Gary Wagman - 11 Jun

YIN YANG BALANCE
FOR
MENOPAUSE

Yin Yang Balance for Menopause provides a fascinating way to customize your journey through this transition. By making fine distinctions among different body types, Gary Wagman helps to establish treatment protocols for common complaints that will really work for each individual. No more, but Im doing everything right, so why do I still feel so bad? Once you have established your yin yang body type, you can learn your physical and emotional strengths and weaknesses and how to balance them. This book is a unique addition to the body of menopausal management strategies.

WENDY WARNER, M.D., ABIHM, INTERNATIONAL LECTURER AND EDUCATOR, FACULTY AT THE INSTITUTE FOR FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE, PRIOR PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF INTEGRATIVE HOLISTIC MEDICINE, AND AUTHOR OF BOOSTING YOUR IMMUNITY FOR DUMMIES

Yin Yang Balance for Menopause is a great gift for all those experiencing menopause. It is a fresh, new, and innovative look at the normal conditions women experience during this time in their life. Based on Sasang medicine, a traditional Korean constitutional medicine, Wagman delivers a practical solution, including diet, herbs, and exercises, to remedy the effects of menopausefrom hot flashes and depression to insomnia and decreased libido. All healing is self-healing and begins with self-understanding. Yin Yang Balance for Menopause will take you on a step-by-step journey to health, well-being, and a greater understanding of yourself. I am certain that readers will thoroughly enjoy reading this book, as Gary Wagman writes in a clear, easy-to-follow, and witty manner.

JOSEPH K. KIM, O.M.D., PH.D., THIRD-GENERATION PRACTITIONER, FORMER CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL MEDICINE AT EMPERORS COLLEGE, AUTHOR OF COMPASS OF HEALTH, AND COAUTHOR OF YIN AND YANG OF LIFE

A uniquely sensitive and compassionate book that speaks to the natural healing power within our own bodies. Written from the perspective of Eastern and Western therapies, with a mind and body integrative approach, Yin Yang Balance for Menopause shows that our emotional balance is the essence of menopausal wellbeing. This profound and highly informative book is suitable for all womeneven long before menopauseas it encourages us to develop a positive perception of the changes occurring naturally within our bodies.

DIANA RICHARDSON, AUTHOR OF TANTRIC SEX AND MENOPAUSE, SLOW SEX, TANTRIC ORGASM FOR WOMEN, AND TANTRIC SEX FOR MEN

Acknowledgments

Y in Yang Balance for Menopause is dedicated to my grandmother, whose heart was filled with enough love to fill the universe. To my mother, who inherited her inner strength and raised my sister and me with profound forbearance and maternal love. To my wife, who is the sail on my ship, and my eleven-year-old daughter, illustrator of all of the meridian drawings herein, who brings joy and meaning to the journey. Without these incredible women in my life, Yin Yang Balance for Menopause would never have manifested.

My deep gratitude also extends to Karen Christensen, my editor, friend, and in many ways teacher. Her ongoing encouragement, willingness to contribute, and special way with words brought with them a spark that ignited life into Yin Yang Balance for Menopause and my previous book, Your Yin Yang Body Type. It is this spark that makes my books playful yet informative introductions to Sasang medicine.

A sincere appreciation also goes to my patients, whom I treasure as one would a family. With Sasang medicine as our navigation system, weve sailed through countless storms, only to grow stronger and healthier along the way. Not a day goes by in the clinic without a reminder of how deep our mutually enhancing relationship runs.

I would never have traveled my path in life if it werent for Lee Je-ma and his profound understanding of Eastern philosophy and medicine. As the originator of Sasang medicine, he contributed greatly to the start of a new era of self-empowering medicine. I extend this gratitude to my mentor, No Kyung Mun, for his unconditional guidance, and to my colleagues of the Yeon Kyoung Won (Society for the Study of the Classics) for capturing the essence of Lee Je-mas teaching and devoting their lives to preserving ancient wisdom.

Lastly, I would like to thank life itself for giving me the opportunity to follow my dreams.

Foreword

By Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., CNS

T he truth is, no one-size-fits-all menopause plan works for everyone. But there is a custom-tailored program that meets your bodys special needs, and it is masterfully laid out in Dr. Gary Wagmans Yin Yang Balance for Menopause: The Korean Tradition of Sasang Medicine.

Having written several menopause books and gone through The Change myself, I only wish I had had Dr. Wagmans priceless resource at my fingertips. He tackles menopausal myths, the most common menopausal symptoms, and current health challenges with the most balanced and individualized solutions for each one based upon four distinct body types. The beauty of his work lies in the realization that every one of us comes into this world with unique physical and emotional strengths and weaknesses. Figuring out your personal body type allows you to make more appropriate diet, supplement, herb, and exercise choices not just during menopause but also for the rest of your life. Based on the Korean Sasang medical system, identifying personal body type is a powerful tool in helping to treat hot flashes, loss of libido, and weight gain as well as dealing with more serious challenges like osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

I am particularly struck by Dr. Wagmans insightful knowledge of the underappreciated impact of emotions on physical well-being and structural issues. His description of a client with frozen shoulder syndromewhich he connects with the emotion of grief (connected to the lung meridian)spoke to me personally, having experienced great sorrow after my fathers death and an immobile shoulder since then. Gems like that make this book one you will want to read over and over again.

Not only are the menopausal years a time when we endure power surgesotherwise known as hot flashesand other changes in our bodies, they are also a time when many of us truly come into our own. I encourage everyone to use this book as a body, mind, and spirit guide to all with menopausal and aging concerns. Dr. Wagmans understanding of herbal medicine and its application is particularly extraordinary.

It is my hope that this book will empower women from adolescence to the menopausal transition to continue the self-health and self-improvement movement that has changed the way we view and now treat menopause. Attention to proper diet, exercise, lifestyle changes, and what the body is actually telling us will make the journey into midlife a time of great freedom and renewed energy. The postmenopausal years should be the time of a womans life free of child rearing and responsibilities that is rewarded with nothing but good health. As Margaret Meade put it, The most creative force in the world is a menopausal woman with zest! Certainly keeping our bodies in biochemical balance is a lifetime adventure that will ensure our passage through each stage of life is filled with zest. The time to repair is now, and with Dr. Wagmans expert advice by our side we cant help but sail through menopause and into a second spring.