Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing [Paperback]

Christiane Northrup (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Northrup explores the mind/body connection from a personal, entirely female perspective. She presents the facts about the female body, its strengths and illnesses, in a clear, intelligent and caring way. She teaches us to look deep inside ourselves and heal the emotional scars that contribute to physical problems. Finally, Northrup shows ways to change the attitudes that created those scars. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Holistic physician Northrup provides women with a practical and empowering guide, relating emotional and psychological conditions at work and home to health problems.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 944 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 3 edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553384104
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384109
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 2 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (251 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #368,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christiane Northrup, M.D., a board-certified ob/gyn, is a visionary pioneer, beloved authority in women's health and wellness, and the author of the ground breaking New York Times bestsellers Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause. Her third book, Mother-Daughter Wisdom, was voted Amazon's #1 book of 2005 (in two categories). Her latest books, The Secret Pleasures of Menopause and The Secret Pleasures of Menopause Playbook, teach how to experience joy, pleasure, prosperity, fulfillment, and vibrant health.

Following a 25-year career in both academic medicine and private practice, Dr. Northrup now devotes her time to helping women truly flourish on all levels through tapping into their inner wisdom.

Through her Hay House radio show, Flourish!, her website, www.drnorthrup.com, and her monthly e-letter, Women's Health Wisdom, Dr. Northrup shares cutting-edge information about health and flourishing with women worldwide.

Follow Dr. Christiane Northrup on facebook and at www.drnorthrup.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

169 of 189 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Double Edged Sword, March 15, 2004

By 

Robin Rheaume (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (Paperback)

This is the first major book to look at women's health systematically from a holistic perspective. My sister, an ND, gave this to me many years ago. I have referred to it many times since I first read it and my friends always want to borrow it. It's a great reference.

If you are looking purely for an objective scientific book on women's health then don't bother with this. There is a lot of scientific info but there's a lot of "non-science" as well. Read the lowest reviews first which fairly summarise the weaknesses of this text. I agree that this book comes across as flaky in places however it is a breakthrough work in terms of systematically exploring the integration of mind and body and the effect of this balance on health.

While I applaud the effort to make people realise how their mental state can impact their health, the other side of that sword is that women feel they are to blame for having the "wrong state of mind" which leads to poor health.

For instance in one story a woman became infertile because, in the author's opinion, she didn't feel her husband was the right person to have children with. If you're pragmatic you can hear this story, consider if it applies to you and discard it if it doesn't fit. But some women could develop a guilt complex over something that is upsetting on its own without the added blame.

Ultimately, the problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to a vicious worry cycle: you worry that you might not have the right state of mind for good health... and then you worry that your worrying risks your health further! But to ignore this altogether also poses risk. Stress does cause disease and an integrated approach to health cannot exist without considering a person's state of mind.

Because this book provides significant medical information, the reader could be lead into taking all the author's opinions as fact. Take the opinions as just that and you will find the book enjoyable. It is informative and thought provoking.

97 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Profound and Empowering Book, November 21, 1999

By 

Becky (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (Paperback)

I am a person who reads a lot, and I learn a great deal about myself by sifting through the wisdom of writers. There have been many books over the years that have touched me deeply and positively impacted my life; of all of them, this book is probably the most personally important book I have ever read. Dr. Northrup has a lot of facts about various conditions and ailments, but her book goes FAR beyond that. Her message is that we all have the ability to be completely whole, healthy people, in every aspect of our lives, and that each of us has the power to change our own lives for the better. She talks about how emotional issues of every type can affect our physical health, and illustrates over and over again how problems in our body are actually our souls' way of teaching us how to heal and grow. The stories she tells about her own and her patients' healings are amazing; her message of hope is the most real and specific I have ever read.

120 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for healing & curing body/mind/emotion e., May 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (Paperback)

This is a compassionate, extremely well-written book that gets to the core of the physical and emotional issues related to every aspect of women's health. The idea here is NOT to instill self-blame for getting ill, but rather the issue is to instill self-love through understanding of our bodies and illnesses. Best of all, it's about health, not just illness.

This is a very empowering, healing book for women that includes the hardcore clincal data & references, the stories of actual women, and the nutritional, emotional, and spiritual aspects of healing. It accomplishes all of this in clear, easy to read laymen's terms. It helps to debunk a number of misconceptions that affect our approach to health.

This book is by and for women. This book treats women with respect and acknowledgement for what we instinctively know about our bodies and our health. Every woman should own a copy of this superb health reference source.

Dr. Northrup's appearances on PBS specials, Oprah, and others along with her leadership at the Women to Women health care center, and her past presidency of the American Holistic Medical Association, to name just a few, provide all the credibility anyone could ask for. Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, as the name implies, is about and for WOMEN. It succeeds on every level.