Like a lot of women I find that I Tivo Oprah. Now on most days I can tell by the title I'll not want to watch it and delete it, but sometimes I get surprised. This happened just this week. I'm not a perimenopause or menopause woman but my mom is and I will be one day too. So when the show titled, The Big Wake up Call for Women with Dr. Christine Northrup I watched to see what I could learn and boy was it the right thing to do.
I love to read but rarely do I read anything Oprah talks about or promotes on her book club. I read for escapism or for curiosity if a subject intrigues me but "reality" fiction is not on my top list of "gotta read". And I think as an Oprah viewer you know she's not that into the romance genre which is number one on my books to read. I watched and was so happy to hear Dr. Northrup saying multiple times to read romance! I have pulled from the Oprah.com site the below text which is a summary of Dr. Northrup's visit on the Oprah Winfrey show.
{Women often have trouble sleeping as they get older. What causes insomnia in the first place? "That's often stress hormones and the wrong kind of diet," Dr. Northrup says.
The first step to a better night's sleep is decreasing the amount of white foods—like pasta and sugar—in your diet. "If they get off the white foods, there are high glycemic index carbs. Glycemic index is raising your blood sugar quickly."
Instead, try to eat more foods with omega-3 fats—including salmon, ground flaxseed and macadamia nuts. "When you eat that way, you find that it will decrease insulin. It will also decrease stress hormones, and there's less inflammation in your brain and you'll sleep like a babe."
Another way to avoid another night staring at the ceiling, Dr. Northrup says, is to establish a calming routine before bed. "The other thing people do, they surf the net right before they go to bed or they watch TV right before they go to bed and this excites the brain," she says. "You need to give yourself an hour before going to bed to get ready for sleep. A warm bath. A romance novel. … Get the TV out of your bedroom."}
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{Dr. Northrup wants you to have the best sex of your life—all you have to do is get in the right frame of mind. "The brain is the biggest sex organ in the body," she says. "You need to learn how to turn yourself on." Dr. Northrup recommends romance novels (80% of the publishing industry is romance novels. Do you know why? They turn woman on), weekend getaways with your lover and letting go of inhibitions by giving up perfection.}
THANK YOU Dr. Northrup for letting all of Oprah's viewers know the truth about the romance genre.
