, 20, 941–949.
16. Heim, C., et al. (2000). Pituitary-adrenal and autonomic responses to stress in women after sexual and physical abuse in childhood. JAMA, 284 (5), 592–596.
17. Lipton, B. (2005). The Biology of Belief. Santa Rosa, CA: Elite Books.
18. Langer, E. (2009). Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility, 114–117. New York: Ballantine.
19. Schulz, M. L., M.D., Ph.D., behavioral neuroscientist and neuropsychiatrist. (Mar. 20, 2000). Personal communication.
20. Van der Kolk, B. A. (1996). The body keeps the score: Approaches to the psychobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder. In B. A. van der Kolk, A. C. McFarlane, & L. Weisaeth (eds.), Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society, 214–241. New York: Guilford Press.
21. Clow, B. H. (1996). The Liquid Light of Sex: Kundalini Rising at Mid-Life Crisis. Berkeley, CA: Bear & Co. This book comes complete with charts that allow readers to determine exactly when their key life passages will or have happened, thus allowing one to take full advantage of what might otherwise be considered a crisis without meaning.
Chapter 3: Coming Home to Yourself
1. I originally learned to do this through a process called Proprioceptive Writing, taught by Linda Metcalf and Tobin Simon. (See Resources.)
2. Brody, E. M. (1989). Family at Risk in Alzheimer’s Disease, 2–49. DHHS Publication no. 89-1569. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Mental Health.
3. Richardson, C. (2009). The Art of Extreme Self-Care, xii. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House.
4. The research of Julie Brines, a sociologist at the University of Washington who studies so-called status-reversal couples, was covered in “Excuse Me, I’m the Breadwinner.” Money for Women (May–June 2000), 16–17. Here are the data: Men whose wives earn all of the family cash spend four fewer hours a week on housework on average than do men who make just as much as their partners. When the husband works and his wife stays home, the husband spends three hours per week on housework versus his wife’s twenty-five hours. When both husband and wife work and earn equal amounts, the husband does nine hours of housework per week and his wife does seventeen hours. But when the wife works and the husband stays home, the husband spends only five hours per week on housework, while his wife spends sixteen hours per week.
5. Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Chapter 4: This Can’t Be Menopause, Can It?
1. Randolph, J., & Sowers, M. F. (1999). Research on perimenopausal changes in 500 Michigan women, reported in Midlife Women’s Health Sourcebook. Atlanta, GA: American Health Consultants.
2. McKinlay, S. M., et al. (1992). The normal menopause transition. Maturitas, 14, 103; Treloar, A. E., et al. (1981). Menstrual cyclicity and the perimenopause. Maturitas, 3, 249.
3. Munster, K., et al. (1992). Length and variation in the menstrual cycle—a cross-sectional study from a Danish county. Br J Obstet Gynecol, 99 (5), 422; Collett, M. E., et al. (1954). The effect of age upon the pattern of the menstrual cycle. Fertil Steril, 5, 437.
4. Rannevik, G. (1995). A longitudinal study of the perimenopausal transition: Altered profiles of steroid and pituitary hormones, SHBG and bone mineral density. Maturitas, 21, 103.
5. Coulam, C. B., Adamson, S. C., & Annegers, J. F. (1986). Incidence of premature ovarian failure. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 67 (4), 604–606; Miyake, T., et al. (1988). Acute oocyte loss in experimental autoimmune oophoritis as a possible model of premature ovarian failure. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 158 (1), 186–192; Coulam, C. B. (1982). Premature gonadal failure. Fertil Steril, 38, 645; Gloor, H. J. (1984). Autoimmune oophoritis. Am J Clinical Pathology, 81, 105–109; Leer, M., Patel, B., Innes, M., et al. (1980). Secondary amenorrhea due to autoimmune ovarian failure. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynecol, 20, 177–179; International Medical News Service (Nov. 1985). Evidence of autoimmune etiology in some premature menopause. OB-GYN News, 20 (21), 1, 30.
6. Sumiala, S., et al. (1996). Salivary progesterone concentrations after tubal sterilization. Obstet Gynecol, 88, 792–796.
7. Aksel, S., et al. (1976). Vasomotor symptoms, serum estrogens and gonadotropin levels in surgical menopause. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 126, 165–169; Judd, H. L., & Meldrum, D. R. (1981). Physiology and pathophysiology of menstruation and menopause. In S. L. Romney, M. J. Gray, A. B. Little, et al. (eds.), Gynecology and Obstetrics: The Health Care of Women (2nd ed.), 885–907. New York: McGraw-Hill.
8. Saliva as a diagnostic fluid (1993). Ann N Y Acad Sci, 694, 1–348; Lawrence, H. P. (2002). Salivary markers of systemic disease: Noninvasive diagnosis of disease and monitoring of general health. J Can Dent Assoc, 68 (3), 170–174; Vining, R. F., & McGinley, R. A. (1987). The measurement of hormones in saliva: Possibilities and pitfalls. J Steroid Biochem, 27 (1–3), 81–94; Boothby, L. A., Doering, P. L., & Kipersztok, S. (2004). Bioidentical hormone therapy: A review. Menopause, 11 (3), 356–367; Rakel, D. (ed.) (2003). Integrative Medicine. Philadelphia: Saunders.
9. Tai, P. L. (2008). Serum vs. saliva testing: Which one is more accurate for measuring hormones in the body? Healthy Aging, 4 (2), 67.
10. Khan-Dawood, F. S., Choe, J. K., & Dawood, M. Y. (1984). Salivary and plasma bound and “free” testosterone in men and women. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 148 (4), 441–445.
11. Massoudi, M. S., et al. (1995). Prevalence of thyroid antibodies among healthy middle-aged women. Findings from the thyroid study in healthy women. Ann Epidemiol, 5 (3), 229–233.
12. AACE medical guidelines for clinical practice for the
evaluation and treatment of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. (2002). Endocrine Practice, 8 (6).
13. Friedman, M., Miranda-Massari, J. R., & Gonzalez, M. J. (2006). Supraphysiological cyclic dosing of sustained release T3 in order to reset low basal body temperature. P R Health Sci J, 1, 23–29.
14. Hollowell, J. G., et al. (1998). Iodine excretion data from NHANES I and NHANES III. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 88, 3401–3410.
15. Jefferies, W. McK. (1996). The Safe Uses of Cortisone. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
16. Guthrie, J., et al. (1996). Hot flushes, menstrual status, and hormone levels in a population-based sample of midlife women. Obstet Gynecol, 88, 437–442.
17. Gold, E. B., Sternfeld, B., Kelsey, J. L., et al. (2000). Relation of demographic and lifestyle factors to symptoms in a multi-racial/ethnic population of women 40–55 years of age. Am J Epidemiol, 152, 463–473; Whiteman, M. K., Staropoli, C. A., Lengenberg, P. W., McCarter, R. J., Kjerulff, K. H., & Flaws, J. H. (2003). Smoking, body mass, and hot flashes in midlife women. Obstet Gynecol, 101, 264–272.
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