A Barefoot Doctor's Guide for Women

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Description

Written in an approachable, conversational tone, "A Barefoot Doctor's Guide for Women" focuses on women's hormonal health. Author Georgette Delvaux describes issues such as menstruation, pre-menopause and menopause, explaining how they can begin as just an annoying occurrence and gradually develop into major problems that affect a woman's body and mind. She also describes accompanying problems that can be directly related to hormonal issues or simply occur at the same time - fluid retention, inflammation, indigestion, anxiety and insomnia - and discusses how osteoporosis can be treated with good nutrition and weight bearing activity.One of the central themes of the book concerns the harmful effects of the popular practice of eliminating numerous hormonal imbalances using artificial or natural hormone supplementation. Delvaux encourages women to trust subtle changes in their own sensations that may indicate imbalance, showing that small imbalances are often easy to treat using reputable alternative practitioners. In addition, she explains that the development of more serious problems that may require treatments with dangerous side effects can be prevented. Delvaux introduces Thermography, an almost unknown but safe method of detecting dangerous changes in breast tissue and how this method also detects minor problems caused by hormonal imbalance that are easy to monitor and correct. The book discusses how contemporary Western medical approaches are complemented by alternative methods such as homeopathy and naturopathy, as well as age-old Eastern medical practices like acupuncture and Ayurveda.

Reviews

A Barefoot Doctors Guide for Women deserves careful consideration by all women who are looking for reasonable alternatives to conventional approaches.
Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things

This little book, written in a deceptively simple language, is chock full of intelligence, wit, and wisdom about our bodies and how we inhabit them. What strikes me most, as a physician, is how simply Madame Delvaux renders the distinction between common sense and esoteric knowledge meaningless. Most irritatingly, she seems to know all sorts of things that those of us who spend our lives practicing medicine never quite seem to get around to understanding.
Jonathan Mueller, MD, San Francisco Board Certified Psychiatrist, Board Certified Neurologist, and Honorary Member, The French Society of Perfumers

If you have been lulled into complacency about your health, Georgette Delvaux is the loving provocateur to break your trance.Her sage and slightly naughty voice will suffuse your thinking, make you laugh, and guide youinto action. Then you'll give this bookto the women you love.
Lynn Elliott-Harding, RN

Having experienced the throes of the menopause of two women, I breathed a sigh of relief at the possibility of some help. And yet, this book is not only useful for health issues unique to women. We all are subject to the growing pollution of the body by the environment, food, antibiotics, and stress. Dr. Georgette Delvaux gives clear and intelligent advice on how to deal with widespread problems of inflammation, indigestion, fluid retention, and a host of other challenges facing us as we age.
Don Hanlon Johnson, PhD, Professor of Somatics, California Institute of Integral Studies and author of Everyday Hopes, Utopian Dreams

In her new book, A Barefoot Doctors Guide for Women, Georgette Delvaux, DC, leads us on a delightful and informative romp through the female body, mind, and spirit. With her light, informal but informed tone, she addresses such troubling issues as premenstrual syndrome, menopause and hot flashes, breast care, fibroid tumors, osteoporosis, hip fracture, nutrition, dehydration, insomnia, and anxiety. In each case she gives us useful, practical information about the condition, describes the Western medical approach to treatment, and then suggests several natural, complementary approaches as alternative treatments for the same condition. For each treatment she presents both the advantages and the disadvantages, but it seems clear that her personal and professional preference is for the Barefoot Doctors approach. By the time you finish reading the last page, you may find yourself reconsidering your own choices for the health and well-being of your body, mind, and spirit.
Sandy Dibbel-Hope, PhD, Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Georgette Delvaux is a healer. Her special talent is her ability to integrate the best wisdom and skills from all healing arts, beyond the definitions of Eastern and Western, and to arrive at an integrated paradigm for understanding our bodies. Her book helps us understand our natural rhythms, seasons, and changes so that we know intuitively when we are well, when we are ill, when our changes are alarm bells, and when they are natural progressions of our life seasons. Dr. Delvaux shares with us her understanding of our bodies ability to weather changes and our innate ability to heal ourselves.
Liz Hendrickson, JD

While written as a medical tour guide for women, reading Georgette Delvauxs book transformed my attitude toward the female body. Along with awe toward its inestimable power to seduce and reproduce, I now see a central place for gentleness, kindness, and care toward its natural vulnerability.
Karl Kracklauer, PhD

Author Bio

Georgette Delvaux was born in Luxembourg, studied anatomy in Geneva, and came to the United States to study Rolfing. She graduated from the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado in 1979, and was certified as an Advanced Rolfer in 1986. A licensed chiropractor, Delvaux also practices craniosacral osteopathy, is interested in herbalism, homeopathy, and acupuncture, and is a student of Taoism and Buddhism. She currently shares a Rolfing practice with her husband, Michael Salveson, in Berkeley, California.