As a health care consumer, you have many tools and resources available to help you do more for your health. In Chapter 3 of her book, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, Dr. Christiane Northrup discusses one resource we often forget to consult: your own body. Dr. Northrup calls this ‘Inner Guidance.’
She notes that we are taught as adults to focus on the rational, left-brain thought process, so we may miss other types of messages our body may be sending us. As Dr. Northup explains, our bodies may be telling us what we need, as well as what we don’t need. And as she puts it: if you don’t heed the message the first time, you get hit with a bigger hammer the next time.
One aspect of this inner guidance is emotions. In our culture, we are taught to ‘control’ emotions, even though emotions not only tell us about our health – they even help us purge toxins. For example, crying can be an important aspect of healing. (And Dr. Northrup notes the interesting fact that the composition of tears of sorrow is different than tears of joy.) I found her metaphor of emotional incision and drainage intriguing. As doctors, we treat abscesses by draining them. As people, we may need to drain emotional pain by letting it out, instead of allowing it to fester. This is not a new idea, of course; it’s a core principle of psychotherapy.
Our bodies may also be talking to us in other ways, and Dr. Northrup describes a number of cases in which physical symptoms – like migraines, back pain and even vaginitis – disappeared when the person experiencing them discovered and changed something unhealthful in her life.
As a physician, I appreciate the many diagnostic tools modern technology has provided us. But I think this chapter is a good reminder that our own bodies can sometimes be the greatest diagnostic tools of all. What do you think? Have you ever discovered your body was telling you something your brain may not have noticed?
In the coming weeks, we’ll focus on overall Preventive Care for women and on specific chapters discussed in Dr. Christiane’s book such as Fertility (on page 393), Vibrant Health (on page 605), Nourishing your body (page 687) and Power of Movement (page 759). I look forward to discussing more next week.
Dr. Ray
