For many years, millions of women entering menopause in America were prescribed Premarin or Prempro without much question. Premarin, a mixture of estrogens derived from the urine of a pregnant horse, and Prempro, a combination of horse estrogens and synthetic progesterone, served to replace the human sex hormones that naturally taper off in perimenopausal and menopausal women — primarily estrogen and progesterone. The rationale for taking synthetic hormones was not only to quell women’s menopausal symptoms, but for their perceived ability to protect women against heart disease, build stronger bones, maintain youthful skin, and support healthy brain function. But when data from the Women’s Health Initiative study were first made public in 2002, both healthcare providers and their female patients were shocked to learn that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was not as protective — or as safe — as they had once assumed. (more...)

Watching Natalie Morales crack jokes with Matt Lauer or sprint across the Today show set in her pencil skirt and high heels, you'd never guess that the fresh-faced TV host (and mom of a newborn and a 5-year-old) has a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call and is lucky to grab three hours of uninterrupted sleep at a time. Sure, caffeine helps. But it takes a whole bag of sneaky tricks to look this flawless when you're running on empty. Read on for her foolproof beauty routine. Eat a healthy breakfast "I feel better all day if I start off by eating healthy. Breakfast is simple: multigrain toast with natural peanut butter, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, or healthy cereal. I avoid refined sugar—can't risk the crash—and stick to honey and agave. During the show I nibble on fruits and veggies; I may have a doughnut, too, but I try to avoid them. That and a good dose of Al Roker's humor and I'm jazzed for hours." (more...)

We’re all familiar with stress — it’s a constant element in women’s busy lives. But what we aren’t so familiar with is the body’s response to stress and the ways in which the stress we face today goes far beyond the kind of stress we faced as we evolved — and ends up depleting our energy and health. When faced with a stressful situation, our bodies rely on the adrenal glands sitting atop our kidneys to monitor our “fight or flight” response. For the most part, our stress response evolved from short-term events — crises that came and went. If we had to run from a predator, for example, our healthy adrenal glands responded by releasing adrenaline, which makes us more alert and focused, and cortisol, which converts protein to energy and releases our stored sugar, glycogen, so our bodies have the fuel needed to respond quickly. In concert, the adrenal response rapidly increases our heart and respiratory rates and blood pressure while releasing energy, tensing our muscles, sharpening our senses, and slowing our digestion so we are primed to escape or fight back, whichever is needed. When the threat is gone, the body returns to normal — quickly with respect to adrenaline levels, less quickly with respect to cortisol. (more...)

Without a doubt, eating well and having optimal nutrition is the number-one strategy for creating lifelong health, regardless of your starting point. You may be highly conscientious and diligent about your diet, or you may be in despair about your nutrition and miles from reaching your goal. Or, you may be “good” one day then wobble or fall down the next. Whatever the case, this section of our site is all about how to make nutrition and eating well the cornerstone to your health foundation. As much as my patients know they should eat well, the concern that looms largest for them is their weight. Whatever their age and station, most women care deeply about what they look like. It is unfortunate, but in the minds of many, their figure is not their friend! As a consequence, women “do battle” with their weight, adopting any number of extreme and unhealthy patterns over the course of their lifetime to keep things “in check.” (more...)

In communicating with the plant molecules in herbal therapies, your body can oftentimes get what it needs — and only what it needs. Instead of slamming the system with large doses of medication — what I call the sledgehammer effect — your cells talk to the plant molecule upstream of the disease process to communicate what and how much they need. We call this an adaptogenic effect, meaning our bodies can respond to and use plant molecules in various ways, depending on how much and in what proportions we have of our own hormones on board and how smoothly we’re regulating and metabolizing them. So there is an astounding back-and-forth dynamic between plant cells and human cells that a man-made substance could never mimic. (more...)

When my family and I were in Belize a few years ago, we went on the howler monkey tour in the low-lying tropical rain forest for which Belize is famous. What I found so amazing was that our tour guide knew which trees and plants cured which disorder by watching the monkeys. He would say, “Oh that one must have diarrhea, that one must have indigestion, this one is having trouble sleeping.” We’ve shared this intuitive wisdom about medicinal plants with our primate cousins since the dawn of the ages, but only recently have we in the United States begun to reawaken to its power. Today, scientific advances are providing a much better understanding of why phytotherapy works and the quantity and form of the plants that act most reliably and safely. (more...)

Single Knee Pull: To Stretch Your Lower Back and the Back of Your Legs Start by lying on your back, with your hands at your sides. * Gently bring your right leg to your chest. * Grasp your right leg under your knee with both arms. * Hold your right leg to your chest, and count to five. * Slowly return your right leg to the floor. * Gently bring your left leg to your chest. * Grasp your left leg under your knee with both arms. * Hold your left leg to your chest, and count to five. * Slowly return your left leg to the floor. * Repeat this set of movement 3-5 times.