Picture this: A winding, rolling narrow road flowing through classic Maine landscape. Tumbled stone walls, swaths of purple lupines, a long blue lake coming in and out of view. I arrive, as directed, in the driveway of a large, foursquare, New England farmhouse, rambling and ramshackle. To my left is an old, large and looming, red painted barn, and to my right a newly turned and rowed garden. And there she is, the good doctor herself, up to her muddy booted knees in the soft tilled earth of her poison free garden. Long skirt, long legs, long arms, long face, long graying braid down her back. She peers at me through coke bottle lenses, so excited to tell me about her plants and methods, she seems to have forgotten why I’ve come. Eventually we move inside to her kitchen office, and get down to business.
I’ll spare you hours of detail, here’s the bottom line: We’re living in a pervasively toxic world which, with hidden additives, leaching chemicals, heavy metals, and food altered at best, emptly at worst, is undermining our health in ways both dramatic and insidious. To get and stay healthy in the face of this onslaught, we are forced, to take drastic measures if we hope to curtail the effects and allow our body’s natural inclination to health – including appropriate weight. We must make choices that shield us in as many ways as we can, even if they cut to the core of what we have come to see as “normal” and ordinary.
I brought a tote bag full of “products” I used regularly. Beginning with the weight loss powders and potions, and ending with my herbal allergy remedy. Dr. Joyce rejected the lot. No, no, no. Weird chemicals, preservatives, scents, additives, or strange ingredients like de-hydrated olive oil. “What in the world”, said Dr. Joyce, “would you have to do to olive oil to de-hydrate it? It can’t be good. No.”
Thus spake the sage.
Okay. Straight organic it is. Raw milk, hormone free meat, no supplements, even herbal ones. Throw out the plastic storage and buy glass, use only stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic and glass for cooking and baking (aluminum is strictly forbodden (even my expensive hard anodized Calphalon? Yes.). Dr Joyce, as she explains, runs a food based practice. She has no truck with pills, even seemingly innocuous herbal supplements, and multivitamins from the health food store. No quick fixes here. Dr Joyce is strictly hard core. A purist. And has shelves of books, and years of study to back her up.
Which brings us to the hard part, the mother of all ill health, according to Dr Joyce – “hormone interruption”. Especially via hormone replacement of any kind. I’ve been taking synthetic thyroid for thirty years, ever since I was diagnosed as seriously hypo-thyroid after the birth of my second child. Dr Joyce concedes that it’s not likely that we can ressurect my thirty year dead thyroid gland, so we may be stuck with that one. But what about my beloved bio-identical female hormone replacements? I’ve been taking them for over two years, and after some initial fine tuning, have been very happy with the results. No flashes, better sleep, less moody, and, last but not least, something that passes for libido. What’s not to like?
“Why are you taking this? Women have lived through menopause since the beginning of time. It’s normal. It’s natural. Trust your body. Learn to accept the aging process.” In other words, don’t fight it. Age gracefully. Go with the flow. (or is it out with the tide?)
My friend Wallis agrees, no hormones for her either. Au natural all the way. Come hell or low water, she’s in it for the long haul, and, like any good captain, plans to go down with the ship. She sent me photos of smiling crones for inspiration. To light the way to a happy, if withered, old age.
But, but, but………
I’m such a whimp.
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This is very interesting to me. Does this DR Joyce have a web page? Which Dr. Joyce is it? I’d love to know.
Her name is Dr Joyce Young DNM (Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine). Since she’s low tech to say the least, I really don’t think she has a web page. But she does have an e-mail address (if the computer is working) drjoyceyoung@tidewater.net. If not, her phone number is: 207-563-1636. If you live within striking distance, she’s located in Newcastle Me., just outside of Damariscotta. Though its all a little overwhelming, and will likely take me a while to incorporate most of her suggestions, I’m certainly grateful to have her as a resource. Good luck! There’s much to learn.
Thanks for the details of her location etc….so I can avoid her! Just kidding, but no one could ever convince me to give up my BHRT.
I think the reason modern women end up needing BHRT is because of the impact of all the toxicity in our lives for the 5 decades leading up to menopause. If we lived under the same conditions that women did at the dawn of time: a) most of us wouldn’t live to see menopause, and 2) we wouldn’t have been exposed to anything environmentally toxic – the effects of which probably make menopause/midlife harder now.
I can only assume Dr. Joyce was one of those women who “sailed through” menopause and doesn’t know how hellish it can be. If she’s so dismissive of the need for this kind of supplementation, it makes me wonder, learned as she is, if she has studied BHRT at all.
In the long run, I think we all need to do/choose what is right for us. You know when what is going on in your body feels right or feels “dis-ease.”
I hear you! And after much consideration, and a visit to an “expert” in Boston from the other side (ie pro BHRT), I’m back on. Stay tuned for my next “episode” for more details!
Women may have been going through menopuase since the “begininng of time” true, but historically, damn few ever got that old. And those that did had spent much of their life pregnant or nursing, not menstrating, like I did. Nothing natural about my reproductive history (no babies), why I should be all natural now?
It took almost five years for me to get my hands on HRT. Five years of insomnia, depression, night sweats, hot flashes, brain fog and vaginal atrophy. Five years of prescription and “herbal” remedies that put 20 lbs on me (thank you, Effexor, sleeping pills, black cohosh etc). Those 20 lbs are gone and 5 more to boot. And still going down. For me anyway, it’s alot easier to lose weight when I’m sleeping at night instead of eating. I’m just saying…
Women long ago had to go through extreme pain with natural childbirth (often dying in the process) now we have a little thing called epidural which helps us along. Its a choice a woman makes, pain or no pain?
I believe its the same with menopause; we can “tough” it out or look for some relief, its a personal choice. Dr. Joyce probably has some wonderful suggestions for healthy eating and therefore having a healthy body overall, but when the going gets tough through menopause, a woman has to do what she has to do.
Good point about “natural’ childbirth. Certainly no one would suggest that we should go back to the dark pre-advances-of-modern-medicine ages in that department. So where do we draw the line? If it were purely cosmetic, or even anti hot flash, and carried serious downside risk, that would be one thing (I know, I know, some people – including my new friend Dr Joyce – think it does), but in the interest of a long, strong mental and physical life, I’ve decided that BHRT is worth it.
I love the way you write. Thank you for sharing and i thought the Dr. has some amazing and simple solutions…less is more!
Thank you for the compliment! And, yes, Dr Joyce is generally onto something important about going back to basics and doing whatever we can to avoid as many of the toxic hazards of our modern world as possilbe. But the demands of real life have to be balaced as well. Luckily, my life now is conducive to more radical changes than would have been easily possible in my “old” life. I have time to make lots of things from scratch, go out in search of fresh eggs, raw milk, organic farmer’s markets etc, but there IS a limit. I’m still experimenting with how far I can take this, and what will work for me for the long haul. (Dr Joyce has inside clothes and outside clothes and changed in the garage before she comes in the house – don’t think I’m going there.). It’s a process. And one I’ve been engaged in fits and starts since I was about 30 (yes – way back at the beginning of time!) Maybe by the time I’m ready to check out, I will have completely cleaned up my act! What a pity. (ha!)
I detoxified my home 32 years ago when my first child was born. I totally changed all my cleaning products to GET CLEAN the most safe and economical line in the market. The Get Clean line is from Shaklee Corporation. The benefits have been far beyond my wildest dreams. My 2 children now grown adults have never taken any anibiotics, or medicine of any kind since birth. When health challenges appeared I used the Shaklee nutrition for repairing their body. To learn more http://www.shaklee.net/mgwellness
I just can’t agree with your Dr. Joyce. I’m hearing too many ‘naturopaths’ spouting this kind of retoric and knowing what I know, I’m uncomfortable following her advice to ‘give it all up’ and ‘tough it out’. I do, however, agree with de-toxifying the home. The home is a haven for causes of cancer. Women who work in the home are at a 54% higher risk of developing cancer than women who work outside the home, this is according to Michael DuFresne, a leading researcher in environmental cancers. See the Vancouver Sun newspaper, article published, Thursday, September 18, 2003. There are many great solutions from nature but also a lot of folklore and really we need to look at scientific facts not folklore. Science provides proof and that’s one of the problems I have with naturopathic remedies, is there scientific proof backing up their claims. To get some solid, scientific information log into http://www.rmbarry.com and for more information on scientifically proven, safer products in your home, go to my website at http://www.globalwealthandwellness.com/theresia to request more information. Theresia
Theresia – As I mentioned above, I’m trying to find my way wih all this, pulling in as much information as I can, which, is, as you rightly point out, often full of folklore and “un-science”. Even assuming Dr Joyce’s information to be accurate, I have to decide for myself how far I”m willing to take it. How much I’m willing to inturrupt “normal” life. I’ll check out your information sources. Thanks! Sarah