Exceptional! A not-to-be-missed resource! As an educator for many years, my first response to a health book is to turn to the back and look at its bibliography, glossary, index and resources. In the New Menopausal Years it accounts for fifty plus pages.
NO one can fault this book for its organization: it’s perfect. Ms. Weed is a phenomenal writer. In her quest to engage the reader, she brilliantly alludes to “uncovering, discovering, recovering the guidance of her own heart, inner wisdom and the results” of her studies. There is no hype, no instillation of fear, no manipulation, just facts. That makes her work charming and exquisite in the truest sense. The introduction invites the reader to take her hand and “walk a ways with me, deeper into the mystery as we share the new menopausal years the wise woman way.”
The book is only 234 pages. The appendix at the end is comprised of fabulous herbal references and resources, recipes, mail order herbal remedies, glossary, endnotes and an index to look up special needs. One doesn’t need any other book: this is it. The front of the book is divided into three detailed chapters. Nothing is left out.
Weed discusses the inevitable question that arises “Is this menopause?” Once that is established, she discusses issues, defining and offering remedies from a truly holistic approach: body, mind and spirit. All topics are addressed: weight gain, fibromyalgia, fertility after forty, osteoporosis, with healing suggestions for it all.
She then moves seamlessly into the herbal remedies for various situations such as hot flashes and even further into the psychological need for alone time to nourish the wise crone [wise woman] within. She taps into the huge need for conversation around the emotional issues, unlike allopathic medicine which addresses only the physiological aspects with hormone replacement therapy.
Ms. Weed doesn’t mince words. She just comes out and says it: on depression, page 111:
Do nothing….
Welcome the dark. Cherish the deepness. Give yourself over to a day or two of doing nothing.
Return to the earth. Go into your [metaphoric or real] cave. Lie belly down on the earth. Bury yourself in leaves or sand.
Doing nothing is not about denial, she writes.
When was the last time someone directed you to “do nothing” as a solution to a problem??? Brilliant!
The author goes on to dispel the myths and traditional beliefs around the pilgrimage of menopause. Again, the solutions come out of her wisdom, experience and studies…page after page after page. The solutions encompass a full range of methods: yoga, solitude, nutrition, meditation, energy work. Most of us know not to smoke. She goes further and gently reminds us why not when it comes to a myriad of other behaviors that affect our health, menopausal or not.
Words like kundalini, black cohort, kava kava, dong quai and andropause [male menopause] are defined and explained so that when the reader completes the book, she has a wealth of knowledge and a new perspective on being and healing.
This new perspective is more alive, spiritual, and inclusive of the whole body than the one spouted by traditional [allopathic] medicine. Without question, HRT [ERT =estrogen replacement therapy] is still the most common prescription for hot flashes, i.e. Premarin. There is little evidence that it remedies hot flashes and this author has plenty of alternative solutions. The good news is that less than 15% of women in American are currently using HRT. We got the message loud and clear about 7 years ago when the Harvard Nurses’ Study came out with evidence of disastrous cardiovascular effects of HRT. The selling of HRT was the marketing coup of the 80’s making billions for the pharmaceutical industries. [Selling Sickness, Moynihan and Cassels]
This book needs to be in every health library. Unless one is thrown into menopause due to medical reasons, i.e. hysterectomy, it is a slow process on the average of ten years with numerous characteristics. Ms. Weed lights the way.
Read about rage, grief, fear and be assured that these emotions are a part of being in the world as a wise woman. Then, because you are holding a guide map, celebrate being the crone that you are…already…acknowledging more to come. Menopause is not a medical condition as we have been led to believe: it is a glorious rite of passage.
About the Author...
It has taken me years to unlearn much of what I learned about psychology and health. Suffice it to say, I believe in home schooling, the work of Price, Fallon, Enig and Cowan and one's right to be happy in one's life. My husband and I live in Sunnyvale, CA with seven fabulous cats. They teach us to take a nap when the urge strikes, to eat heartily when hungry and to stretch into the new day. La Vida es Bueno!
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