Like A Natural Woman The Black Woman's Guide to Alternative Healing

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781575666303
• ISBN10: 1575666308
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Kensington

Summary

In this comprehensive guide to alternative techniques and therapies, Ziba Kashef helps readers learn to cope with the health concerns of African-American women, including weight problems, PMS, diabetes, asthma, chronic illness, and stress. Kashef re-examines the folk medicine handed down to grandmothers by African ancestors, and draws on her interviews with a variety of alternative health practitioners to offer the tools readers need to heal.

"Like A Natural Woman" will show readers how to:
-- Ease the discomforts of morning sickness and digestive problems with vitamins, supplements, and teas;
-- Shrink fibroids by taking a combination of herbs -- and avoid surgery;
-- Satisfy a taste for soul food -- without all the fat and salt;
-- Control the symptoms of menopause with the right diet, exercise, and soy supplements;
-- Boost the immune system to fight disease -- by using alternative approaches like hydrotherapy and acupuncture to enhance conventional treatments;
-- And much more.

Armed with the information in this empowering, infor

Author Biography

Ziba Kashef is a senior editor at ESSENCE and a health writer. In addition to writing and editing articles for that publication, she has also written on a variety of health-related topics for such publications as Good Housekeeping and the New York Post. She is also a contributing writer for Black Parenting Book. Formerly a senior editor at Sesame Street Parents magazine and an associate editor at McCall's, Ziba is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Livin' Healthy	1	(22)
Healthy Living: Caring for Ourselves	3	(1)
Living in Balance	4	(1)
Assessing Ourselves	4	(5)
Stress: Killing Us Softly?	9	(3)
Exercise as Natural Medicine	12	(4)
How Much Is Enough?	16	(2)
Making Good Health a Habit	18	(2)
Claim Your Healthy Intentions	20	(1)
Family Healthy History	21	(2)
Resources	21	(2)
Eating Right And Light	23	(26)
Let Food Be Your Medicine	24	(1)
Eating What Our Ancestors Ate	25	(2)
Choosing the Diet for You	27	(6)
Vegetarianism	33	(4)
Commonly Asked Questions	37	(3)
Additional Alternative Diets	40	(5)
Diet Dilemmas	45	(4)
Resources	48	(1)
Some Added Insurance: Supplements	49	(22)
Supplementing Our Health	50	(3)
How Much Is Enough? Or Too Much?	53	(2)
Supplement Strategies	55	(1)
Self-Awareness Tool	55	(1)
Nutrient/Drug Interactions	56	(1)
Vitamins and Minerals	57	(6)
Additional Selected Supplements	63	(5)
Antioxidants: Nutrition All-Stars	68	(3)
Resources	69	(2)
Back To Our Roots: Healing With Herbs	71	(18)
Herbs for Healing	72	(1)
Natural Healing Is Our Heritage	72	(2)
Herbal Basics	74	(1)
Using Herbs	74	(3)
Methods of Application	77	(2)
Twenty Great Herbs to Have in Your Home	79	(8)
Homeopathy	87	(2)
Resources	87	(2)
Mind-Body Methods	89	(20)
Natural Healing Is Our Heritage	91	(2)
This Far by Faith/Balm in Gilead	93	(1)
Relaxation Techniques	94	(3)
Mind over Matter	97	(3)
Mental Health Help	100	(4)
Self-Help	104	(1)
Self-Awareness Tool	105	(4)
Resources	107	(2)
Laying On Of Hands	109	(20)
Hands-On Healing	110	(1)
Natural Healing Is Our History	111	(1)
Healing with Touch	111	(7)
Healing with Energy	118	(4)
Healing with Chakras	122	(3)
Wading in the Waters: Hydrotherapy	125	(1)
Movement Therapies	126	(3)
Resources	127	(2)
Your Periods And PMS	129	(22)
Our Cycles, Ourselves	130	(1)
Natural Healing Is Our History	131	(1)
Self-Awareness Tool	132	(1)
Menstruation	133	(1)
Common Cycle-Related Concerns	134	(5)
The Womb and Pelvis	139	(2)
Common Womb Concerns	141	(4)
Infections of the Vagina and Urinary Tract	145	(2)
Breast Changes	147	(4)
Resources	148	(3)
Freedom From Fibroids	151	(12)
The Fibroid Epidemic	152	(2)
Unnatural Causes	154	(2)
Self-Awareness Tool	156	(1)
Fibroid Signs and Symptoms	157	(2)
Natural Cures	159	(4)
Resources	161	(2)
In The Family Way: Pregnancy And Childbirth	163	(20)
Making Babies	166	(2)
Three Months to Six Months before You Get Pregnant	168	(2)
Pregnancy Barriers	170	(3)
Self-Awareness Tool	173	(1)
Being Pregnant	174	(3)
Giving Birth	177	(6)
Resources	180	(3)
Time for the Change: Menopause	183	(16)
Natural Healing Is Our History	185	(2)
What's Going On? Understanding the Change	187	(2)
Self-Awareness Tool	189	(2)
Natural Solutions to Ten Common Menopause Signs	191	(8)
Resources	197	(2)
Living With Lupus	199	(12)
What Causes Lupus?	202	(1)
Many Faces of Lupus	202	(3)
Living with Lupus	205	(3)
Emotional Impact of Disease	208	(3)
Resources	209	(2)
Confronting Cancer	211	(16)
Cancer's Causes	214	(2)
Preventing Cancer	216	(1)
Early Detection Methods	217	(6)
Complementary Care	223	(4)
Resources	225	(2)
Coping With Chronic Conditions: Hypertension, Diabetes, Heart Disease	227	(14)
Natural Healing and Our History	229	(1)
Hypertension or High Blood Pressure	230	(3)
Diabetes Type II	233	(4)
Heart Disease	237	(4)
Resources	238	(3)
Emotional Healing: Stress, Depression, Phobias	241	(12)
Natural Healing Is Our History	243	(1)
Black Woman's Blues: Stress and the Sources of Our Emotional Disease	244	(1)
Mental Illness	244	(7)
Prevention and Complementary Care	251	(2)
Resources	252	(1)
Index	253