Viewed from the perspective of the evolution of the animal kingdom, sustained psychological stress is a recent invention, mostly limited to humans and other social primates.
—ROBERT SAPOLSKY
BARBARA SAT DOWN with a heavy sigh. She looked defeated.
“Dr. Romm, I’m exhausted all the time, and these cravings are driving me nuts. Nuts and chocolate and chips, more accurately,” she said with a wry smile. “I’m constantly fighting an inner battle over food. I’ve been dieting for years and haven’t lost a pound. Honestly, I hate my body most of the time, and it’s not just my weight. It feels like I’m always chasing off a cold or a yeast infection. And now I have arthritis in my knees. Life is so overwhelming, and just when I think I’m gaining control, something throws me off.”
At forty-five, Barbara had metabolic syndrome, a prediabetic condition with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. Her conventional doctor had nothing more to offer her than drugs for these serious problems, and painkillers and surgery for her knee pain. She didn’t like the idea of becoming dependent on medications. “I’m only forty-five and already have so many problems. You’d think I was an old lady!”
Barbara is not alone. Every day women visit my practice feeling defeated. They’re overwhelmed and frazzled, not sleeping well, getting sick more often than they expect to, and even when they’re not sick, feel they’re operating at 50 percent of their best. They have trouble losing weight and can’t stick to a diet or kick their sugar habit. They feel they have no willpower. They feel stuck in overdrive. They’re in survival mode, and life feels out of control.
That day in my office, I asked Barbara a question: “How do you want to feel?”
“Nobody’s ever asked me that before,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I’m just so overwhelmed by everything in my life. I’m pretty sure my teenagers hate me. They just ignore me, and my daughter is struggling with anxiety. My husband, bless his heart. He’s patient, but I’m pushing him away. I never want to be intimate with him because I don’t feel sexy. I’m always overwhelmed and feel like my health is completely out of control.”
“Yes. That’s a lot,” I said, leaning toward her. “So, how do you want to feel?” I asked her again, gently but firmly.
“I just want to feel like myself again, I want my life back, I want to remember what feeling good feels like. And,” she added, “I don’t want to go down this road of pills and surgery. I want to be healthy and really live my life.”
Like Barbara, many of my patients arrive with symptoms mirroring a disturbing and growing trend in the health of women throughout the United States over the past couple of decades. Here are just a few of the troubling statistics:
Stress, poor sleep, and overwhelm: According to the Annual Stress Survey by the American Psychological Association, 75 percent of women experience moderate to severe stress, 49 percent report sleep problems, and more than 40 percent report physical symptoms as a direct result of stress. Recent studies show that most are also experiencing chronic overwhelm and exhaustion. Millions of women take a sleep medication nightly, and many more “on occasion.” Frighteningly, stress, poor sleep, and chronic overwhelm can set the stage for future heart disease and cancer. Women—especially women who have to juggle multiple roles—feel the effects of it, sometimes in the form of a long list of symptoms and a variety of illnesses.
Obesity: Thirty-four percent of adults age twenty years or over are overweight, 34 percent are obese, and 6 percent are extremely obese. Between ages twenty and sixty, women are much more likely to be overweight than men. Terrifyingly, 50 percent of the entire adult population is expected to have diabetes by 2030, and this is one of the major predictors of heart disease and is also associated with dementia.
Depression and anxiety: One in four women experiences an extended time of major depression in her life, and as many women are on an antidepressant, an antianxiety medication, or often both, not living their lives with the joy and satisfaction we are meant to experience.
Autoimmune disease: Autoimmune disease is now the third most common category of disease in the United States, and one of the ten leading causes of death for women. Conservative estimates show that 78 percent of autoimmune disease sufferers are women. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most prevalent, and affects women almost exclusively.
Some of these conditions have become so common that many doctors are chalking them up to being normal facts of life or aging.
Women in the United States are also dangerously overmedicated, at a rate higher than men, for problems that generally require lifestyle—not pharmaceutical—solutions. Women are ...
