Borysenko has just come out with a new book, It’s Not the End of the World, Developing Resilience in Times of Change about practicing and mastering resilience in times of crisis (she seems to have timed the publication of this book just right!) and living life with vision and purpose.  She’s also hosting a free, five-part online series on Hay House Radio, to offer “the steps you need to develop more strength and happiness.”  Her sessions include interviews with “the most influential leaders in the field of mind-body wellness about resilience and overcoming stress.”

Downloads of the first two sessions are now available on demand on the Hay House Radio website where you can register for these three remaining sessions:

• How to Let Go and Move On – Oct. 14th
• Train your Brain for Success – Nov. 11th
• Living with Vision & Purpose- Dec. 9th

Borysenko is the author of more than a dozen books  (see her page on Amazon)- and many are available as audiobooks.   I highly recommend her as a source of guidance and inspiration.

Despite my own quest for a slim torso, I haven’t read this book. But I have read and recommend the one that comes in at # 10 on Amazon’s list, The Abs Diet for Women: The Six-Week Plan to Flatten Your Belly and Firm Up Your Body for Life.  Like the Flat Belly! series, this book has its own franchise of books, DVDs and  handbooks by the author, David Zinczenko, editor in chief of Men’s Health.

What I like about this book is his explanation and guidance for a high-protein diet of six small meals each day (3 main meals with 3 balanced snacks) and a workout program that aims to “burn fat day and night.” This is accomplished, he says, by emphasizing weight and resistance training over cardio exercise,  though that is important too for weight maintenance and wellness as we age.  He just sees more value and better outcomes from circuit training in the gym over an hour on the treadmill and he includes pictures of core-strengthening and toning exercises that you can do in the gym or at home.

The Abs Diet approach is not unlike the one promoted a decade earlier by Bill Phillips in his excellent book, Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength.  An updated edition for women,  Body-for-LIFE for Women: A Woman’s Plan for Physical and Mental Transformation, was written by Dr. Pamela Peeke, and published this year.

Finally, another book I recommend is From Belly Fat to Belly Flat: How Your Hormones Are Adding Inches to Your Waist and Subtracting Years from Your Life — the Medically Proven Way to Reset Your Metabolism and Reshape Your Body. It is co-written by Genie James and Dr. C.W. Randolph, a physician who specializes in hormone balancing.

What diet or exercise books have you found to be particularly helpful for fighting menopausal weight gain?

Take their chapter on Menopause and Hormones, for example. It covers a lot of territory, including; an explanation of the controversial Women’s Health Initiative Study; mental-pause, sex and libido issues and an overview of the choices we now have for hormone replacement therapy. The best part, though, is the “chat.”  One of the authors, Janet Horn, takes hormones (she states that she loves her patch!) and uses natural progesterone tablets under her tongue. The other, Robin Miller has never taken hormones  “and never will.”  It’s a brilliant way to show that there’s more than one way to get through the menopause transition and every woman has to decide what works best for her.

They conclude this chapter on menopause with these “pearls of wisdom:”

• Don’t blame any new symptoms you have on menopause; get them checked out.
• If you’re tired, gaining weight and achy, make sure you have your thyroid checked.
• If you want to take hormones, discuss the benefits and risks for your particularly physical makeup as well as the best form for you with your clinician; and then reevaluate your decision every year.

I highly recommend this book, particularly for women who are just beginning their journey through their middle years.

If you’ve read this book, why don’t you write your own review in the comment section below.

Of particular interest to me was her chapter on brown spots and age spots.  A cluster of them have formed a big dipper constellation on one of my hands and I asked her if there was anything I could do to make them vanish.  Since I know I’m not the only 50-something woman who has contemplated wearing gloves to keep my hands pretty (or is it too late?), I’ll share her advice here.  Dr. Irwin’s own website has lots of information that you’ll find helpful too.

Dr. Irwin: I’m often asked if there is anything besides lasers treatments that are effective for brown spots on the hands. The answer really depends on how many and how long you’ve had them. The longer they’ve been there and the darker they are, the tougher they are to treat.

First, you’ve got to use a sunscreen on your hands because that’s what causes these – not age itself.  If we’d all worn little white gloves all our lives, we wouldn’t have them. I like the Colorescience sunscreen powder with the self contained brush because it’s not greasy, is quick to apply and is water resistant.

So called “bleaching creams” that are prescription and contain four percent hydroquinone (Triluma and Alustra are examples of products in this category)  are the most effective of the topical choices.  However, there is some controversy, currently unresolved, about the long-term safety of these. I’ve never seen an over-the-counter cream for this that really worked.

Unfortunately (because of the expense), a clinic that does really effective IPL (intense pulsed light) treatments is the best. Don’t go to a spa because the IPLs they use are very low power and generally ineffective. Look for IPLs made by Lumenis or Palomar with a doctor on site full-time. A series of three to five treatments should run $750-$2,000 depending on the area in which you live. Usually one maintenance treatment a year is needed.  (If you’re curious about IPLs, I’ve included a video demonstration on my website).

Note from Wendy:   I’d be interested in knowing about bleaching (or other) products that have worked for you.  Thanks!

Though Oprah has mentioned in the past that Dr. Christiane Northrup’s book on Menopause was helpful in figuring out what was happening to her, and her website offers several links to articles on the topic, Oprah nevertheless attributed all of these symptoms to thyroid disease (cured now) and the fact that her life was out of balance.  But to me, and probably every other 50-something viewer who has been through the same experience, it sure sounds like Menopause. Unfortunately, she didn’t utter the M word once during the one-hour show. What a missed opportunity to educate millions of women!

Not only are her symptoms typical of menopause, her experience over the years with physicians who focused on each individual ailment is remarkably similar to how most women are advised to manage the symptoms of menopause.  One doctor told her to reduce her salt intake. Another prescribed medicine for the heart palpitations and yet another for her creeping blood pressure.   As I’ve written here before, it’s easy to find yourself taking a handful of meds, including sleeping pills, in an effort to feel better (and help you function) during the menopausal transition. But a healthier approach to take is to look at the bigger picture, acknowledge the fact that it’s Menopause, and work with a medical professional to help balance your hormones and guide you on a journey of overall wellness. (keeping a diary of the symptoms you’re experiencing can help you “connect the dots” and see the big picture).

We all tend to behave like we’re the first woman to go through menopause when it happens to us. But in recent years, there has been more sharing of information (my goal for this blog) and a lot of good books on the subject.  Some that I recommend for Oprah and other women in the same boat include:

• The Female Brain by Dr. Louann Brizendine
• Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause, The Boston Women’s Health Collective
• Dr. Nieca Goldberg’s Complete Guide to Women’s Health
• The Wisdom of Menopause by Dr. Christiane Northrup
• Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause

If you have found other books on Menopause to be especially helpful  I hope you’ll share your recommendations here.

Dr. Northrup obviously fills a need for education about the physical changes women experience in mid-life and guidance for how to cope with them.  But I have to admit, I was skeptical about yet another book about Menopause from Dr. Northrup.  After several books and PBS specials on the subject, is there any ground left to cover?  And what pleasures of menopause can she possibly be referring to?

In Dr. Northrup’s view,  Menopause  can be the most pleasurable time of our lives due to the changes in our brain chemistry that make us more intuitive, more creative and perhaps even wiser as we age.  “Women are designed to be more in touch with what really matters to us after menopause,” she writes.

She also sees pleasure as a catalyst for good health. How? By ratcheting up the joy and pleasure in our lives (i.e. better sex, more bliss).  “Our brain and body is bathed in a constant supply of nitric oxide,”  she explains,  “an amazing molecule… that determines physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual wellness in menopausal women. It reboots your body, it’s the spark of life.”

So, how do we increase our levels of nitric oxide? With uplifting thoughts and positive thinking.  By taking pride in yourself. By understanding that sex and health go hand in hand.  By eating nutritious foods and getting plenty of exercise. By inviting pleasure into your life – all the time. By pampering yourself.  By thinking sexy, uplifting and loving thoughts about yourself and others every day. And by associating yourself only with positive people everywhere you can.

Dr. Northrup’s book offers up lots of advice and aphorisms about living a life that’s “in line with our true heart’s desires.” But it’s her in-depth explanation about nitric oxide and its effect on our well-being that makes her newest book worth reading.

What’s your opinion about Dr. Northrup’s new book? Feel free to post your own review in the comment section below.

A live online event with Dr. Northrup is scheduled on October 21st from 4pm to 6pm PDT. For information and tickets, click on the digital sign to the right of this blogpost.

I’ve been in search of diet and exercise books to find the cause as well as a cure to belly fat and I came across From Belly Fat to Belly Flat: How Your Hormones Are Adding Inches to Your Waist and Subtracting Years from Your Life — the Medically Proven Way to Reset Your Metabolism and Reshape Your Body, by Dr. C.W. Randolph.

Dr. Randolph, a board certified OB-GYN, is well known for advocating the use of natural medicine to treat women’s health concerns and he has been a leading proponent in the use of human-identical hormones to treat symptoms of hormone imbalances. I contacted Dr. Randolph by email to ask about the connection between hormones and abdominal weight gain and how hormone-balancing can help. His responses follow:

Wendy: A lot of women begin complaining about abdominal weight gain, along with sleep problems and an inability to focus or concentrate in their 40s, but because they’re still getting their periods, they don’t attribute it to menopause. When do a woman’s hormone levels begin to get out of whack?

Dr. Randolph: In a women’s early to mid-30’s, progesterone levels are the first of the three sex hormones (progesterone, estrogen and testosterone) to decline. In fact, progesterone levels decline 120x more rapidly than estrogen levels. The result is a disequilibrium of estrogen to progesterone medically termed “estrogen dominance.” Too much estrogen with too little progesterone is the culprit responsible for the more subtle (or less well recognized/diagnosed) symptoms of hormone imbalance such as sleep disturbances, foggy thinking and abdominal weight gain. Dr. Erika Schwartz explains it well in her book, The Hormone Solution: Naturally Alleviate Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance from Adolescence Through Menopause”

No, you’re not losing your mind: you’re just losing your much-needed progesterone. When you don’t have enough progesterone circulating, estrogen is the dominant hormone. Estrogen in overabundance makes you angry, edgy, short-tempered and anxious. At the same time, estrogen increases the water content in your brain making you groggy, fuzzy and unfocused.

Wendy: The weight creep experienced in mid-life seems to land (and remain) right in our abdomen. Why is this?

Actually, hormone related abdominal weight gain typically begins in the early to mid-30s, coinciding with decline in progesterone production and the incumbent estrogen dominance. Medical research shows that the average woman will gain one to two pounds each year between the ages of 35 and 55 and these pounds will cement around the waist, butt and thighs.

Estrogen dominance is the culprit. To get and keep those pounds off, it is essential the optimum hormone balance be restored via bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). To accelerate the body’s off-loading of its extra estrogen, there are foods and supplements medically proven to help the body eliminate the extra estrogen.

Wendy: What types of foods do you recommend?

Dr. Randolph: The stars of my nutritional plan are cruciferous vegetables, citrus fruits, insoluble fiber and lignans because these foods will all function within the body to reduce an unhealthy estrogen load. The consumption of cruciferous vegetables is a critical pivot of my plan’s success.

In my next blogpost, I’ll list examples of the cruciferous vegetables that Dr. Randolph suggests. If you’ve tried Dr. Randolph’s estrogen-reducing diet, let us know if and how it’s helped you.

Ripe: The Truth About Growing Older And The Beauty Of Getting On With Your Life by Janet Champ and Charlotte Moore, is not a typical book about menopause. There are no chapters on what to do about hot flashes, nor advice about losing weight. It’s more about how we handle the changes that life, age and time do to us. It’s truthful, thought-provoking and clever, which is why you won’t want to keep it tucked away with your other books.

The authors lead us on a journey of self-exploration using photographs, illustrations, quotes from women (of a certain age), lists, letters, postcards, even a mock-screenplay (“Me- The Movie”) – all meant to raise awareness, poke fun and question our and others’ attitudes about this chapter in our lives called menopause (an unfortunate name in my opinion).

My favorite chapter is “Love & Menopause – a Letter,” in which the authors write to their significant others because they’re along for the ride too, though it may be bumpy:

“Just think of me as a fun house mirror. I used to reflect you in a way that you liked. Now, well, maybe that reflection is a little funny looking. But it’s still you. It’s just that maybe you’ll see yourself differently through me for a while.”

In the final chapter, “Women, Express Thyself,” the authors leave pages blank for us, the readers, to record our own views about Menopause. The copy I borrowed from the library had this note from a previous borrower:

“It is possibility. It is a life for myself. It is the next part of life. (Your turn)”

Okay – my turn. “It’s uncomfortable, sometimes a drag, but it’s not a big deal. It’s a sub-plot, not the main story-line of my life. As my grandmother liked to say, I have bigger fishes to fry.”

Your turn.

Using case studies from her own practice, she does a particularly good job of explaining the changes that most women experience in mid-life to one degree or another (i.e. weight gain, changes in skin quality, vision and joint pain), and the problems you’re likely to bring to your physician’s attention. And that’s where she begins: how to choose the right doctor and how to be a good patient.

Dr. Goldberg covers a range of topics from urinary incontinence to breast health. But it’s her deep expertise in heart health that sets her apart from other physician-authors. She explains the connection between blood pressure and heart disease and emerging risk markers such as homocysteine, lipoprotein, and C-reactive protein that we should be aware of.

Dr. Goldberg also devoted a chapter to the gastrointestinal tract and she elaborates on the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses that are more common to women than men including Gerd (reflux disease), ulcers, and IBS. Another chapter focuses on the endrocrine system, which is particularly relevant for menopausal women. With all the research I’ve done, I still learned a lot about adrenal hormones from this chapter alone.

There are other chapters on normal skin aging, and what she calls “the keys to four-star health” (healthy eating, sleep, and exercise), but she goes beyond the superficial advice that most books on women’s health are guilty of.

If you’ve read Dr. Goldberg’s book, I’ll be interested in your opinion of it.