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An A-Z Woman's Guide to Vibrant Health
INTRODUCTION
How would you describe the state of your health? Do you wish you could say it was “vibrant”?
During my years of research into alternative medicine to help my friends and family with their health—now more than twenty—and after talking to thousands of women, I know that many women do not feel well, let alone “vibrant.” In fact, given the information that’s surfacing in the media, I would say that women’s health is under siege. Statistics in both Canada and the U.S. tell the same story.
- Heart Disease: Women’s rates of heart disease are now equal to men’s, but more women die of heart attacks. This is the number one cause of death of women of all ages.
- Breast Cancer: In 1960, one in 20 women developed breast cancer; today that figure is one in eight. In fact, breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 35 and 54.
- Obesity: Over 50 percent of women are overweight, and of these, 30 percent are dangerously obese. While obesity is rarely listed on death certificates, this “un-indicted” killer leads to countless health problems: Type 2 diabetes, greater risk for breast cancer, heart disease and stroke, as well as arthritis, asthma, depression and sleep apnea.
- Osteoporosis: One in four women has osteoporosis. Of those with an osteoporosis-related hip fracture, 20 percent will die; another 20 percent will never get out of long-term care facilities.
- Cervical Cancer: Death rates from cervical cancer are highest in women over the age of 50 because these women often fail to have annual PAP tests once they are post-menopausal. The number of women with Human-Papilloma-Virus-induced abnormal cervical cells (a risk factor for cervical cancer) is skyrocketing, yet fifteen percent of North American women have never had a PAP test. And over 30 percent of women have not had a PAP test in the last three years.
- Stress: Stress and its negative effects on the body have surpassed the common cold as the most prevalent health problem in North America. If you are one of those women who is doing laundry at midnight and then up at 6 a.m. to start another non-stop day, be aware that at some point, if the pace of your life—and the stress that accompanies it—is not reduced, your body will say “no more.” It will do this by being physically overwhelmed by all the abuse it’s taking, and letting disease take hold.
In the midst of taking care of your family, your company and perhaps the rest of the world, ask yourself, “Who is taking care of me?” You may need to re-evaluate what needs to be done (and who else could do it), learn to control the emotions that put you into a negative spiral and blind you to all the positive things in your life or simply say, “No, I can’t take that on.”
Aside from the conditions mentioned above, modern women are plagued with hormonal problems, including severe menstrual cramps, PMS, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, infertility, heavy periods and urinary tract infections, to name a few. I deal with these health conditions and more in the core of this book. Each condition is defined and probable causes and common symptoms are given. My goal is to present you with alternatives to synthetic hormones and other drug treatments. I provide the alternatives, along with the food supplement suggestions in the form of a “Prescription for Health,” followed by “Health Tips to Enhance Healing,” to give you everything you need to know to obtain vibrant health.
The “Prescription for Health” recommends only researched supplements. Most of these supplements have either double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical studies or decades of use to back up their reputations. It is important that you use nutrients that have been scientifically validated. The effects of many prescription drugs have never been researched by testing on women; I tried to find nutritional supplements that have had their efficacy proven in females.
When following the supplement recommendations in one of my prescriptions, start with those at the top of the list. You will notice that every condition requires a multivitamin with minerals and essential fatty acids. You will also note that some conditions need several supplements. Most of those are sold in multi-ingredient formulas so, although it may look daunting to take six nutrients, you will actually only be taking only one formula along with your multivitamin with minerals.
Something else I’ve learned after two decades of writing and lecturing: many of the nutrients I wanted to recommend were not readily available. After thousands of letters and requests from people, I decided to formulate a line of nutritional supplements that were high quality, free of allergens and included clinically proven ingredients. Furthermore, it was important to me to provide third-party verification of the ingredients so that people would be guaranteed that what they were buying was actually in the supplement. Some of the supplements recommended here will be from my own line, while others are from companies that I feel have top-quality formulators who use science as the foundation for their excellent nutrients.
Contrary to what some nutritionists and medical doctors insist, you cannot get all of your nutrients from the food you eat. While a healthy diet and regular exercise are essential to good health, few of us manage to achieve even those basics. And even if you do eat a varied diet of organic fruits and vegetables (seven to ten half-cup servings), wild fish, organic meats and poultry, whole grains and healthy fats and you drink plenty of clean water every day, there will be nutrient deficiencies in your diet. Our environment is polluted, and many of the foods we eat have been harvested before they are ripe, grown in soils that are exhausted of essential elements and stripped of their nutrients during processing.
If you consume the standard North American diet (no breakfast, convenience foods, snacks filled with fake sugars and trans-fatty acids, few vegetables or fruits, meats and dairy products loaded with hormones and lots of coffee or sodas), you must take a good foundation supplement of multivitamins with minerals.
I have seen the healing benefits of a complete multi-nutrient program in the health of my friends, family and readers. Fuel your body with the right nutrients, and you will be helping your body fend off disease and protect itself from the effects of stress, and supporting its efforts to rid itself of the chemicals we are exposed to daily.
I have tried to simplify the mass of information and suggestions for vibrant health and make them easy to adopt. The final step is up to you—too many women intend to take their supplements every day, but forget. Put the bottle on the kitchen table so you remember to take them with your food every day. Better yet—dish them out when you feed the entire family.
As a woman over forty with two daughters (my oldest is mother of three children), I know how important multi-nutrients are to our health. Nutrients aren’t optional—they are essential. They ensure that our hearts stay strong well into our nineties, that our breasts are protected from disease, that our thyroids function properly and that our bones don’t crumble. I’ve created this book to educate and empower you so that you will no longer suffer from many of the common health conditions (or the treatments that often go with them). As women become more educated, I trust we will demand better diagnostic procedures and treatments that “first do no harm” as they ease the suffering. The first step is for you to become an active participant in maintaining your health.
—Lorna Vanderhaeghe
PS: I have included some Self-Assessment Questionnaires and information about standard diagnostic tests and treatments in the appendices of this book. The more knowledge you have when you enter your physician’s office, the better your treatment outcome will be.
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