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Christiane Northrup, M.D. Looking Beyond Fear
Christiane Northrup, M.D., is an obstetrician-gynecologist renowned for her innovative work in contemporary women's
health. Her treatments combine conventional and alternative medicine with an innate trust in woman's intuitive wisdom. Dr. Northrup has popularized her theories through appearances on "Oprah" and PBS and in her best-selling book, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom. Read more about Dr. Christiane Northrup.
Dr. Northrup was a chat guest on PlanetRx.com on October 28, 1999. This is an edited transcript of the interview with Dr. Northrup.
PRx Host :
We welcome Dr. Christiane Northrup, who is chatting with us tonight from her home in Yarmouth, Maine. Dr. Northrup, your lectures sell out, your four PBS programs are immensely popular and your book Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom is a best-seller. What are you saying that resonates so deeply with women in this country?
Dr. Northrup :
I'm saying what they've already suspected, and that's why these books are popular. Women all over the country have told me that they have felt these same things, thought these same thoughts, but didn't think anybody else did, and they especially never heard them coming from a doctor.
PRx Host :
What exactly are you referring to?
Dr. Northrup :
I'm referring to a sense women and many men have about how our thoughts and our emotions and our spirit impact our health.
PRx Host :
When you speak of women listening to our intuition, how is this related to healing?
Dr. Northrup :
Our bodies are actually designed to work best when we are happy and creative and following our dreams. So our intuition is that inner voice which is translated through our emotions and that tells us when we're on the right track towards living our dreams and when we're off-track.
PRx Host :
How do we learn to listen to our intuition? How do we know that what we believe is a message from our body really is?
Dr. Northrup :
This is tricky, because by the time an acute disease has manifested itself, you've been thinking the thoughts that have gone with this for a very long time. As I have often said, if the emotions associated with this, and the message associated with this were easy for you to hear, or easy for you to act on in your own life, you wouldn't get the physical condition! You see?
That's why, when you have something already physically in your body, to truly heal a problem at its roots, I advocate using, at the same time, the best of conventional medicine combined with alternative medicines that are safe and effective. You have to look at and be willing to be with the emotional patterns that are associated with that illness in the first place.
Let me give you an example from my own life. I had a large fibroid in my uterus. It started in 1992, and I finally had it surgically removed in 1997. I intellectually knew that fibroids were associated with some kind of blockage in creativity, and you can interpret that as broadly as possible. They are often associated with dead-end jobs or relationships. It took me until a full year after the fibroid surgery to understand how many dead-end jobs and relationships (or aspects of them) I was really in.
So insight from your inner wisdom is sometimes the last thing that happens. You don't need to figure this stuff out today, tonight. You need to open up a channel to receive this information, because illnesses do not happen randomly, and they don't just land on us. And believing that they do is to put yourself in a powerless position as a victim, which I consider one of the most unhappy and unhealthful positions you can ever be in. This does not mean that you cause your illness in any conventional sense, because if you knew better at the time you got the illness, you wouldn't get it!
I consider illness as a guidance system. One of my patients told me that she was in an auto accident and ended up staring at the ceiling for three months. She said, looking back, that her life was way out of control and moving so fast that it was perfectly appropriate for her to stare at the ceiling for that time. This is not what our culture teaches us. So I'm asking men and women to access a whole different part of themselves that exists, called intuition, which exists without having statistics and data for proof of its existence. In a way, it's a leap of faith!
PRx Host :
Do you draw a line between external things affecting our health (such as the environment) and internal things (fears, emotions)? Do you believe that any illness could be caused only by something external to our bodies?
Dr. Northrup :
Yes, I believe that it's always a combination of both. Given that it's a combination of both, I need to talk about a universal law known as the law of attraction. It is "like attracts like," and one of the easiest ways is "misery loves company," or "birds of a feather flock together." That's the law of attraction.
So, now, it's cold and flu season, right? If you are constantly terrified of getting a cold or flu, and you read everything you can think about what strain of flu the CDC has vaccines against for this year, and a friend has a cold and you are constantly focusing on who has a cold or when you have been exposed, then chances are good that you will "catch" a cold! We have medical studies that show that in an experimental setting, in which they sprayed a cold virus in the nose and throats of volunteers, only a certain percentage ever came down with a cold! A percentage of the people not likely to get a cold were the ones who had the most diverse social support. Optimum was four sources of social support (people at work, hobby group, church group, etc.).
Our immune systems and their health -- and therefore how readily we will get cancer or get a cold -- are affected profoundly by our sense of safety and security in the world. Every day we are bombarded by the media with reasons to be afraid, even though 99.9% of the time we get home at night, and our phone works, the heat goes on, and there's nobody who's tuned in to this chat who has to monitor their own oxygenation or blood pH or kidney function. In other words, that's all going on beautifully without any conscious input! That's how nature has set up our bodies: to function beautifully! Unless we scare ourselves to death, which is what our culture tends to do! (LOL)
PRx Host :
Related to that is another question that involves fear. Rosie O'Donnell was on our chat last night, talking about breast cancer. There is such fear around breast cancer. What do you recommend, both regarding fear and for possible prevention? How important is progesterone in breast cancer prevention? Soy products? Insulin and blood sugar? Exercise?
Dr. Northrup :
All of those things are important, but the most important thing is to change your perception about how dangerous breast cancer is, how likely breast cancer is. Most women, if you do health surveys, the majority of them are most afraid of breast cancer. Ask "What's your #1 concern?" and it's breast cancer. Heart disease and stroke are more serious than breast cancer. That heart disease and stroke will claim more lives is not focused on as much. They will claim six times more lives than breast cancer. These diseases are almost completely preventable, but notice that instead, like the bogeyman in the night, we focus on something over which we perceive we have no control.
I believe that there is a kind of smokescreen that keeps women stuck, so that, as a gender, we stay out of touch with our power to change the conditions of our lives. If you remain paralyzed by the fear of breast cancer, you're not a threat to the status quo. We have very good evidence that women who exercise 3-6 hours per week have a 30% less chance of breast cancer. Isoflavones are hormones in soy that prevent breast tissue from being over-stimulated from estrogen. Studies have shown that they can be protective against breast cancer, and in women who've already had breast cancer, these same substances will often relieve symptoms of estrogen deprivation such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness, urinary frequency, mood swings, and thinning of the skin.
Now, in another way, other than soy, a diet that keeps blood sugar and insulin levels normal, which is a diet rich in low-glycemic-index carbohydrates and protein, creates a metabolic environment that also helps protect against cancer of all kinds.
Natural progesterone is a hormone that in many studies appears to be protective against breast cancer. No woman, however, should do something that she hates doing just to protect herself against breast cancer, because that puts her into the martyr archetype. The martyr archetype is precisely the pattern that anyone who's afraid of breast cancer needs to identify and remove from her life. My prescription is to do more of those things that you love to do, to find friends to do these things with, and to remove those people, places, and things from your life who make you feel guilty.
PRx Host :
Another audience question that I know many viewers are interested in.
nrhine :
I hear so many swirling and contradictory messages about menopause and whether to take estrogen or not. Nobody seems to agree. What do you recommend to women approaching menopause?
Dr. Northrup :
There are more options around menopausal relief than there have ever been in history. That's because, for the first time in recorded history, women in droves are actually living beyond the years of menopause. The baby boomers are a group that is physiologically/biologically younger at menopause than we've ever been. And we want to stay that way.
So, given that there's good reason why some women could use a little dab of estrogen and others shouldn't, here's my basic approach: If you have had a hysterectomy with your ovaries removed for a benign condition, and this has happened before menopause, then you have undergone a surgical instant menopause. This is NOT natural. You need hormone replacement! If you have gone through premature menopause before the age of 40, this is also not natural, and you could use hormone replacement. If you have a family history of a disease, then you might well need hormone replacement because the data is so good that estrogen promotes nerve-cell growth in the brain.
Many women don't need conventional hormone replacement. If you do weight-bearing exercises, if you're having almost no symptoms, and if you have family history in which the women live into their 90s or beyond and are completely healthy, then chances are you don't need hormone replacement. Here's what I would suggest instead for almost anybody: exercise, exercise, exercise. Keep the carbohydrates in your diet very, very low. We know that Egyptian mummies were actually fat [from consuming] (refined carbohydrates). The older you get, the higher your chances of developing diabetes and other disease of insulin-resistance. You can't expect to stay healthy eating loads of white bread, white pasta, cakes, cookies, and mashed potatoes.
There are many supplements that work beautifully. I personally use soy-protein powder every day. You want to shoot for 100-180 mg of soy isoflavones per day. This has been shown to have beneficial effects on the brain, the bones, the heart, and the skin. There are other herbs available, like cohosh, and many other herbs that have been used for hundreds of years for menopausal symptoms. These are widely available and are covered in my book, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom.
If you're taking hormone replacements, you should get a baseline hormone level check, so that you are taking only as much as you need. This can be done through checking hormones in the saliva. Many women get overdoses of estrogen. The symptoms of this are sore breasts, weight gain, headaches and bloating. If you are on estrogen, it should be balanced with natural progesterone. Provera is synthetic progesterone. It increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. I do not recommend it. Unfortunately, it is one of the major ingredient of Prempro, one of the most commonly prescribed hormone replacement regimens on the market. Instead of Premarin, made from the urine of pregnant horses, women would be much better served by taking bio-identical estrogen, which is widely available in all pharmacies. Natural progesterone, in the form of a 2% skin cream, has been shown to reduce hot flashes by 85%, using as little as 1/4 teaspoon anywhere on the skin daily. This is available in any health food store.
PRx Host :
This helps sort through the confusion, and along with other menopausal women, I thank you. Another question:
lucypage :
Is soy "milk" as good as soy powder?
Dr. Northrup :
Soy milk generally doesn't contain the concentration of soy isoflavones that soy powders do, but it totally depends on the soy powder. There's a huge variation in strength. Most women will not get any change in symptoms on just one or two servings of soy milk per day. It's just not strong enough.
lucypage :
Is there any correlation between estrogen supplements and breast cancer or colon cancer?
Dr. Northrup :
There's a definite correlation between estrogen replacement and breast cancer in some studies, but there are other studies that don't show a correlation. I'm not certain about the colon cancer. I wouldn't be as worried about the colon cancer, but taking regular doses of soy protein reduces the risk of colon cancer.
PRx Host :
We were told earlier this week that obesity is a national health problem. Weight, health and self-image seem to go together. Camryn Mannheim, after trying unsuccessfully to lose weight, accepted her body as it is. What about weight and health?
Dr. Northrup :
In cultures in which weight is seen as a good thing, or a normal thing, like in Samoa (one of the Polynesian islands), there is no correlation between high blood pressure, heart disease, and other diseases associated with obesity. In this culture, however, we have such an aversion to excess weight that one can hardly walk down the street without being conscious of body size. This difference between the Samoan and American culture and its effect on our health is an example of how culture affects us. Weight is not always a health risk. If your blood pressure and cholesterol are fine, and you're physically active and exercise, then you can certainly be healthy at a larger size.
mixednut :
What do you recommend for severe cramps? Why is it that some women experience such bad pain with their menstrual cycle?
Dr. Northrup :
Many young women follow a diet that is high in refined carbohydrates and loaded with dairy food. The first thing I would recommend to stop cramps is to stop cheese and ice cream. I would also stop other dairy foods, although cheese and ice cream seem to be the worst. Acupuncture can help cramps enormously. It's actually an imbalance of what is known as prostaglandins in the uterus, and there are many, many ways to alleviate them. The main thing is that young women shouldn't suffer in silence. Many, many approaches are available.
PRx Host :
You say that love has a chemistry, and that it truly impacts our bodies. Can you elaborate on that, please?
Dr. Northrup :
We know that when we are in a state of loving someone we actually feel it in our hearts. The heart has an electromagnetic field surrounding it that is 60 times bigger than the electromagnetic field of brain waves in our head. When we're loving someone, or appreciating someone, we literally exude an energy that uplifts everyone in the room.
More than that, our bodies then form a chemical known as oxytocin, the hormone of human bonding, that actually makes us feel better and is relaxing and promotes health. When we're in a state of gratitude, our heartbeat is more regular, our blood pressure goes down, and the heart, in that state, actually calms and heals every cell in the body!
PRx Host :
Would you share you daily morning ritual with our viewers? It's lovely; I'm adopting it!
Dr. Northrup :
Every morning, I get up and I take a walk, and then when I come back, I sit down and turn on some kind of beautiful music. And I write down everything that I appreciate, and if I can't think of anything, then I appreciate the fact that my feet are warm and that I have enough money to pay my bills that month. What happens is that this exercise gets us in the state where our heart is open, and you actually begin to heal your cells. The more you do this, the healthier you become.
When you begin, it always feels "pollyanna," it always feel silly. You'll think, "I have more important things to do." This is probably the most important thing you can do for yourself all day. If you're having a bad day, stopping to do this can turn things around, but if you possibly can, write this stuff down in the morning. It's like chaos prevention. It sends out an energy stream in front of you that seems to draw positive things into your life by that law of attraction we talked about earlier. It's cheap health care! LOL.
PRx Host :
Thank you! These are wonderful ideas! You speak in-depth in your book of our society having an addictive system? What do you mean by this?
Dr. Northrup :
We live in a society that tends to deny the truth of our experience. For example, a little child may be told, "You don't hate Uncle Harry, you like him. Give him a hug!" So, a child's perceptions and emotions are denied and, instead of teaching children that our feelings and emotions are part of our inner guidance, we teach them to be out of touch with what they know and what they feel. It takes a lot of energy to be out of touch with what you know and feel, and it creates imbalances in brain chemistry over time, because it's associated with too many fight-or-flight hormones, such as cortisol and norepinephrine or adrenaline.
In order to balance these stress hormones in our bodies, we eat foods or drink alcohol or do any number of things to increase the "feel-good" hormones in our brains, such as serotonin and beta-endorphin. Because our bodies were designed to work best when we feel good, we'll go to any lengths to get those feel-good hormones back in our brains and bodies. So we use risk-taking behavior, refined carbohydrates and sugars, alcohol, over-work, even vacuuming compulsively, so that we can feel better about ourselves but also stay out of touch with our pain.
The only way out of this vicious cycle of "quick fixes" is to have a sense of a higher purpose in our life, a spiritual connection, and to live a life in which your behaviors promote your sense of self-esteem and personal worth. Twelve-step programs like AA or Gamblers Anonymous are based on the greatest spiritual principles of all religions. If you follow this approach, regardless of your religion, it works, and you'll balance your brain chemistry permanently in a positive direction.
DolS :
How does arthritis connect to one's emotions?
Dr. Northrup :
Arthritis can be thought of as constant little irritations, and that's why every one of us, by age 80 or 90, will have changes associated with some arthritis in our joints or in our spine. It is a kind of wear and tear of daily life. Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease, and that's not the same thing as osteoarthritis.
PRx Host :
What is your vision for the millennium for women's health? And what are you doing now in your own work?
Dr. Northrup :
My vision for the millennium is that women's health will actually be about women's health, instead of fear of our bodies and diseases. Instead of women's health equaling breast cancer awareness, women's health will become a celebration and an acceptance of the profoundly meaningful processes of the female body, such as menstruation, pregnancy and birth, breast feeding, and menopause. Therefore, what I am doing now is devoting my life's work to educating women about how to turn around the health-destroying beliefs we've inherited about our bodies from generations of women. Because, until we accept the wisdom of our bodies, we won't be able to do anything except scream about disease or wait until it happens. My work is about teaching women and men the principles that they can apply starting right now to create healthy minds, bodies, and spirits, so that we take back our own power to create health, and therefore find ourselves using doctors far less than we do now.
PRx Host :
You have offered us such helpful, hopeful insights, Dr. Northrup! Thank you for being a guest in our chat, and we do hope you'll join us again.
Dr. Northrup :
Thank you very much!
More About Dr. Christiane Northrup
Christiane Northrup, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist, is a pioneer in contemporary women's health, integrating new technologies and natural remedies with the body's innate healing abilities. Trained at Dartmouth Medical School and Tufts New England Medical Center, Dr. Northrup has more than 20 years of clinical and medical teaching experience. She currently teaches at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and was formerly the president of the American Holistic Medical Association. In 1986, Dr. Northrup co-founded Women to Women, an innovative, holistic healthcare center for women in Yarmouth, Maine. Her best-selling book, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, puts forward her theories of mind, body, and wellness unity, covering everything from common health conditions to how to get the most from your healthcare provider.
Dr. Northrup has been featured on four National Public Television specials: "Women's Bodies, Women's Minds: The Mind Body Connection"; "Women's Bodies, Women's Choices"; "Your Diet, Your Health"; and "The Wisdom of Menopause." She is a popular speaker, teacher, and workshop presenter, as well as the editor of a national women's health newsletter, Health Wisdom for Women. To learn more about Dr. Northrup's life, work, newsletter, videos, and speaking engagements, visit www.drnorthrup.com.
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