contribute even two or three times a year, especially when they're inspired by a program like this one that really speaks to you directly. now, when you call or contribute online, we have a great group of volunteers that will help you select a great thank-you gift. they can explain how you can use the yoga for arthritis dvd with more than 95 minutes of home workout programs for your $60 donation, or how listening to peggy cappy's soothing voice on her stress relief cd can help you achieve true relaxation. so give us a call right now, contribute online, but help you to help yourself. call right now. >> well, peggy, one of the people that we meet in this special is a man named bob, who was quite an athlete when he was younger. and i was really very surprised that he developed arthritis. are young people today in all their sports and athletics setting themselves up for arthritis later? well, we think of arthritis as an old person's disease, but what we're finding is that

anytime a joint is injured, has trauma to it, or overuse, it has the potential to become arthritic. and so what we're seeing as that with the active sports that people are experiencing today, sometimes... like bob. he was a sophomore in high school, and that one event had repercussions for his whole life, so that by the time of 40, he was really, really in a lot of pain and discomfort. >> i've heard stories about young children who play soccer or, you know, lots of different sports, and they get injured. and i'm wondering if this program would help them if their parents were to add this yoga to their exercise routine. would that help? >> i think yoga is valuable for everybody, and it's something that can be learned and then practiced on your own. i think it's so valuable because it teaches you how to begin to listen to your body, to your mind, to your whole being, and develops an appreciation for how the movements work in the body. >> do something wonderful for

yourself. help yourself right now, help this station, and give us a call. here's laurie with more. >> thanks, anne. you know, i have to tell you that peggy dramatically changed my notion of yoga. you do not have to bend like a pretzel to do yoga. in fact, i had the privilege of going to one of peggy cappy's classes in peterborough, new hampshire, and i was right next to someone who was 89 years old, and she said, "laurie, you can do this." and i tell you, i did. whether it's standing tall leaning on a chair, sitting in a chair, this is yoga that you can incorporate as part or your daily routine. and i think the thing you have to do is stick with it day in, day out. go to that phone, make a membership pledge of $60. we would love to send you the easy yoga workout. call right now. there's a great group of volunteers, and they're standing by for your call. thanks.

>> the physical aspect is very important in yoga. but what happens over time when someone practices yoga is they come to see that the benefits for the mind are perhaps more profound than the physical benefits. and the physical benefits are pretty remarkable. in the beginning, you notice the physical changes that are really beneficial. but over time, you notice that "ah, something else is happening. i have a better ability to focus, better ability to bring myself into the present moment rather than worrying or having anxiety about the future, or feeling overwhelmed by past experiences." another important aspect is it helps develop balance and harmony through all the systems of the body. so it promotes health on the physical aspect, but the mental

aspect is just as important. >> it helps me with balance, which is an issue for me. and i've also felt that yoga has become a part of my reflective meditative side of my life in a way. that this whole business of concentrating on the breathing and being aware of one's body and noticing changes after activity and so on has given me a new kind of awareness. i'm sure it has to do with health, but it's also just interesting to live with. one of the things that yoga helps with is... makes you aware of the relationship between what you're doing physically with

your body and and what's going on in your mind. so sometimes i connect my head with the rest of my body. and it's interesting when you just think in terms of the breath. that's two ways, right? breathing in, you might say, breathing in. i think in some way, what does that say to me about the concept of love? what does it say when i breathe out, right? then if you have two or three things and you're going through a series of motions and you're still... then you're still exploring, say, faith, hope, and love, and each one comes with a different bodily motion at a different moment. and you say, "ah-hah. i just spent some time exploring

what these words mean." >> in addition to the physical benefits, there are emotional benefits that yoga provides. yoga is one of the greatest stress relievers that i know. and there are components of yoga that really help deal with emotional trauma and strain. and slowly down to the left. yoga is a great antidote to stress. and stress is not a friend of people that suffer with arthritis. as you feel stressed, what happens is that you tense up your muscles. you get really tight. and that tension then creates more pain. pain creates emotional disturbance, and then the more upset you are, the more pain you create. and it's a cycle that just continues. all of us at one time or another, and some people more than others, feel run by our minds. the mind's constant chatter seems like it seldom slows down. and for many people, it's

actually hard to be in the present moment, to be aware of what's happening. deep breathing itself is known to bring about decreased blood pressure. and with better breathing, sometimes it even affects sleep. people sleep better once they're doing a yoga program. i began yoga... i had the good fortune to begin yoga when i was only 21. and as a result of my very first yoga class, i knew this was something i would do for the rest of my life. and coming from that place for myself, having that experience myself, that's what kind of drives me in my teaching. i want... i love teaching first- time people. i want people to have that great first experience with yoga so that they too know that all of the benefits are theirs. >> i think one thing about yoga is that there's a more calming effect, perhaps a little more

peaceful... i'm more peaceful with myself, and a little more at ease. >> he liked it. he liked, i think, being able to move again. and he stayed with it. and so for the past ten years, he's faithfully done yoga probably two to three times a week. and the changes are nothing less than miraculous. >> meditation and yoga is your life. there is no separation. yoga is almost like a cultural feeling. when you come into contact with yoga, it affects all parts of your life. i felt like i had found somewhat of a spiritual home base. allow the energy to flow. and after about three months of really just doing the breathing with her, because i wasn't strong enough to do the

gentle stretch exercises, but just doing the breathing, i found a great reduction in my pain. in the mornings, i do get up and i meditate. not for long. just about ten minutes. and i do my own personal practice first thing in the morning. and it's usually a fairly quiet practice. and it has... it's a flowing practice, just to get the juices flowing. i knew... when i went to that yoga class, i knew i wanted to know more. i knew i wanted it to be part of my life for the rest of my life. i also knew that it filled a spiritual gap that i had, and that i'd been searching to fill that gap for quite a long time. >> i just think that yoga has kept me in the best of health. and i'm so thankful for that.

it has made such a difference in my life. people can't believe that i walk with my shoulders back. my balance isn't always the best, but that comes with age. i just can't say enough about yoga and what it's done for me. and people say, "but, oh, i can't do that now, you know, i'm too old for that." and i keep telling them that "well, you'd be surprised. and just let me know when you want to go. i'll take you." yoga is my life. and i don't think that i would ever miss a day of it. and so it's one of the most important things i do every day. >> yoga is my life. i feel very alive and healthy. i look at people my age, and some people just seem like they've given up, that they

really aren't very comfortable in their body. and i feel tremendously vital. i feel young and full of energy, enthusiasm, and i attribute a lot of that to yoga. >> it's allowed me to find my true self, which is really the goal of yoga, to find the light within yourself, but to find your true self and be confident in that, and in the decision of being yourself. and then you find that people are just fine with that. >> so what helps you have a good yoga practice? first of all, yoga poses that are safe and effective. second is a well thought-out program. third is being able to practice from home. and another factor that i think people often neglect is you can invite a friend over, or do it

with a family member. and then there's a social component to the yoga as well, where you just really enjoy taking care of yourself with somebody. >> peggy leads the class with her heart. she's very aware of everyone in the class and their needs, and while she directs the class, she can very discreetly give adaptations out. and she knows exactly who they're for, and so do we. but it never feels like, "i don't think you can do this, so do it that way." it's always a choice, and it's always a wonderful way that she enables us, everyone, to be able to do yoga. >> sometimes people are hesitant to start yoga, because they feel like they don't have time in their lives, or they feel like not only are they too busy, but they just can't fit in an extra moment to spare.

if someone feels like that they're going to benefit even more from a yoga practice. other people say they're too tired for yoga, they don't have enough energy. and it's precisely for that reason that they should begin. tremendous energy is released internally, and you end up feeling so much better and have more energy and endurance for the other daily activities. my recommendation is for you to focus on what you want. you want a better body. you want to move with more ease. you want to be able to enjoy the activities in life that you've always loved. turn the torso, come into side facing warrior. bend that knee. and by adding a little yoga to your day, you bring about a sense of ease on every level of your being. i think we live in an instant culture where we're used to having instant results. with yoga, you don't need to be afraid that you're moving too slowly.

in fact, i encourage you to slow down, to not expect results overnight. but you will see those results very soon. >> i think yoga means to me... it's more of a... it's a lifetime learning for me. i'm hooked on it now, and it's something i can do for the rest of my life. >> the beauty of this yoga program is that anyone can do it. and what i mean is i've provided three different variations of the poses. you can do the yoga from a seated position, you can do the yoga with the support and aid of a chair for balance and alignment. or you can do the yoga as a preventative to ward off any problems. my students hear me say all the time, you hold a yoga pose as long as it remains comfortable and steady. if it's no longer comfortable or steady, time to come out and just be with the conditions that you've created in the body

and be with what your needs are. i myself come from a family that has arthritis all over. not only my mother and grandmother suffered from arthritis, but now my sisters and my brother also complain. one sister i've shown stretches to, and she said they make all the difference in how her hips feel throughout the day. >> you're elated for one thing you know? you just have this feeling... you feel so much better, and everything's moving okay. voile. >> i think for sure i would suffer from arthritis had i not been doing yoga my whole adult life. from time to time i have a little twinge, and what i do is just rededicate myself to the poses and activities that i know are going to benefit the circulation, benefit the joint and in no time that twinge is gone. >> don't wait. do it now. you're never too old. >> when things might get

difficult, it still is a process that lifts my mood. if i am having any frustration or sadness, i get on that mat, or i go to a class. go to a class with people. it's important to go with people too, not just the personal practice. and it will lift your mood as it lifts your body. >> yoga is such a very important part of of my life, because it enhances my well-being on every dimension. it also puts me in relationship with the cosmos, with the universe, in a way that is very important to me, where i extend the idea of who i am to a bigger picture. yoga for me, and the philosophy, helps me understand about the mystery of life, and have

appreciation and really awe for the fact that we are alive. and by the practice of yoga, i found my life's purpose. such a beautiful program, peggy cappy. thank you. this was an inspiration, and i hope that it's going to inspire you to go to the phone right now and support this public television station, and also do something really wonderful for yourself. because the dvd is just such a treasure trove. and tell us about some of the things that make it different from anything else. >> this dvd is different, as are all my programs, because i start with a warmup. and this one has warmup for the whole body, but then one specially for the hands and wrists. and it's important because i was trained as a dancer early on and a dancer would never not honor the body by warming up before going into a combination. and so i use that gentle approach. but what's interesting is that so much can be worked in in the

warmups themselves. we use both halves of the brain, so it's a brain exercise, as we sometimes do figure eight movements, or infinity symbol movements. >> well, this would be great for somebody who suffered from stroke, or... >> i learned that information from someone who did suffer from a stroke, yeah, so it's very good. >> that's fantastic. and then there are 95 minutes of workout programs on this dvd. so you can do this in the comfort of your own home. go to your phone and support it right now, won't you? thank you. >> thanks, anne. you know, peggy created this special because she wanted to help alleviate the symptoms of the leading cause of disability in the united states. but i think the tendency is when you feel pain, do nothing. but the fact is, you need to move. and i'm telling you, the best way to move is go to that phone, get off the couch, make a wonderful membership pledge of $60, and we will send you the dvd. this dvd includes the broadcast show you just saw. but what you will love is it also includes 95 minutes of home

workouts. there are three varieties of poses that you'll see. you can do it standing, you can do it seated, and you can also do it just holding onto a chair. you will love this. trust me-- a few sessions and it will dramatically change your life. so go to that phone, make a pledge right now, and we're going back over to anne. >> thanks, laurie. pbs helps you follow your individual passions, like the people in the yoga for arthritis program that you've just seen. we offer ideas, models, advice and practical guidance to help you discover your place in life. you can explore the really big issues, like identity and religion, or you can learn a hands-on skill. we're here to provide resources to inspire everyone to realize their inner potential, and lead fulfilling and enriching lives. support quality public television today. here are ways that we can say thanks when you do. >> with one out of every three adults suffering from the pain of arthritis, it may be time for you to join the thousands who

have made yoga a way of life. when you contribute $60 to your public television station, we'll send you the easy yoga for arthritis dvd with our thanks. >> it's made me more flexible, more able to do everything i want to do. >> the dvd includes the 40-minute program you've been enjoying, and more than 95 minutes of home workout programs. learn safe and effective ways to reduce pain and increase your mobility. it's the perfect introduction to yoga for those challenged by arthritis or the stiffness that comes with age or injury. >> i've been able to still consider... pursue hiking, walking, golf, things of that nature. so yoga has helped restore some of my life's activities that i used to enjoy before. >> you too can change your life. and for your $100 donation we'll send you the easy yoga for arthritis dvd and peggy cappy's deep relaxation for stress cd. give us a call now, or

contribute on our secure web site. >> the yoga poses help bring increased circulation to the joints, and that's very important. it's kind of like the motor oil for the body. >> when you think about it, one in three people have arthritis and yet only one percent of them are actually doing something beyond taking medications. we wanted this show to inspire you to get off that couch, do gentle easy yoga for arthritis. for just five dollars a month, you can make a $60 contribution, and we will send the dvd right out to you. you will love it. more than 95 minutes of home workout with three varieties of poses-- seated, standing, or holding a chair. or why decide? let's have the $100 dvd and cd gift combo. you will love this. this will teach you to relax. and this is the program that you can follow every day for the rest of your life. so go to the phone right now. we've got great volunteers standing by, and right now we're going back over to anne and

peggy. you know, peggy, one of the things that i found so heartwarming and so inspiring in this program is to see these people who started off not being able to do anything, and they seem to be getting so much better. what are the cumulative effects of doing yoga? >> well, personally i think we're all getting younger by doing yoga. but there is something that happens. once you start taking care of yourself and you start feeling better on every level, then you'll be able to think about your family in a way that takes care of them. and soon it's you're thinking about your community, and finally the whole environment. and we're really attuned to the needs of our planet today. and i think it starts first with being able to take care of yourself, and to give yourself the nurturing and the care and the support that your body needs to be its best so that you can go forth and do whatever your passions lead you to. >> you know, and this sounds exactly like what we're actually doing here by creating programs like this and showing them to people and sharing with them

what they can do, how they can make their own lives better. so when you're watching these programs and then you're calling and you're making a donation and asking for the program for yourself, you're going to get so much better and so much stronger, but so is your community, because you're supporting public television. this is why you've come to public television for all five of your specials. >> well, it's my passion to do yoga, and it's my passion to teach yoga, and that's what i can do this way. >> so pick up the telephone and give us a call right now, and give your support. here's laurie. >> you know, public television is different from other businesses. in fact, you know, it might be easier to think of it more like a co-op, because everyone has a stake here at the station. some of our funding comes from sponsors, another portion comes from the corporation for public broadcasting, but, you know, the bulk of it comes from you, our viewers, who make annual financial gifts. it's worked this way for decades, and what we like best about this model is there's really a sense of ownership and responsibility that it gives to you, our supporters. so please consider what you can

do right now. get started with a gift of just five dollars or ten dollars a month, whatever is comfortable for your pocketbook. but help contribute and help support programs like the one you are watching right now. the volunteers are standing by and we are waiting for your call. back over to anne and peggy. >> if you're not a member, what are you waiting for? think about all the wonderful programs that you watch on your public television station and how much you depend on it day after day, year after year. you always know that you're going to walk away from watching public television feeling better than when you tuned in. so check your membership card. if you are a member, maybe it's time to renew. if you're not a member, join now, and do something that's really good for you. when you call and contribute just $60, we'll send you this wonderful dvd. and this program that you've been watching will be on that. it's the 40-minute broadcast program that is that inspiration, and helps you reconnect with all those people whose stories are

so inspiring. and then you'll get 95 minutes of the home workouts. this is something that you can do all by yourself or with a friend at home. so go to your phone, give us a call, and support us right now. can we talk? i want you to go to that phone right now and do yourself a favor. make a membership pledge of $60, and we would love to send you the easy yoga for arthritis dvd. you will love this. this will be a lifesaver in your life. there is more than 90 minutes, a home workout session. and what i love about it, it's designed in seven sections, so you can do them all at once if you really feel like it or you can take them two sections at a time. the other thing that is terrific is that depending on your level of ability, you can do it standing up, you can do it holding onto a chair, you can do it sitting down. the most important thing is in our busy lives, we need to take time for ourselves. we need to make ourselves feel better. and i think this dvd can really help. so go to that phone, make a

pledge right now, and back over to anne and peggy. >> well, i hope that you've seen now that you really can do something to help your arthritis symptoms. but peggy, if there's somebody out there who's hesitating about taking on yoga, what would you say to them? >> i would say that... karen's line of, "what have you got to lose?" it's such a simple thing you can do to get this program. become my student. do yoga with me. i'm passionate about what yoga can do for you. so get the dvd, do it with a friend. if you want a family member to do it, do it with them. just do it. >> i think that's very, very important, that there's somebody in your life who you know would benefit from this program. and you can have some quality time with them at the same time. so bring it over to your mom-in-law, or your father- in-law, bring it to your athletic friends, do the workout, make yourself stronger, make your community stronger, and make your public television station stronger by donating it and supporting right now. go to your phone, we'd love to

hear from you. thank you. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs.

this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. one-size-fits-all medicine, where you take this pill and "you'll be fine, ma'am," is obsolete. it's over. ob-gyn physician and best-selling author christiane northrup has revolutionized the way women think about their bodies and their health. the good news is that the menopausal transition is an exciting developmental stage that changes you at the core level. with cutting-edge medical advice she offers guidance to midlife women on diet, stress hormone therapy, and sexuality. so i want to give you five guaranteed ways to lose weight. now join dr. northrup as she invites women

to transform the second half of their lives. watch "menopause and beyond -- new wisdom for women" next. [ cheers and applause ] dr. christiane northrup is a leading expert in women's health issues today and is a pioneer in mind-body medicine. ahh, it's great to be here. now, why am i doing this new show? i did a show called "the wisdom of menopause" that was carried on many pbs stations back in '99 and also wrote a book called "the wisdom of menopause," based on, actually, that first public television show. and at that time, i was in the middle of the process and was writing the book and thought i better get it all down while it was still fresh in my mind. and since that time i've been to the mountaintop,

and i have come down the other side, and i can tell you that the news is good -- really, really good. [ laughter ] here's what we do know. there's been a huge amount of research since that time, and what we know is that one-size-fits-all medicine the "father knows best" version where you take this pill and "you'll be fine, ma'am," is obsolete. it's over. [ applause ] and the way you're going to be able to create vibrant health at midlife and beyond is to get good information, like you're going to get here and then run it by your inner guidance, your gut this inner wisdom that each of you has. the good news is that the menopausal transition is an exciting developmental stage that changes you at the core level.

it is designed to heal all the unhealed parts of you. that is the wisdom of menopause. that's why i call it that. there are no mistakes. this is not just a bunch of raging hormones meant to torture you. this is a huge birth canal. and by the way women have this hormonal change that's very obvious, and our periods get wacky and all the rest of it. but i swear to you, men go through the same thing. and for the men in the audience, this material is equally relevant to you, except the stuff about the hot flashes, all right? it's equally relevant so pay attention. this is a birth canal where you reinvent yourself at the deepest level. and when i did the show on mother/daughter wisdom, you may remember that i used the house as the metaphor for the self -- women dreaming of houses all the time. and the first stairway of your life is from your mother's womb to the first floor of your house. and then up to the second floor of your house

is this birth canal that is perimenopause okay? the stairway to the second half of your life. and it sets the stage -- this period of time sets the stage for the rest of your life. this show is called "menopause and beyond -- new wisdom for women." there's a lot of beyond. i was talking to an 89-year-old friend. she said "i like that 'beyond' part. i like that." all right, here's the deal. the cdc now announces that the average life expectancy for a white woman in the united states is 80.5 years, and for a black woman or hispanic woman, 76.1 years. the difference is because black and hispanic people have been socially disadvantaged and also economically disadvantaged. they are also genetically more likely to get certain diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. now, one of the fastest-growing groups in the nation are centenarians, those who are 100 and above,

and those over 85. the other good news is that the gender gap is closing, so men and women are starting to live equally long, which i consider really good news. it was 7.8 years difference in 1979 and it's 5.3 years difference in 2005. now, by the way the men who live the longest are the ones who hang around with good women. all right? now, the good news is, old age does not need to be synonymous with disability and disease. what you want to do is die young as late as possible. [ laughter ] and we know -- you know this -- 50 is the new 40. 60 is the new 50. i also think that 20 is the new 10. that's why there are so many baby boomlet kids still living at home. anyway, i don't think i'm gonna hit my stride till 65. i mean, that's probably the beginning,

you know, of the real thing. and i know that's the same for you. now, let me give you some definitions 'cause people are a little confused about this. perimenopause just refers to the stuff that's happening in the ovaries and the brain between, say, 40 and 52, plus or minus 5 years either way. i mean, there's no set time -- "oh, i'm perimenopausal." we don't know when that is. for some people that isn't even till 55. and then menopause is your final menstrual period. that's all menopause is. got it? menopause -- final menstrual period -- average age, 52. the problem is, you don't know what that is until a year after it's over. and you think -- right? and you think you're done. and you think you're done. "i'm done. i'm done." and then, "oh, hi." so it's a retrospective diagnosis. postmenopausal is everything beyond menopause, okay? so i'm a postmenopausal woman. i'll bet some of you are postmenopausal

women. that's all it means. so i've got it in my head that that's old. but that's not how i feel. it's not how you feel. it's not how you look. we're not gonna do that. perimenopause, the menopausal transition, is a crossroads. one road says "grow." one road says "die." and it feels like the end. many of you may feel as though things are coming to an end. it's like a death of sorts. at the turn of the 20th century in 1900 the average life expectancy was 40 -- was 40 so it does feel like the end. your periods start to change and so on and the first grandchildren were born, and you died. and now that's not happening anymore. it is true that the incidence of chronic degenerative diseases increases at midlife. and those are things like high blood pressure heart disease high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, emphysema, dementia, cancer. but these things are not inevitable. that's what i want to get across to you.

these are not inevitable. i don't care what your parents had. but i do want to note where we stand currently. and these are some statistics from the "go red" campaign of the american heart association. only 13% of women view heart disease as a health threat even though it's the number-one killer of women. cardiovascular disease kills nearly half a million women a year -- about one per minute. 1 in 4 females and 1 in 4 males in the united states suffers from a form of cardiovascular disease. cardiovascular disease claims more lives than the next six most common causes of death combined. heart disease rates in postmenopausal women are 2 to 3 times higher than in premenopausal women of the same age. coronary heart disease is the number-one killer of women over the age of 25. 64% of women who died suddenly of coronary heart disease

have no previous symptoms. 1 in 2.5 women will die of heart disease or stroke compared with 1 in 30 from breast cancer. that's why we have all these hearts here. i want to remind you that what's required at perimenopause, at midlife, is a change of heart. you need to have this change of heart if you're going to prevent these diseases -- very, very important point that i want to make. the "go red for women" heart association motto, which i love, is "love your heart." isn't that a great motto? it's not, "fight for something," "run from something," "kill something," "have a war on something." no, it's "love your heart." and one of the things you have to do is confront genetic determinism and that is this belief we have which is completely erroneous, that you are gonna get heart disease

because your parents had it or it's in your genes. my whole family had it, and i'm not gonna get it. i have changed those things that have led to that, you see. so you need to each look at any brainwashing you have about heart disease or any other disease. in studies of twins -- identical twins, exactly the same dna -- 70% of what those twins get is related to their environment not their genes. 70%, and by the way your environment includes your thoughts and your emotions. that's the most important part of your environment, 'cause that's what leads to everything else. so at midlife, i want you to reinvent your life. you've got to reinvent yourself and you have to fuel your life not from what other people think, but from your soul, from source energy, what you really want to do. and i want to give you some wake-up calls so you kind of know where the work lies, all right? this is where the work lies and what needs to be done.

if any of you had or have pms premenstrual syndrome the issues that come up for you premenstrually -- those aren't because of raging hormones. yes, hormones are involved. food is involved. caffeine is involved. but it's really all the things that you haven't wanted to see or know come up and hit you between the eyes premenstrually. then if you don't pay attention during the monthly cycle, then seasonal affective disorder will come up and hit you during the fall of the year -- boom. and then there's another little hormonal wake-up call -- postpartum depression. those women with postpartum depression are far more apt to suffer from pms and seasonal affective disorder. when these feelings come up premenstrually that we blame on the raging hormones don't resist them. they have important messages for you. they are the pain body. i want you to think of them as the pain body

that you're bringing up collectively to heal. you're bringing it up in you so you can heal. it's not you. it's your pain body. now, miriam greenspan, who wrote "healing the dark emotions," writes, "befriending "and mindfully surrendering to our most dreaded emotions, we discover the heart's native intelligence." you can handle these emotions. you can handle what comes up. but first you have to be willing to feel it. and by the way, if you haven't paid attention to pms postpartum depression or seasonal affective disorder guess what you get to suffer through -- perimenopause, the mother of all wake-up calls, okay? now, i want to explain to you how that works. the annual -- or the monthly cycle is...there. thank you. when -- at the dark of the moon, women tend to menstruate

and have their periods at the same time. and by the way, how they say it's always darkest before dawn -- 4:00 a.m. is the number-one time when women start to bleed. it's darkest before dawn, all right? and then you go -- you have your period and then estrogen starts to build and you go into this outer cycle of inspiration and outward activity, where women are more likely to fold the towels and take care of the children and be interested in what i call giving birth to someone or something outside of themselves. and then they have ovulation. you see the full moon and that's when waitresses report their biggest tips. then, if you do not get pregnant, then you go into this inward, inner reflection stage, when you are preparing to give birth to something from deep within yourself. our society, for approximately 5,000 years or more, all of written history actually --

that doesn't mean all of human history, it just means all of written history -- has not been particularly supportive of women giving birth to something coming from deep within themselves. and so we sort of beat ourselves up during that time. and so, right around just before our period when that pain body comes up, all the persecution stuff and all of that we call it our raging hormones, and we call it pms when in fact it's actually premenstrual truth-telling. and if you take time to rest and if you take time to do something that you love to do you will find that your pms symptoms will disappear. however, you get about 400 chances to do that work from the age of, let's say, 13 till the age of 40 or 45 or so. if you don't do it or there's still cleanup to be done, then all the stuff that you haven't done each and every month to give birth to something from deep

within yourself that will come up premenstrually. it's sort of like the first half of your life, when you were doing things for other people, the outward things -- the first half of your life is like the top part of the cycle. so all of you who are in perimenopause think of yourself as -- in the life cycle, you're at ovulation. okay? you're like, "hmm." you're at ovulation. you're preparing to move into the second half of your life, which has to be fueled from your soul. now, do you know how hard this is? this is hard because you have been trained, all of you, to do things for other people so they will love you. "if i fold the towels you will love me." "if i make you this certain kind of dinner, you will love me." "if i cut my hair this way you will love me." all right? but all of that has to go away if you're gonna stay healthy in the second half of your life and you have to love yourself.

i don't know what you might have read out there on the street that you can stay ageless forever. well, that isn't exactly true because your brain changes. and here's what's happening and i find it very exciting. you move from a pulse at ovulation, of fsh and lh. these are neuropeptides -- follicle stimulating hormone luteinizing hormone -- goes like this. okay, this is ovulation and then it goes down. every month, maximally receptive to cross-pollination reading books, other people's ideas, this and that -- down. up, down. up, down. but when it's all over, after it's all over, folks -- and remember, perimenopause is a process that lasts anywhere from 6 to 13 years. so this is -- okay, sorry. [ laughter ] it is not an event. it's a process. but at the end of it, you move into -- i love this -- the fsh and lh levels stay up.

and i believe it's one of the ways that our brains wire in wisdom. they stay up at that same level as ovulation your whole life. [ cheers and applause ] okay, so i want you to take maximal advantage of that. and, okay it doesn't feel so good while you're going through the thing because all the stuff that needs to leave your life will start to go away -- breakdown to breakthrough okay? it's important, really important and i'll tell you more about it. but first i want to give you a program to help your midlife heart wake up, all right? so first of all, i want you to know the facts about heart disease and cholesterol. okay, the numbers. check your numbers. find out what your lipid profile is. find out what your blood pressure is. but you need to know something. this is really important in today's climate. high cholesterol is not a disease. did you hear me? high cholesterol is not a disease. let me tell you what causes heart disease -- oxidized ldl.

that's the low-density lipoprotein, the so-called bad cholesterol. there's no such thing as bad and good, but that's just how we do it. by the way, 50% of heart attacks occur in women with normal cholesterol. this is important and i want to tell you there's too many women who are getting put on statin drugs when their cholesterol is just 200 or 205. it would be better for you if you knew your total cholesterol divided by the hdl -- the happy cholesterol the high-density lipoprotein -- and the ratio should be four or less. so i want you to each check on that. but statin drugs have some major risks and they include memory loss, problems with muscles. there's all kinds of things because statins decrease a naturally occurring antioxidant called coenzyme q10 that's necessary for cellular energy in your heart, your muscle, and your brain. so, as with all drugs it's imperative

that you check on what alternatives there might be. just be a really good informed consumer. so that's one -- know your numbers. two -- exercise. you know what exercise does? this is interesting. it changes endothelial function. every blood vessel in your heart is lined with endothelium which is a very active tissue. and exercise actually increases nitric oxide in those blood vessels that gives them vasodilatation -- better blood flow. same principle as how viagra works but exercise does that in your heart muscle. now, what we're recommending is that people try to walk 10000 steps a day, and get a pedometer. i want you to know that's hard to do, so start small. maybe 2,000 a day -- start with that. but a pedometer a little cheap one it's very motivating to check at the end of the day and see how you did for steps. so that's one thing to do. paul dudley white is the father of cardiology -- lived in boston, invented the e.k.g.

machine -- and he said "i have two physicians -- my right leg and my left leg." [ laughter ] now, the key to a sustainable healthy lifestyle is learning caregiving where you include yourself in those who are getting care. this is what leads to burnout -- you don't include yourself. now, i use the breast-feeding model of healthy caregiving. and here it is -- if you are a breast-feeding mother, you have to be well-nourished and have enough fluid, and you have to be rested in order to produce enough milk for your baby. now, when you produce enough milk for your baby you nurse the baby, and you produce all this prolactin that opens your heart. it's the bonding hormone makes you feel really good. the baby feels good. the breast-feeding relationship feels good. the baby's happy. you're happy. but if you are stressed out, if you have no nourishment whatsoever, you're not including yourself and that breast-feeding relationship does not work.

it's the same with any caregiving you do. self-sacrifice actually equals increased risk for heart attack and everything else -- self-sacrifice, okay? i had a friend whose doctor gave her a prescription and he wrote on it, "visit your mother only twice a week." [ laughter ] now, that would work if someone's got a difficult relationship with their mother or anyone else where there's a difficult relationship. i want to give you some examples of self-sacrifice so that you know, because i know some of you are participating in this and you don't even know it. all right, getting a degree that you don't want, a college degree that you don't want and your heart's not in it. going along with someone else's plan for you, whatever it is. maybe a vacation to go boating, and you get seasick but going along with it because you know, daddy wants to go. another example of self-sacrifice is leaving a relationship with a totally self-absorbed person

who you couldn't do right by but then beating yourself up because you weren't able to hold it together. does that sound familiar to anyone? okay. my brother-in-law phil says, "you've got to remember what's talking -- the tongue in your mouth or the tongue in your shoe." what do your feet want to do? all right? yeah. [ laughter and applause ] the other thing you have to do -- you've got to give up perfect. this is the time of your life right there at that ovulation the full moon of your life, when you're gonna give up perfect and that includes the expectations of others. "i'm gonna have a perfect table. i'm gonna have a perfect house. i'm gonna have a perfect office." i wish i had a graphic of my office, because if you all saw it you would feel instantly better. we have piles and piles of paper and unread journals and it's just a mess, and it goes

on and on and on. you got to give up perfect. you've got to reframe selfish. so when you reframe selfish which just means include yourself, expect to feel guilty. and then you need to get support for self-care. get a bunch of girlfriends together. women are the best midwives in the world. get a bunch of girlfriends who will just support you for getting a pedicure. all right? get girlfriends to help you. lose the friends who criticize you. and then, finally, ask for help. we're here to serve. a psychic once told me this. you're here to serve, but you're not meant to be the main course. [ laughter ] now, i want to end this section with a story about me at midlife just climbing that hill of perimenopause. all right, so it's about i'm still having periods. i'm in the middle of it. i'm in the middle of a divorce, and i went from a household of five to just me in six months

and it was the dead of a maine winter. and i was dreadfully alone, with 7 feet of snow, it felt like, outside of the house. and i remember thinking "ahh, this is the crucible that i have been writing about but now i have to go through this." and later that summer my youngest daughter went off to camp the oldest stayed in the college town where she is, and i was doing what many midlife women do. i was redoing the house. the house is the metaphor for the self. i was going to home goods. i couldn't get enough of it. and then my daughter went off to camp, i had all these fantasies of how it would be when she came home. and we would be together. and wouldn't this be wonderful? so i go to pick her up at camp and she falls asleep, and she's in the car just sound asleep the whole way home. my fantasy of how it was going to be when we got together. and when we got home she ran in the house -- she was 16 at the time -- and started calling all of her friends.

and i'm in the car, and i have to unpack the car and i am totally and completely alone and i develop chest pain. i had chest pain. my heart was breaking. my heart was breaking because my life as i had known it was going away and everything that i knew was really leaving. and i was buoyed up by a quote from joseph campbell, which i'll share with you. "we must be willing to get rid of the life we had planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us." i want you to know there's an enormously wonderful life waiting for you but you have to be willing to get rid of the life you had planned. when we come back i'm going to tell you how to avoid middle-age spread and how to balance your hormones with diet. [ applause ]

lyn may: hello, i'm lyn may and we're so happy you've joined us to watch this public television station's presentation of dr. northrup's program, menopause and beyond - new wisdom for women. now, in just a few minutes you'll be able to meet dr. northrup and my colleague babette davidson, who are here to give you even more great information about your health and well-being. now, as you've been watching you may be thinking that you'd love to have a copy of this program for your own home library, and we will be telling you how you can make that happen. but first, i just want to remind you that we're called public television because you are such a key partner in making terrific programs like menopause and beyond happen. the viewers who contribute to this public television station are the heart and soul of pbs. shows like this give us the opportunity to explain how you can support this station if you haven't do it yet that is. and, of course, we always express our gratitude to you with lovely thank you gifts

which you'll be hearing about shortly. but right now, let's join babette and dr. northrup. babette davidson: we are so happy you are here! i feel like i'm talking to a friend, because i have watched this is your sixth special for pbs. dr. northrup: yes. babette davidson: and i feel like i know you, you've helped me so much in my life. thank you so much for choosing pbs. dr. northrup: thank you. babette davidon: as your home, why, why, why us? why are we so lucky? dr. northrup: if i do regular television commercial television what i find is i get um fifteen seconds to say what i want to say maybe a minute. on public television i can actually give you more than a sound bite to be able to show you what i know in a program like this, so that i can help people like you and you have told me that you've benefitted your this and that. babette davidson: amazingly i'm so much happier. dr. northrup: right. babette davidson: it's pretty good. dr. northrup: so i mean, i consider public television a real gift, a real gift to everybody. babette davidson: well we think it's a gift you're involved and you choose us and you're on the air and

this is your sixth special because of people who have called. dr. northrup: that's true. babette davidson: those wonderful members just like you, who watch the shows and then call in with your support. babette davidson: so you've put these together especially for our viewers and members. dr. northrup: yes. babette davidson: tell us, sort of walk us through what we have. dr. northrup: ok, so we have the book, you know the wisdom of menopause. which is this big. babette davidson: the hefty. dr. northrup: the hefty big compandion that tells you all about bio-identical hormone replacement, heart disease and so on, we have the dvd of the program. we have the menopause the wisdom of menopause journal, what i love about this i put this together very specifically, so that women could um, document cholesterol levels, weight, blood pressure

so you'd have it all in one place as a snapshot, now, we just ended that one, um, segment where i told you that story about having chest pain and the daughter babette davidson: yes, oh gosh. dr. northrup: and guess what, it gets better, i mean i want you to know it gets better. if you do this you'll have a, uh document that says ok this is how i might have been feeling at that moment, but not anymore. babette davidson: i'm here to tell you that all of these thank you gifts will make a difference to to you or the women in your life that you love. narrator: with your financial support this pbs station can continue to bring you programs with dr. christiane northrup. we'll say thank you for your gift of $50 by sending you the menopause journal, this is a great tool to help you start writing your own life story. you contribute $90, we'll send you the dvd of the program you're watching. this dvd includes an exclusive bonus feature with dr. northrup on mid-life, sensuality and sexuality. for your $100 gift, you'll receive

the new york times best seller, the wisdom of menopause, dr. northrup's landmark book on which this program is based. the pleasures of menopause mix is our special thank you gift collection for a generous $300 contribution. this fabulous package includes the menopause journal, the dvd with the exclusive bonus feature the wisdom of menopause book plus a two cd audio track of this program, which includes bonus material and you'll receive a beautiful second book the secret pleasures of menopause playbook. you'll relish and relate to the stories advice and wisdom that dr. northrup has collected from women just like you. we welcome any financial gift that feels right for you, what's important is your support. please call and thanks. lyn may: when you make a financial contribution to

this public television station we want to say thank you with some materials that will continue to help you explore the information that's been presented by dr. northrup. we have contribution levels to match everyone's pocketbook and we welcome your support in any amount, whether it's 5, 50 or 500 dollars. when you call and make a financial investment in this station at the following levels we are delighted to send you an array of thank you gifts created by dr. northrup. babette davidson: chris we're going back to the program in just a moment, but quickly you were telling the story about your daughter in camp, i was on my way to a gym class and my daughter said, but mom i need to talk to you right now and i said well i have a class, she said mom you're being so selfish. dr. northrup: ah! babette davidson: so i recognized that story. dr. northrup: yea, absolutely and you have to put yourself first maybe for the first time in your life, if you're going to get through this and not get one of the chronic degenerative diseases that is so common once you hit menopause. remember, it's not inevitable, but common,

and i don't want that to happen to you babette davidson: that's right. dr. northrup: it's not happening to me. babette davidson: well the exercise is so important, and in the next segment you talk about 10, 000 steps and some of the things that we can do to stay healthy. dr. northrup: absolutely your health is in your hands, it really doesn't matter what the governments doing, what your health insurance companies doing, sorry, your health is in your hands. babette davidson: which i like because that's what you do, you are empowering us to make different choices. dr. northrup: right. babette davidson: and we are empowering you as viewers of this station to give us a call and let us know this is the type of information you want on your pbs station. if you've already made that call thank you so much, if not there's plenty of time to pick up the phone. [ cheers and applause ]

okay, part two -- menopause food plan -- how to balance your hormones and prevent middle-age spread. all right. here's the pearl of wisdom from this particular segment. most menopausal symptoms, including midlife weight gain and all chronic diseases can be managed with diet and exercise alone. really, yeah. okay, the symptoms of the midlife metabolic shift that so many of you are familiar with is what i learned in western canada. they call it the muffin top where your abdomen... [ laughter ] see, you all know what i'm talking about. okay. the inability to lose weight, and all of this -- and then that sort of change in your body from the pear to the apple, and your shoulders get a little fat and you say "how did this happen?" or you weigh the same but your shape has changed. okay, all of this starts years before -- all of it. but it reaches critical mass at midlife. [ laughter ] and here's the stuff that happens.

there's the rapid change in hormones and it increases in stress hormones. and the stress hormones are cortisol and adrenaline. and those are increased from lack of sleep, fatigue, worry too little exercise, and too many refined carbohydrates, and that includes alcohol -- sorry -- wine, all right? now, almost all chronic degenerative diseases like heart disease, are associated with insulin abuse and glycemic stress. "glycemic" refers to glucose in the blood. you've heard of hypoglycemia, right? okay, that's low blood glucose. "glycemic" means the stress in the inside of blood vessels that is caused from blood sugar being too high. and that literally -- blood sugar that's too high -- causes what's called oxidative stress, or rusting, inside the arteries. also, high blood sugar is associated with high insulin levels and that's a storage hormone that takes sugar out of the blood and stores it as fat.

but high insulin levels all the time changes the way hormones are metabolized. that's very, very important. now, i want to give you some symptoms of insulin abuse and glycemic stress which just means eating too many refined carbs and having too much stress, and they are nighttime eating. this is where you have your evening meal, which for me used to start at 4:00 in the afternoon in front of the refrigerator when i came home from work. is that familiar to any of you? yes. and then i'd have dinner. and then you eat from then on watching tv, snacks. it's always high-carb snacks -- popcorn, potato chips, and so on. then you finally have your last little gasp of whatever it is just before your head hits the pillow. that's nighttime eating. you're grazing, grazing grazing, grazing. okay. insomnia -- inability to sleep -- heartburn, swelling -- what i call liquid pounds. you know, you go out to brunch, you gain five pounds. there's no way you ate enough calories

to gain the five pounds. it's the liquid from the insulin creating fluid retention and daytime sleepiness, and it all starts with breakfast, which we'll get to. aches and pains are associated with glycemic stress, pms. other signs are low hdl cholesterol -- low high-density lipoprotein. do you know that my hdl, the good cholesterol used to be 35 when i was 35 years old? that's really low. that's like right in there -- "you are genetically programmed for heart disease." you know what it is now? 65. it's like way up in the "live forever" mode, okay? high triglycerides are another sign of insulin abuse -- high blood sugar. now, i want to tell you that glycemic stress that you've had in your 20s and 30s becomes insulin resistance and what's called syndrome "x." and i want to talk for a minute about syndrome "x" because this is what's leading to all the chronic degenerative disease that won't make you a healthy happy sexy 100-year-old

which i want you to be. syndrome "x" is increased risk of heart disease and diabetes and increased risk for breast cancer, hypertension, abnormal cholesterol, obesity lack of ovulation increased risk for macular degeneration and cataracts, polycystic ovary, excess facial hair, and adult acne. all those things are just associated with refined carbs and too much insulin. and they're easily reversible so let me give you my program to balance things, okay? so, step one, measure for health. your waist should be less than 35 inches. okay? you can do that tonight. go put a tape measure around your waist. if it's 35 inches or above, you probably have syndrome "x." your body mass index which you can get by googling b.m.i. body mass index -- it's all over the internet -- should be 24 or below. now, let me give you what that is. a 5'4" woman who weighs 140 pounds has a body mass index of 24. so you don't have to be twiggy.

those of you with a b.m.i. of 25 to 29 -- that's like the 20 pounds overweight or so -- that is a health risk. we have recent, very solid data that shows that carries a 20% to 30% greater risk of premature death. a b.m.i. of 30 is considered obese and that's a huge risk of premature death -- 2 to 3 times the normal risk. so those are the numbers that you want to shoot for -- a waist below 35 and a b.m.i. of 24 or below. okay? easy. now, step two -- maintain normal blood sugar and insulin. and i'm gonna tell you how you do this. you eat three meals a day. you eat protein at each meal. you cut back on refined carbohydrates. i use the 80/20 rule. 80% of your food should be good. 20% can be not so good. remember, we're not doing perfect, all right? alcohol and wine are high-glycemic foods, all right? eat low-glycemic carbs that raise blood sugar slowly. these should be the bulk of your diet --

beans, vegetables, greens nuts, seeds, some grains. but 1 in 3 women has a gluten intolerance and can't eat grain. stop it for two weeks. see how you feel. i'll bet your gas, bloating, all that will go away. then you know grain is not so good for you. and by 50, a lot of people have a grain problem. and avoid msg -- monosodium glutamate. that's sometimes sodium glutamate on foods. it makes you want to eat more and more. it's a very good way to make laboratory rats obese. it's a very good way to make humans obese, so avoid it. step three -- quell cellular inflammation. high insulin levels and too many refined carbohydrates lead to cellular inflammation. remember, this is the same for men and women. excess body fat produces excess inflammatory chemicals, and these are at the heart of the degenerative diseases -- cancer, and heart disease. so first eliminate trans fats like margarine. you don't need those. take a good antioxidant multivitamin and mineral daily.

most women need additional magnesium. magnesium is very important for the nerves and anxiety and we don't get enough of it. eat lots of fruits and vegetables. we're up to nine a day. now, here's how you do it. most of your food should be fruits and vegetables. meat should be a condiment. it's easy. i had three vegetables at lunch today. that's just what you do. okay, you cook those up and that's what you have and then you have a little protein with it. and by the way, breakfast sets the stage. it anchors your whole day. what you eat for breakfast determines what your blood sugar's gonna be the rest of the day. if you're eating the wallpaper off the wall at 4:00 in the afternoon, which i used to do beginning my evening meal in front of the refrigerator that's because breakfast was a bagel and coffee which is guaranteed to raise your blood sugar way up here and then plummet it down here and then you're chasing it the rest of the day. there are many shakes and bars that you can just grab and go that contain some protein some fat, some carbohydrate. okay? now this is the importance of vegetables.

listen to these studies -- these are hard-core medical studies. eating five large carrots a week decreases the risk of stroke by 68%. you don't hear that in the wall street journal do you? no. okay. five or more fruits and vegetables a day especially cruciferous ones like broccoli and cauliflower decrease the risk of stroke by 31%. drinking five cups of tea per day -- and that can be green or black. and remember, the glasses are big, so a cup is just 8 ounces. that's tiny. so it's easy to do the five cups is what i'm saying. decreases the risk of stroke by 69%. isn't that amazing? now, i want you to know about omega-3 fats like in fatty fish like salmon. this fish reduces all cause of mortality -- like, everything. it just decreases the risk of premature death from everything because omega-3 fats enhance cell-membrane function all over the body. they're good for moodiness and so on.

cold-water tuna once a week has been shown to slow the heart rate but speed up the heart's ability to reset itself. so it results in decreased sudden cardiac death, which is one of the major causes of premature death throughout the world. it also enhances the serotonergic nervous system. you've heard of the ssri drugs, right, that everyone is on? well, fish oil does the same sort of thing which you can take as supplements if you don't like fish. there's a 44% reduction in hot flashes with adequate fish oil. now, another big player that you should know about is vitamin d. women aren't getting nearly enough. vitamin d drastically reduces the risk of breast cancer colon cancer, and osteoporosis, but you need enough. now, research of the garland brothers, and these guys are like the red-hot vitamin d researchers of all time show that the risk of breast cancer falls as vitamin d levels rise. and i want to give you a number to shoot for and i want you to go to your doctor and get this drawn. your blood vitamin d level

should be 52 nanograms per milliliter, and if it is, that cuts your risk of breast cancer in half. to get that level, you need at least 1,000 international units of vitamin d per day, from sun, from supplements. the r.d.a. is 400 i.u.s. so it's woefully low, and the average american woman only gets 320 i.u.s per day. you don't make vitamin d in the north in the winter so you need to supplement. salmon or other fatty fish is a really good source. for instance 3.5 ounces of sockeye salmon has 687 inteational units of vitamin d. that's a little piece -- easy, very easy. step four -- this is probably the most important -- curb your metabolic stressors. this abdominal weight gain that you get, this sort of spare-tire thing like a little extra ovary because it does produce estrogen is actually from eating carbs in the face of too much cortisol and adrenaline in your system. so stress hormones like cortisol make you want to eat carbs.

have you noticed that when the light goes away and when we have the lack of daylight savings time and the standard time comes back you're desperate for chocolate? have you noticed that? it's like, come october "mmm -- time for brownies." it's because the stress hormones go up and you really are trying to get that serotonin in your brain from the carbohydrates. so you want to just know that if you decrease the stress, you're gonna be better off with the carbs. now, the other thing that happens at midlife at perimenopause, that makes you want to overeat is a resurfacing of childhood trauma. remember, this is the pain body coming up. it's not you, and i don't want you to identify with it. and i don't want you to identify with the pain of all women. oh, my god, how we've suffered. i have all the footnotes for that, though. i mean, i want you to know i've documented it in the book. if you want some company about why it is you're stressed out and you feel bad about yourself i can give you the stats, but i don't want you to stay there. but here's what comes up at midlife

for men and women -- family secrets. you go, "oh, my god. this happened. he wasn't my real grandfather." this stuff happens. okay. memories of sexual abuse. you have a strong enough ego container to be able to deal with some of these early-childhood things. physical abuse stuff, addiction stuff -- that's what comes up premenstrually and also perimenopausally. perfectionism, job stress acute and chronic illness, burnout, and overcare -- all of this stuff. now, when i was in this perimenopausal time i weighed as much as i did when i was at term with my second daughter. why? because i was caring for a friend who was chronically ill, and she had tremendous numbers of surgeries and she was living in my house, and i couldn't do the one thing that de-stresses me beautifully going out to lunch. i had the empty-nest syndrome and the divorce going on. eat carbs, eat carbs, eat carbs. i knew where every good chocolate brownie was in southern maine, all right? and once the metabolic stressors got under control

then the weight started to go away. it's on the other side of that hill, ladies. don't worry about it. so i want to give you five guaranteed ways to lose weight. one -- curb your metabolic stressors, which we've talked about. two -- weigh yourself daily. daily. you got to get on those liquid pounds before they turn into solid pounds, okay? three -- focus on portion size. use a smaller plate. that's what they do at expensive spas. you get a tiny, little plate, you know? it's a cool plate, but it's little, all right? [ laughter ] wait 20 minutes before taking seconds. use the time in between to talk or to read or to listen to music. and five -- take your serving dishes off the table. this really works. don't have seconds. make it hard for yourself to get the food is what i'm saying. make it hard, all right? now, step five -- in the whole thing, step five -- exercise. here are the benefits of exercise -- a lifetime of mobility. would you like to be able to walk

when you're 80? you got to exercise. i'm sorry. unless you're walking like this. and i don't want you in front of me in the airport if you're walking like that. [ laughter ] i just don't, and my mother's 80 -- no excuse. she'll blow you right off the ski slope. so it's not about age. i'm not buying it. exercise increases bone mass. because it makes vertical vectors of force on your bone it brings in calcium and magnesium. it increases muscle mass, so your metabolic rate goes up. it enhances that endothelial function so you have better circulation. it decreases stress hormones. it increases beta-endorphin -- natural morphine-like substances in your blood -- so you feel better. it decreases your risk of not only breast cancer, but all cancers. and 20 minutes once per week is better than nothing. don't set a goal you can't keep. miriam nelson at tufts did some wonderful research on weight training. two 40-minute sessions of weight training per week not only increased women's bone density,

it did something i consider really fascinating and far more important. it made women feel as though they could get up and go do it. they'd go park in parking garages. they'd drive into strange cities. when you have stronger muscles, it's associated with a change in your brain. i would sit on planes. i do this, and i go, you know we're in the exit row where they say, "can you perform the functions of the person sitting in the exit row?" and i look at that window, and i say, "this would be so easy. i would take this sucker out here." and then i always check. do they want me to put it on the seat, or do i get to fling it out the window? [ laughter and applause ] start small -- even a little bit of dancing. do you do dancing around your house? i do a tremendous amount of dancing in my bathroom at night,

sometimes not even wearing any clothes, but it's a lot of exercise. okay, the goal is 10,000 steps. jeez, i could put that pedometer on at night. course, if you don't have a belt...all right, anyway. all right, step six -- no more dieting. this is a new way of life. you've got to accept your body right now wherever it is. you're not dieting. you've got to accept yourself unconditionally right now. this is when you stand in front of the mirror. you do my famous exercise. okay, i'm serious. 30 days of this will change you. look in the mirror -- "i accept myself unconditionally right now." the naked version is the phd version for those of you who have a little more self-esteem. and then, because you can eat so little food -- i'm sorry, but it's true. the amount of food you need to maintain your weight after menopause is much smaller than i would like it to be. so what i would suggest is eat all of your desserts with groups of friends

and have them flaming, okay? all right, when we come back, i'm going to tell you everything you need to know about hormone replacement and its alternatives. thank you. [ applause ] babette davidson: i hope you're enjoying this program as much as i am dr. christiane northrup's message to women is both funny informative and inspirational, and you can only find her programs here on public television. that's because pbs, like chris northrup, is committed to a holistic view of its viewers this station wants to nurture your brain your heart and your soul. by bringing you a special like menopause and beyond as well as series like nova, american experience and antiques roadshow, pbs makes sure that you are exercising all different parts of your mind. dr. northrup is joining me in the studio and i have to tell you, this is such a great program. dr. northrup: thank you. babette davidson: i just love it, i have laughed, i've cried, i've recognized myself

i've thought, and i have shown this program to so many people. dr. northrup: that's wonderful you know that really just makes my heart sing. babette davidson: well, and this last segment had so much information in it. dr. northrup: yea, that's true. babette davidson: oh my goodness and so many things that i've done, i've added i had a checklist, because i am a checklist kind of person, the 10,000 steps, the vitamin a i have a phd. dr. northrup: the d, the vitamin d. babette davidson: the vitamin d and i have a phd. dr. northrup: oh, that's good. babette davidson: and i weigh myself everyday and i thought it would be hard but i can't do without it. dr. northrup: that's wonderful to hear and didn't you say, you've lost fifteen pounds. babette davidson: i've lost fifteen pounds, and i feel better now than i did 3 years ago i'm zooming towards fifty and i feel great. i'm embracing it. dr. northrup: now see, zooming towards fifty and she feels great, that's pretty spectacular because a lot of you are getting really bad news about mid-life, you're still afraid of it, you don't need to be. that's our message. babette davidson: well and you know i think the other thing is, if you've been watching this program and you've thought about at least ten people to show this to, the dvd at $90

there's also some pretty scintillating bonus material. dr. northrup: there is, we have bonus material on this dvd that i was not allowed to put out in public but you can watch it in the privacy of your own home with your beloved. babette davidson: oh, and it's worth it, every moment of it. and speaking of these wonderful thank you gifts that we have for you, lyn may is here to tell you more. lyn may: that is absolutely correct, this is great fun isn't it? everyone here is really loving all of these gifts and i just want to remind those of you who are already supporting this station that you can always renew your support. and, when you do that at our various contribution levels, just tell our very friendly volunteers which gift you'd like to receive. in fact, you may want to pledge and share some of these materials as gifts for friends and family. now, at the $300 level of support, dr. northrup has put together a wonderful array of gifts called the pleasures of menopause mix, pleasures menopause, remember that. now when you call with a contribution at this level we're delighted to send you a thank you

package that includes: the menopause journal, the companion dvd, which has the bonus material, dr. northrup's amazing book the wisdom of menopause a 2-cd set of the audio track of this program so you can listen to it in the car when you're stuck in traffic or as you walk or workout, and this is one of my great favorites the secret pleasures of menopause playbook. this is the book dr. northrup wrote that reflects the words and experiences of ordinary women, just like you, who have dared to let go of their pasts, they let go of mind-sets, relationships, behaviors that no longer serve them, and who nurture their physical bodies as well. as dr. northrup tells us, they've been able to cultivate joy and vibrant health on every level with every breath. now, at the $100 level of support we'll say thanks with the book, the wisdom of menopause and one of the greatest aspects of this book is the resource section. there are 24 pages of information about where to

go for supplements, herbs health organizations and institutions, just great stuff. at the $90 level, we have the dvd that babette and dr. northrup have been talking about. and at the $50 level we'll send you your own menopause journal, this is a book that you create out of your own life. we welcome contributions of all amounts, whatever the most comfortable level for you might be. because the most important thank you gift you receive is the one you see when you tune into your favorite public television program the quality and the commitment that pbs shows you all day and all night. babette davidson: love that, that sounds great. one of the things that i love about this last bit was the genetic celebrities. dr. northrup: oh, yea. i mean, really only less than 25 percent of women are tall and skinny and able to eat whatever they want but you'd think from all the women's magazines that this was the norm.

one of the beauties of mid-life is you give that up. i mean this is an impossible standard. when i was seventeen, i read a seventeen magazine and saw that i should weigh a hundred and fifteen pounds. that never happened, even in the eighth grade! and it's sure never going to happen again. but now i feel better because i've given it up and i am so much happier. babette davidson: and you look great. dr. northrup: thank you. babette davidson: you really do. i love the new book, the secret pleasures of menopause, the playbook, um, for a couple of reasons the first is it has inspirational quotes from real women. dr. northrup: absolutely. babette davidson: not genetic celebrities, real women just like me. dr. northrup: uh-huh, yea. babette davidson: um and this is one of the quotes i wanted to read you from pam, she's 49 so we're kind of sisters here, i don't beat myself up for not being the be all end all in my field, i've learned to appreciate me and the things i've done and not compare myself to anyone else. that is true wisdom. dr. northrup: absolutely. and this book is full of this remember these are real women and i asked my newsletter subscribers, e-letter people to please tell me what they did to bring health giving pleasure into their lives and it's

in a bunch of different categories there's food and there's sex, there's your body and all different kinds of things, pleasure is a discipline and it's very health enhancing, but it takes a commitment to yourself, you've got to give up martyrdom and all of this stuff at mid-life when your brain is changing that's when there's this little knock on the door that says, what about me and i want you to not be a problem for your kids and the only way that's going to happen is for you to put yourself on the list, number one would be very good. babette davidson: tell us quickly

what's coming up in the next segment. dr. northrup: in the next segment we're going to talk about, uh, hormone replacement, what everyone needs to know about hormones, there's been tremendous controversy in this area and also all kinds of things that are simply incorrect, i want you to know what's safe what isn't, how to do it, it's actually very simple. babette davidson: oh, so now we have you ready to stay put because this is information people really need to hear. dr. northrup: you can't get this anywhere else, most doctor's don't even know this, honestly it's sad, but true. babette davidson: well and lyn is here to tell you more about the wonderful benefits of replacing the financial funds right here for this station. dr. northrup: yea. lyn may: absolutely quality which is what you're getting tonight is the hallmark of pbs. but, quality does come at a cost this station needs financial resources to bring excellent programming to you: shows like dr. northrup's, and all the shows in its schedule from the hard-hitting journalism like frontline, to the wonderful arts and cultural specials and series you enjoy like great performances, or pop music

like soundstage, everything you see. your individual contribution at whatever level is most comfortable for you, is absolutely critical to the well-being of this station. public television is the only television that depends on its viewers in such an important way. narrator: with your financial support this pbs station can continue to bring you programs with dr. christiane northrup. we'll say thank you for your gift of $50 by sending you the menopause journal this is a great tool to help you start writing your own life story. when you contribute $90 we'll send you the dvd of the program you're watching. this dvd includes an exclusive bonus feature with dr. northrup on mid-life, sensuality and sexuality. for your $100 gift, you'll receive the new york times best seller, the wisdom of menopause dr. northrup's landmark book on which this program is based.

the pleasures of menopause mix is our special thank you gift collection for a generous $300 contribution. this fabulous package includes the menopause journal the dvd with the exclusive bonus feature, the wisdom of menopause book plus a two cd audio track of this program, which includes the bonus material and you'll receive a beautiful second book, the secret pleasures of menopause playbook. you'll relish and relate to the stories, advice and wisdom that dr. northrup has collected from women just like you. we welcome any financial gift that feels right for you, what's important is your support. please call and thanks. babette davidson: i love these thank you gifts and chris, i also love the fact that your shows give me so much information and no guilt. dr. northrup: right, we don't need any more guilt, women have way too much guilt, time to give it up. you know i met madeleine albright this year and she said, guilt is the number one thing

about women and it's like, it's time to give that up. now that's why i am so excited about the playbook because it is guilt free, no calories, uh, you know and it will tell you exactly how to be healthy and happy and have pleasure and now stay tuned for the next segment on hormone replacement. you need to know this stuff, stay tuned! [ applause ] okay, hormone replacement -- everything that you need to know about this. first of all, you need to know the body was designed to maintain hormonal balance for a lifetime. and many women sail through menopause with nary a symptom. they just notice, "oh, no more periods." i won't ask you to raise your hand if that's happened to you. and then some need outside help some more than others

and thankfully more options are available than ever before. so i want to tell you what happens normally. this is called menopause 101, all right? we'll make it quick. it won't be boring. the ovary makes three kinds of steroids. that's another name for hormone all right? it makes estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. there are other body sites that produce hormones. they are the liver, the skin, and the brain. so therefore you have other places that are making hormones when your ovaries are just decreasing production. and by the way, the ovary never stops complete production of hormones. that's helped along by the adrenal. i mean, we were taught in medical school about the postmenopausal senescent ovary. you know, it's like it's gone and it's just useless. that's wrong. now, the first thing that happens is a decline in progesterone. progesterone is the warming hormone

that's high when you're pregnant, and it's very calming. it actually binds to the gaba receptors in your brain same place as valium. so when you have progesterone you feel like -- you know, when you're pregnant it's like kind of calm, maybe a little more anxiety about things, but calm. so when that starts to decrease the estrogen increases, because sometimes you ovulate a couple times. whatever happens, the estrogen increases. and here's what happens. in the face of stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine, then estrogen is metabolized into substances just like stress hormones called catechol estrogens and those can increase these temporal headaches, that sort of thing. testosterone either stays the same, or it may increase. it may decrease. all right? now, if the adrenals are weak, if you go into perimenopause or menopause with adrenals that have been beating out the stress hormones

for the past 20 years you're gonna have a harder time making those hormonal shifts that make you go through menopause nicely, sailing through. it's also helpful if you've done some therapy and you've worked on that childhood trauma that comes up. all right? and that's helpful. people, in fact, who've gone through a catastrophic something in their 30s usually have gone through that, and they don't have any problem with menopause 'cause they already reinvented themselves. maybe a chronic disease or a life-threatening disease, and they did it already. these are the symptoms of progesterone deficiency and estrogen dominance. and this is what causes most menopausal symptoms, all right? pms, premenstrual migraine headaches, where you don't have enough progesterone irregular or excessively heavy periods, anxiety, nervousness and there's this other symptom, crawling skin, skin rashes, this "nyer" feeling, all right? now, let me tell you about the connection

between the adrenals and the ovaries. adrenals healthy, ovaries healthy -- you can make the hormonal conversions, but too many women have adrenal exhaustion from too many stress hormones for too long a time from worry, anxiety awfulizing, catastrophizing or what many women do -- trying to control everything. are you one of those people who has to get the dishes in the dishwasher just right or you can't go to bed at night? or you got to wipe down that counter get a q-tip out get everything in there, 'cause you're desperately trying to control your environment when all that, whatever stuff from the first half of your life is coming up. give it up. give it up, okay? your hormones will be happy. all right. too little sleep causes this problem, nutrient deficiencies protein deficiencies, b-vitamin and magnesium deficiencies. so what do you do? first thing you do -- increase fun and pleasure. feel your feelings. follow the dietary recommendations

i already told you about. get out in the sun a little bit. maybe take supplements like d.h.e.a. avoid the news. that's one of my health plans. and think with your heart. when you think with your heart -- this is really interesting. good research has been done on this. when you take a moment and think of something you love -- and i want to give you some choices and see which one melts you all right? babies, like human babies, baby kittens, puppies or baby birds. all right? i like baby bluebirds myself. all right, melting heart -- baby birds. some people, it has to be baby birds with no feathers whatsoever. [ laughter ] they need something that's really helpless that they can identify with. when you think of this thing that you love -- a 2-year-old sleeping anything where you go "oh, oh" and you hold that in your heart and you hold that feeling for just a little bit of time, it actually increases your d.h.e.a. it increases your mother hormone

from which every other hormone is made. isn't that fascinating that you can change your hormone levels by changing your emotions? and the emotion you want is the emotion of appreciation, gratitude and love. changes your hormones -- wow! now, who needs hormone replacement? women who've gone through premature menopause, you know, in their 30s, women who've had hysterectomies premenopausally and some other women who just are chronically ill. they might need some hormone replacement. let me give you a brief history of hormone replacement. the women's health initiative started in the early 1990s, when we gynecologists were taught to give everybody hormone replacement like m&ms, because everyone needed it, because it was gonna decrease your risk of heart disease and if you didn't take it you were a fool and you couldn't come to our office. some guys were really like that about any women who thought "well, maybe i could go through it naturally." "no, everyone needs hormone replacement." so they started this huge government-funded study

also partly funded by wyeth-ayerst the makers of premarin and prempro which is a combination of pregnant mare's urine, made from the urine of pregnant horses and provera, which is a synthetic progesterone. so that's what everyone was on, and then these women were on it for a long period of time, and then suddenly, in 2002, one arm of the women's health initiative was stopped very suddenly because they found that contrary to what they believed would happen, women actually increased their risk of stroke and heart attack and increased their risk of breast cancer on the prempro. suddenly, overnight women were left high and dry, 'cause some women did great on that. let me be honest -- some women loved it and felt great. others didn't feel so great and one of the problems was they were using the same dose in everyone, whether you weighed 200 pounds or 100 pounds. so you'd see a twentyfold difference in blood levels in those two different groups of women. now, reanalysis of the data shows that if you started the hormone replacement

earlier than age 60 -- 'cause most of the women in the women's health initiative were older than 60 -- if you started earlier, then there may be a benefit to the heart. we don't know yet. where we currently stand is that things are changing all the time. remember when i told you at the beginning -- one-size fits all medicine is obsolete and you're gonna have to use your gut, your inner guidance? but let me give you some of the known benefits of hormone replacement for some women. hot-flash reduction -- they're stars at this. estrogen is a star at decreasing hot flashes. some women feel better sexually on hormone replacement. some women need just a little estrogen in the vagina for vaginal dryness. some women feel better with their thinking and with depression, but it shouldn't be given for that. there's a definite increase in bone density on estrogen and there may be a benefit for heart and blood vessels. we don't know at this point. the risks are breast cancer uterine cancer, blood clots and stroke pancreatitis, and gallstones.

so what is the solution? the solution is for some of you what i call a "dusting" of hormones that match exactly those that are found in the female human body -- not necessarily those that are for a female horse. i have a medical colleague who says, "premarin is a natural hormone if your native food is hay." [ laughter ] so i want to give you a definition of what's called a bioidentical hormone. that just means something that matches what's found in the female human body. these are widely available at regular pharmacies. i want to give you a couple brand names just so you know. estrace, vivelle patch, climara patch, estraderm patch. you can get those, all right? bioidentical progesterone comes in the form of prometrium which is a capsule, and also some vaginal gels, as well. so i just want to demystify this term "bioidentical." it's like no big deal. then there are formulary pharmacies.

these are pharmacies that will make up a prescription just for the individual woman that contains progesterone, estrogen, and maybe a little dusting of testosterone if she needs it. and all of these things are available with prescriptions. and you should go to a doctor who knows what they're doing with these because it's an art as much as it is a science. and some women need it, and some women don't. i want to give you some alternatives to the mammalian hormones and those are what are called the phytohormones. phytoestrogen -- you've heard of these, right? in soy, in flax, in hemp -- these are not estrogens at all. there's great confusion about this. they have what's called in chemistry a phenolic ring that interacts with some of the estrogen receptors. all right? and omega-3 fats are not phytoestrogens, but remember they decrease hot flashes. so in summary, what are the types of hormonal support

available to you? they are the phytoestrogens the plants. they are the prescription estrogen and progesterone the ones that match your body exactly, bioidentical. and then there are the synthetic ones that are not native to the female human body. those are the three types. and each of those work for some women and not for all women, and you can mix and match and you can use a little from one category and a little from the other category. you don't need to worry about this. we make way too big a deal about this. my final advice on this is experiment. your body keeps changing. you can't make a mistake. i've asked you already to update all of your relationships. that's part of the work of reinventing yourself and getting into your own heart. you have to have the relationship with yourself. you might need to change your relationship with your doctor. we're going for partnership healthcare and you need a doctor who's gonna work with you when you come in with a book, maybe like mine, and say "i'm interested in this."

and then see what the doctor says. and you want a doctor who says, "okay, let's check this out. let's work with you about that." that will let you know what kind of a doctor you have. but trust yourself. one size doesn't work for everybody. that's what we found out with the women's health initiative -- that one size doesn't fit all. there's not one pill for every woman. so here's how it works. some women need a little estrogen. i have a friend who says, "i just need a little estrace twice a week to have some sex drive." other women we'll give a little bit of progesterone and they feel depressed. it just doesn't work, even if it's natural stuff. so trust yourself. trust your body. that's all you need to know. when we come back i'm gonna tell you a little bit about how to enhance your midlife sex life. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] babette davidson: hello i'm babette davidson here to share with you this wonderful program.

dr. northrup is with us too, as is my colleague lyn may, and they'll be discussing some additional information about hormones in a moment. i love the emphasis dr. northrup puts on the necessity for individual treatment. we're all different and having tailor-made options means better health for each of us. pbs follows that prescription as well. we're not just a channel of cooking programs or all history or nature 24/7. we're all about variety whether it's sesame street curious george or clifford for our youngest viewers, or masterpiece, antiques roadshow, or a powerful piece of history from ken burns or maybe new information on hormone replacement from dr. northrup, we really have something special for everyone. now, all these programs do have two things in common first, they represent the very best television you can watch, and secondly, they're all viewer-supported. and that's where you come in. when you call right now and support this public television station, or if you renew your support, you're investing in future programming

like this. it's amazing how it works, dollars in, programs out. so call right now and let's make sure that dr. northrup always has a voice on public television and when you do, we have some additional ways of saying thank you. narrator: with your financial support this pbs station can continue to bring you programs with dr. christiane northrup. we'll say thank you for your gift of $50 by sending you the menopause journal this is a great tool to help you start writing your own life story. when you contribute $90 we'll send you the dvd of the program you're watching. this dvd includes an exclusive bonus feature with dr. northrup on mid-life, sensuality and sexuality. for your $100 gift, you'll receive the new york times best seller, the wisdom of menopause dr. northrup's landmark book on which this program is based. the pleasures of menopause mix is our special thank you gift collection for a generous

$300 contribution. this fabulous package includes the menopause journal the dvd with the exclusive bonus feature the wisdom of menopause book plus a two cd audio track of this program, which includes the bonus material and you'll receive a beautiful second book the secret pleasures of menopause playbook. you'll relish and relate to the stories advice and wisdom that dr. northrup has collected from women just like you. we welcome any financial gift that feels right for you, what's important is your support. please call and thanks. lyn may: we really do have some wonderful thank you gifts for you, and if i burst into giggles it's because first of all i'm so delighted dr. northrup to be back with you again and you know what fun i've been having saying the pleasures of menopause. dr. northrup: it is fun isn't it? lyn may: the pleasures of menopause! dr. northrup: absolutely.

lyn may: absolutely! how do you put all of this together? this is a wonderful package. dr. northrup: first of all i have been in this field for over thirty years. lyn may: yes. dr. northrup: so this is the wisdom of menopause and one of the things that i, you should know is if you go to the internet and i know many of you do. lyn may: we all do. dr. northrup: um, it's going to be very difficult for you to have thirty years on the front lines of women's health to know what useful and what is not useful i know those things, i've got a huge depth of information and that's where the resources come in and i know i also have this intuitive sense of what's important and what isn't, like the difference between natural bio-identical progesterone and the synthetic stuff, this is crucial to your health so it's all put in here then i've learned that pleasure is extraordinarily important. lyn may: as we're learning. dr. northrup: in the secret pleasures of menopause playbook, one of the things that it has is, it has commitments, it has little contracts you make with yourself write it in ink i want you to do that, where you know that you will, here, my personal action plan for pleasure, changing my beliefs for

the better boom you write it in you sign it, you date it. lyn may: and babette swears by this she really does. dr. northrup: yea, yea, that's true. very, very important. lyn may: absolutely wonderful. dr. northrup: then of course we have the show. lyn may: yes. dr. northrup: then i have all this bonus material on here. how to have the best sex of your life, by the way, that is the big data, it is women in their sixties and seventies having the best sex of their lives. lyn may: that's right, and i'm very happy to hear that, i have to tell you, the three of us represent moving toward each decade, we represent thirty years, you know, you've said so many interesting things in this program, one of them really stood out for me though and that is about the value of nurse practitioners, i mean you haven't really talked specifically about that but how do you work your way around a doctor who may not have your best interest at heart. dr. northrup: most doctors they often don't have time and nurse practitioners often find are the best people for the hormone discussions and they'll often work with doctors although they can be independently licensed. i myself use a nurse practitioner. lyn may: tell me the rest about your health package i know it's a little unorthodox, yes?

dr. northrup: ok, so massage therapy once a week and then acupuncture at least every season and that's pretty much my healthcare. i almost never see an actual md. lyn may: now remember that. and watch and learn and right now we're going to go over to babette while she tells you how you can get this wonderful material. babette davidson: i love that, chris says that men live the longest when they hang around with good women, i tell my husband that all the time. i don't have the data to back this up yet, but i'm pretty certain that this station will be a lot healthier financially thanks to all the good women, and men who love them calling in to support us right now. those dollars ensure that more programs like this get produced for pbs. this is dr. northrup's 6th special for public television and i've been a fan since the beginning. i love her outlook on life and her down-to-earth good sense about getting the most out of our lives. dr. northrup joins a prestigious line-up on pbs, it's like a brain trust dr. wayne dyer and suze orman just to name two of the people bringing you the best information to help you live your life to the fullest.

so, to quote chris' brother-in-law again what do your feet want to do? i hope your feet are taking you to the phone to make that call of support right now. and when you do, we have many compelling thank you gifts that you'll treasure as tangible reminders of your continuing role in keeping public television alive and vital.

lyn may: one of the things i said to you that surprised you that i think is worth talking about especially for women in my age group i'm heading towards seventy and when i said i don't take anything but a vitamin you were really surprised. dr. northrup: i was very excited about that, when you said, this is a women who is not on prescription drugs, you would think you were listening to the mainstream media, that prescription drugs for seniors is the number one health problem in the country. lyn may: absolutely. dr. northrup: it is not, my mother is not on any prescription drugs whatsoever, she's 84, lyn, you're almost 70. lyn may: yep, yep. dr. northrup: you look like a million bucks. lyn may: yea, well thank you, make-up! dr. northrup: no, no, no i've seen you without it. but anyway, i'm proud of the resource section in the wisdom of menopause book i want women to really get it, that their health is in their hands and health begins in your mind and it's how you think about things. lyn may: and one of the things that always worries us as we get older, but i think everybody, energy. talk to me about energy how we keep it up what we need to do to really, really feel good.

dr. northrup: first of all you need to make sure that your vitamin d levels are optimal and we talked about vitamin d in this show, uh the research is burgeoning now, you need a blood level of about 52 nanograms per ml, most people are way below that the women with the hip fractures are in the lowest 25th percentile. lyn may: oh, yes. dr. northrup: so getting your vitamin d up there to optimal is really really important. lyn may: you know we couldn't do this if it were not for public television. dr. northrup: that's correct. lyn may: and i think it's really important for you to tell people why public television's so important. dr. northrup: because i have just given you some bites that i can't even get in on mainstream television, on public television i can really, uh get my point across give you the fullness of what you need to do to get healthy, to stay healthy, to know that your health is in your own hands, very difficult to get this information in any other way on television.

dr. northrup: now, women have been told to be martyrs and all of this but we need to have deliberate pleasure in our lives. and that's what the secret pleasures of menopause playbook as opposed to workbook, playbook. lyn may: playbook yes! dr. northrup: is all about. now, in the next segment i'm going to tell you about mid-life sensuality and sexuality. a lot of women think it's over for them, ladies, it's just the beginning. lyn may: absolutely. and thank you if you've called and made a contribution, that tells us you like this kind of programming, i don't know how pbs could do it any better than it does right now, and having dr. northrup is exciting, we're going to go back in just about 30 seconds and find out what else she has to say. dr. northrup: yes, this is going

to be the sensuality and sexuality material. lyn may: yes, yes. dr. northrup: it is not as racy as the bonus material on the dvd. lyn may: no. dr. northrup: but it will give you a flavor of what is to come. you'll be able to change your mind about this just by the information i'm about to give you which will change you physiologically just stay with yourself see how you feel during this next section. lyn may: and here we go. okay, midlife sensuality and sexuality. so here's the pearl from this part. we are sexual creatures from infancy until death. an orgasm has been documented in every life stage. i want you to expand the entire concept of sex, though into life-force. it's chi. it's life-force. it's the stuff of creation. so you can channel it into any expression you want.

you don't have to be sexual in the human way of being sexual. okay, so you can relax if what i'm gonna... but sexual energy is the energy of creation and it permeates everything. and you can learn to work with it consciously. and i want to read you a quote from cabala scholar yehuda berg. "according to cabala, god intended sex "to be a never-ending passionate experience "overflowing with profound pleasure "and breathless excitement. "sex is the most powerful way "to experience the light of the creator. "it is also one of the most powerful ways to transform the world." were you taught that ever? [ laughter ] it's what you're gonna hear tonight. you can have the best sex of your life at midlife and beyond. so i want to tell you a couple facts. these are just exciting facts to me.

all right, menopause in and of itself does not decrease libido ease of reaching orgasm or interest in sex. i'm gonna repeat that. menopause does not decrease anything about your sex drive, ease of reaching orgasm or interest in sex. so that's fact number one. fact number two -- the best predictor of good midlife sex drive is a new partner. [ laughter ] my solution -- become a new partner. become a new partner, all right? okay, so here's my program to enhance your midlife sensuality and sexuality. step one -- get hormonal support or other support, if needed. some women have vaginal dryness and they don't lubricate like they did before.

and that is so easy to fix. don't suffer with that. have your hormone levels tested if you need to. you might need a little dite of estrogen a little dite of testosterone -- easy to fix, okay? that's all that might be needed. step two -- update your sexual programming. we've been brainwashed by the performance orientation of most of the major sex surveys which only measure things that you can measure -- number of orgasms and frequency of intercourse. women feel inadequate and as dr. gina ogden says, by those definitions 50% of women have sexual dysfunction and low desire. i get hit up by companies all the time to please put my name on some kind of lubricant or some kind of something. they're always looking for the viagra for women. well, the viagra for women is right here, okay? now, dr. gina ogden who's in our audience is a sex researcher and she's the author

of "the heart and soul of sex -- making the isis connection," and she did one of the largest sex surveys that's ever been done and it's integrating spirituality and sensuality, and it's called the isis survey. and she didn't even know till she was done that the eponym was isis, which is the goddess of the sexual mysteries in ancient egypt. it was like the goddess isis blessed the study. and she documented what we all know in our bones. let me quote from gina. "the best sex is multidimensional, "connecting body, mind, heart and soul. "it goes far beyond the physical. "sex is about far more than we've been told "and when we make the isis connection, "it's not just more fun. it is deeply healing." step three -- honor exactly where you are. lack of midlife libido results from what i call waxy buildup in the relationship.

[ laughter ] old, unprocessed resentments and hurts unresolved issues around money. remember, second chakra, second emotional center -- money, sex, power. it's all down here. adrenal exhaustion -- you need to own your anger and resolve to release it. you can be angry or you can have pleasure. you get to decide. and many, many women are holding a load of anger against all men that they take out on the one man in their life. bad idea. he is not a stand-in for all the men who've ever done women wrong. i'm gonna really ask you ladies to get over that, all right? now, we baby boom women are the women who broke all the rules. we can put a roof over our heads. we can take out a loan in our own name. the women's movement happened when we were coming of age. we are now at a point where we don't need men to feed and

clothe us. we're at a point where we can have real relationships with men for the first time in human history. and to do that we need to give up our anger. we're led to believe that all negativity buys us something. "if i worry enough about the kids, they'll be safe." all right? it's like that. it's wrong. all right? remember, you need to recharge your batteries from source energy, from your soul. now, for many women, this may mean a period of several years where they're just recharging their batteries from source energy. how many perimenopausal women have told me "all my problems would be solved if i could go into a cave just go into a cave for a while," all right? and believe me, guys, if you're with a woman who needs to go into a cave for a while, give her some space because she is actually sending the roots -- she's sending juice down to her roots