Hormonal BalanceThe Key to Life, Love and Energy

From the author of the #1 BestSeller Men are from mars, women are from venus

JOHN GrAy, Ph.D.

W i t h F o r e W o r d b y h y l a C a s s , M . d.

Venus on Fire Mars on ice

Contents

Introduction Chapter
1. Venus on Fire, Mars on IceWhy? 2. Venus and Mars Under Stress 3. Venus and Mars Out of Orbit 4. Cooling Down Venus, Heating Up Mars 5. Venus and Mars, Changing Places?!? 6. Why Venus Stops Talking and Mars Stops Listening 7. Emergency ManThe Real Reason Women Need You 8. Venus and Mars Collide Into Love 9. Menopause is from Venus, Man-O-Pause is from Mars 10. Super Fuel to Balance the Planets Nutrition for Healthy Hormones 11. Venus and Mars at Rest 12. Love, Sex and Happiness Afterword For More Information

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1 15 31 47 69 89 105 123 147 165 183 199 233 235

Appendix
A. One Hundred Oxytocin-Producing Activities A Woman Can Engage In B. Grounded to the Earth C. Herbal Supplements for Increased Sexual Desire and Enhanced Performance 237 243 249

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Chapter three

Venus and Mars out of orbit

striving to balance chemicals helps Mars and Venus stay in compatible orbits.

The ancient Greeks understood that the mind and body are intimately connected: A healthy mind supports a healthy body; a healthy body supports a healthy mind. They didnt understand the exact nature of the connection. But today, thanks to abundant scientific research, we can take this insight to a whole new level. New mind/body research shows us the missing link. Its to be found in our hormones. Our mind affects our hormones which then regulate our body. In turn, hormones powerfully affect what
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we think and feel. Its a complicated interaction that cant be overestimated and shouldnt be underappreciated. Indeed, even our moods have been shown to be directly related to our hormone levels and the balanced or unbalanced nature of our brain chemicals. A long time ago it was just a fantasy to think that there would be a smile pill capable of lifting a bad mood, or pills for sleeping or getting work done, but, as we all know, those pills have arrived in truckloads. Doctors cant write the prescriptions fast enough for all the depressed, weary or stressed patients coming their way. The modern worlds widespread dependence on antidepressants, sleeping pills, and amphetamines has become epidemic. An estimated one in five Americans has New research reveals become dependent on some type of that hormones create medication intended to help them cope an important link effectively with lifes stressors. In my conbetween the body sulting work, I learned of one hospital and the mind. where half of the 20,000 employees were taking antidepressants. This is shocking. I consider it a clear indictment of our way of life, especially since this dependence on prescription drugs is the direct consequence of our failure to support the health and well-being of our bodies. When people talk about stress, they usually talk about factors related to their work or non-work commitments. But the stress of our busy lives is not merely due to our vocations and avocations. Whether we can sense it or not, our stress is increased and aggravated by our inability to recover from our outside-world stresses at home. When our personal relationships dont serve to lower our stress levels, our perception of stress and our symptoms of stress are bound to rise dramatically. Thats when we reach for a pillsomething to help us sleep, or get the work done, or simply to not feel so blue about it all.
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More than twice as many women as men take antidepressants. Theres good reason for todays women to try to address their mood disorders, because as weve already seen, modern women are experiencing (1) unprecedented levels of stress for their gender and (2) higher levels of stress than men. What accounts for the gender difference in antidepressant use? Brain differences. One study has revealed that during a moderately stressful situation, a womans brain has eight times more blood flow in the emotional part of the brain than a mans does in a similar situation. In fact, moderate stress hardly registers a reaction in a mans brain. But a womans brain is strongly activated. Faced with something she regards as a threat, a woman draws upon her emotional memory. To anticipate possible danger, she remembers in clear detail many things that have gone wrong in similar situations in the past. Remember, this isnt just cognitive memory. Its emotional memory. She feels those past episodes and releases cortisol to meet the new challenge. This explains why men commonly think women are getting upset over nothing, and why women commonly think men have no feelings. His brain only registers a strong emotional reaction when the problem is an emergency or at least has a sense of strong urgency. Hes fully capable of experiencing the same level of emotional intensity that a woman does, but only when the situation is life-and-death dire. Thats why everyday stressors that send Venus into orbit will have Mars wondering why shes overreacting. But hes the one whos overreacting! He thinks shes declaring an emergency when shes not. Yes, shes upset. But she doesnt want or need to call 911. She wants only to share her feelings. He says, Why are you making such a big deal out of this? She says, Im not making a big deal out of it. Im just telling you what happened.
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He says, If its not a big deal, then why cant you just forget about it? She says, I dont want to forget about it. I want to talk about it. Why cant you just listen? There it is, the battle of the sexes in a nutshell. On Mars, under moderate stress, you cope with stress by taking time to relax and put it out of your mind. If you cant do anything about it, the Martians figure, why not forget about it until you can do something? On Venus, they have a different custom, If you cant do anything about a problem, you should at least talk about it. Fine, but why is it that women are so determined to talk about their problems, even when the issue isnt urgent and they arent really looking for a solution? Science now answers the question that people have been asking for centuries. When there is extra blood flow to the emotional part of the brain, a person begins to feel distressed. The brains preferred response is to release a calming, feel-good brain chemical called serotonin, but it doesnt always happen as automatiUnder moderate cally as we might like. What women stress, women cope know intuitively is that talking about by talking, men problems stimulates the release of serocope by relaxing. tonin. From the perspective of brain chemicals and stress hormones, then, its clear that women talk about problems to calm the blood flow in the emotional part of their brain. Normally, the human brain stores abundant serotonin, usually enough to handle occasional moments of stress. However, at the end of a grinding day, a woman can find herself fresh out of serotonin while the man still has plenty left. He doesnt need to talk to stimulate the release of more serotonin, but she craves the conversation. He doesnt understand her need to talk. Thats because he has no idea how helpful talking and feeling heard can
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be for her. Meanwhile, she doesnt understand his lack of interest in the process. Doesnt he care? Well, he certainly would care if he understood how much she needs the serotonin that talking can give her. When a woman feels emotionally supported by being able to share her feelings, it gives her the same sense of coping that a man might gain from fixing the situation. Talking rebuilds her serotonin supplies and calms her down. This, men, is why its important sometimes to just listen and not try to solve her problems for her.

Our Brains Need a Steady Fuel Supply

But I have another factor to introduce to the equation: blood sugar. The body requires a steady supply of blood sugar to make serotonin. Indeed, no amount of talking will be sufficient to make serotonin and calm her brain if a woman has low blood sugar. With this scientific fact in hand, we can see that stabilizing blood sugar is at least as important as balancing hormones. As you know, Ive built a career on helping men and women learn to understand one another. I have emphasized the power of a loving relationship not just for the sake of harmony, but for health. Striving to balance chemicals such as testosterone, oxytocin, and serotonin has given me another tool to help Mars and Venus stay in compatible orbit. But, for me, the role of blood sugar has been an eye-opener. We now know that its the lynchpin in terms of understanding the effect of brain chemistry on relationships. And, like so much we discuss in this book, we find that blood sugar is more important to women than it is to men. If women are to benefit from the many stress-reducing benefits of a loving relationship, its essential that they have a steady supply of fuel for their brains. The fuel is blood sugar. It cant be stored by the brain, and it must be kept within a narrow range of blood
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proverbial doghouse for something you did hours, days or years ago. Nothing you can say will help. Take it from the man whos learned from experience: Just feed her fast, or she may experience selective amnesia and forget every good thing youve ever done in your life. Dont argue; its like pouring gasoline on a fire. Just listen, nod, and find her a restaurant! Later in this chapter well talk more about the importance of maintaining a diet that supports a steady level of blood sugar. But first I want to give you a reason to really take that information to heart. Could it be true that many of the major symptoms of menopause are actually caused by highly-irregular blood sugar?

Is it Hormones or Blood Sugar?

Its true. New research reveals that the usual menopausal symptoms that run the gamut from weight gain to mood swings to hot flashes arent necessarily caused by hormonal imbalance (lack of estrogen). These same symptoms also can be caused by fluctuations in blood sugar. In numerous cases of what was first thought to be hormonal imbalance and estrogen deficiency, the solution was found not in taking hormones, but in stabilizing blood sugar levels. Certainly hormonal imbalances can be caused by many things, including stress. But a big part of the problem has to do with something as seemingly innocuous as consuming a processed food snack, des- Eating too much white flour and sugar sert or energy drink. When you eat a candy bar or drink a threatens our health. soda, blood sugar spikes. It doesnt take much; only a tablespoon or two of sugar is needed to do the trick. Too much sugar in the bloodstream is dangerous to the body. Over years of white flour and sugar consumption, the frequent
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high blood sugar surges can cause enormous free-radical damage, accelerating the aging process. In some people sugar can cause diabetes, resulting in heart disease, blindness, nerve damage, and brain cell death. The body knows this and acts to protect itself from high blood sugar by releasing the hormone insulin to store the excess sugar in the muscles, liver, and fat cells. That storage brings blood sugar down. When blood sugar then swings back downward, the body then steps in to release cortisol, the stress hormone, to keep blood sugar levels from getting too low. As weve already learned, excess production of cortisol ages the brain and puts stress on the adrenal gland, contributing to adrenal burnout. This so-called burnout makes it harder and harder for the gland to produce the stress-reducing hormones of testosterone (for men) and oxytocin (for women). Excess blood sugar never used to be much of a dietary issue. When I was growing up, very few fast food restaurants or convenience stores existed. Today, though, the average person in America eats 100 times as much sugar as a person who lived a hundred years ago. Never before have so many empty calories, devoid of nutrition and packed with sugar, been available in peoples diets. While this extra sugar gives us a boost of energy, it is also directly responsible for a host of problems, hormone deficiency being the most immediate. Sugar in itself is not a bad food. Its an important fuel for the body and, in particular, the brain. Sugar only becomes a problem when we eat too much of it or if its released too quickly into the bloodstream. Lets use potatoes for an example. A baked potato converts immediately into sugar that floods into the bloodstream. Since this can easily be more sugar than the body needs, the excess sugar is stored as fat. This is why many weight-loss plans instruct dieters to avoid potatoes.
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For More information

For more information on the concepts and products presented in this book, visit BalancedPlanets.com, or venus-on-fire-mars-onice.com. You can also call 1-866-573-9362. There are many sources of good information available on the natural health supplements and herbs mentioned in this book. In addition to your local health food store, your health care professional, bookstores, and libraries, there are many online sources of information, including the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance website, www.supplementinfo.org, the Counsel for Responsible Nutritions Life. Supplemented website, www.lifesupplemented.org, and the American Botanical Association website www.herbalgram.org. For information on PGX (PolyGlycopleX) visit www.pgx.com.

To find a natural health product store near you

U.S.A. Visit www.naturalfactors.com and click on Where to Buy CANADA Visit www.pno.ca and click on Find a Store

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