Life Is Your Best Medicine: A Woman's Guide to Health, Healing, and Wholeness at Every Age

231 Pages·2012·1.12 MB·English

by  Tieraona Low Dog M.D.

Published by the National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Copyright © 2012 Tieraona Low Dog. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part
of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Low Dog, Tieraona.
Life is your best medicine : a woman’s guide to health, healing, and wholeness at every age /
Tieraona Low Dog; foreword by Andrew Weil.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-42620961-1
1. Women–Health and hygiene–Popular works. 2. Diet–Popular works. 3. Exercise–Popular
works. 4. Self-care, Health—United States–Popular works. I. Title.
RA778.L68 2012
613′.04244–dc23
2012011775
COVER: National Geographic Photographer Rebecca Hale. Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, this
page: (cookies) Nikola Bilic/Shutterstock; (beef) Stuart Monk/Shutterstock; (chicken) Senol
Yaman/Shutterstock; (eggs) Valentyn Volkov/Shutterstock; (cheese) Nattika/Shutterstock;
(yogurt) Africa Studio/Shutterstock; (fish) Andy Lidstone/Shutterstock; (shrimp) Richard
Griffin/Shutterstock; (vegetables, nuts, legumes) Mandy Godbehear/Shutterstock; (spice in jar)
Madlen/Shutterstock; (olive oil) Valentyn Volkov/Shutterstock; (man running) Flashon
Studio/Shutterstock; (man biking) Olly/Shutterstock; (woman practicing yoga) Yuri
Arcurs/Shutterstock; (wine) drKaczmar/Shutterstock; (water) artjazz/Shutterstock.
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Interior design: Melissa Farris
v3.1
To the women who gave me the courage to follow my own
medicine path:
my grandmothers, Josephine and Jessie;
my mother, Vivian;
my teacher, Juba;
and my beautiful daughter, Kiara.
Your strength and love flow through me, inspiring all
that I do. I am forever in your debt.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword by Andrew Weil, M.D.
Preface
Part I. T M M L
HE EDICINE OF Y IFE
Part II. H B
ONORING THE ODY
Breath
Food
Movement
Vitamins and Minerals
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Herbal Medicine
Sleep
Illness
Part III. A S
WAKENING THE ENSES
Touch
Sight
Nature
Smell
Garden
Taste
Hearing
Music
Part IV. L S
ISTENING TO PIRIT
Humor
Relationships
Words
Forgiveness
Animals
Play
Meditation
Resiliency
Epilogue. CONTENTMENT
Acknowledgments
Foreword
he first time I heard Dr. Tieraona Low Dog lecture I knew she
T
was special—a charismatic and caring physician with an
unusual breadth and depth of knowledge. It was 1996, when
we were both on the faculty of a course on botanical medicine
for health professionals offered at Columbia University. I had studied
botany before I went to medical school, and this has long been a field of
particular interest to me. For many years, I recommended herbal
remedies to patients with good results, but I had met very few doctors
proficient in the use of herbs and other natural treatments. Listening to
Dr. Low Dog was exciting. I marveled at her boundless energy and
enthusiasm and was in awe of her ability to cite innumerable research
studies from memory. I thought to myself, “I would love to work with
her.”
Years later my wish came true when Tieraona joined the faculty of the
Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. She assumed the key role of
Director of the Fellowship—our intensive training program for doctors,
nurse practitioners, and medical residents. She soon became an
outstanding leader and beloved teacher. We now frequently share the
podium to teach about medicinal plants, culinary herbs and spices,
dietary influences on health, and other topics that we both enjoy. We
also work together to design and formulate innovative natural products
to promote good health.
Because we’ve spent a lot of quality time in each other’s company, I
thought I knew Tieraona Low Dog—until I read this book. Life Is Your
Best Medicine is not only a comprehensive and highly practical guide for
women seeking optimum health, it is also Tieraona’s own life story,
sparkling with the wisdom she has drawn from it. I had no idea of all the
adventures she had and the diverse experiences that made her the
person she is today. The title of the book conveys the essence of her
teaching: Your own experience is an invaluable and trustworthy source
of information about how to maintain health as you go through life and
deal with the common problems you encounter.
Until very recently, the medical profession excluded women, and even
when medical schools began admitting them, the profession remained a
male-dominated guild for a long time. Male physicians, often
paternalistic and authoritarian, told female patients what to do, and
women did not question their prescriptions. For most of the 20th
century, they rejected herbs and natural therapies not covered in
conventional medical education, dismissed many female complaints as
hysterical or psychosomatic, and promoted dangerous treatments, such
as hysterectomy for minor uterine problems and hormone replacement
therapy for every menopausal patient. They most certainly did not
encourage women to take charge of their bodies and health and be
guided by their life experience.
Ironically, women are much more health conscious than men in our
society. They take better care of themselves and are more likely to seek
professional help for symptoms that demand attention. Women are the
chief buyers of books about health and self-care, and women’s magazines
have been major outlets for information on these subjects. Over the past
few decades, women have led the consumer movement for holistic and
alternative medicine, because they are more open than men to natural
therapies, mind/body interventions, and the healing traditions of other
cultures. That consumer movement, which is still gaining strength, laid
the foundation for acceptance of integrative medicine.
Women’s health risks and concerns are different from those of men.
The female reproductive system is more complex than its male
counterpart; more can go wrong with it, and the array of hormones that
regulate its function strongly affect other organs, including the brain.
Women are much more likely to develop autoimmune diseases and
depression. As the caregivers in our society, they are subject to greater
and different forms of stress. Because women have been mostly excluded
as test subjects in research studies, gender differences in responses to
drugs are significant, and in many cases, unknown.
For all of these reasons, women need special guidance about
maintaining health as they journey through life. They need to know
about effects of lifestyle choices, the influence of diet on disease risks,
the importance of regular physical activity, and ways to protect their
bodies and minds from the harmful effects of stress. They also need to
know when and how to use preventive medical services, when to seek
help from conventional doctors, and when alternative treatments and
natural remedies may be appropriate.
This book answers those needs. Dr. Low Dog is a trustworthy source of
information that she has gathered from her academic studies as well as
her life experience. I can think of no one better qualified to guide
women to health, healing, and wholeness at any age.
Andrew Weil, M.D.
Tucson, Arizona
April 2012