Tieraona Low Dog M.D. - Life Is Your Best Medicine: A Womans Guide to Health, Healing, and Wholeness at Every Age

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 womans guide to health, healing, and wholeness at every age / Tieraona Low Dog; foreword by Andrew Weil.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-4262-0961-1
1. WomenHealth and hygienePopular works. 2. DietPopular works. 3. ExercisePopular works. 4. Self-care, HealthUnited StatesPopular works. I. Title.
RA778.L68 2012
613.04244dc23

2012011775

COVER: National Geographic Photographer Rebecca Hale. Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, : (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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National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 U.S.A.

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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.

T he first time I heard Dr. Tieraona Low Dog lecture I knew she was speciala 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 Fellowshipour 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 weve spent a lot of quality time in each others company, I thought I knew Tieraona Low Doguntil 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 Tieraonas 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 womens 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.

Womens 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.