Book Review: Natural Choices for Women’s Health
Stacie Deyglio, ND
Treating the whole person, Tolle Totum, signifies distinguishing the whole individual while relating the complex interactions of many factors to the person’s imbalance. Steelsmith’s book, Natural Choices for Women’s Health, embodies the truth of Tolle Totum. Her book emphasizes the wisdom that natural health does not treat disease states; natural health treats the whole person by empowering the patient to take responsibility for his or her own health, allowing, facilitating and enhancing the self-healing process by means of therapeutic interventions.
Dr. Steelsmith’s personal recovery from borderline lupus solely utilizing natural therapeutics prompted her life’s work of integrating Eastern and Western natural health philosophies. Natural Choice’s for Women’s Health is a generous merger of the philosophies of Western naturopathic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine that concentrates on women’s health: “This book is about empowering you, so that you can make healthy choices and live a fuller, more vital life. It is about teaching you to make the most informed decisions concerning your health and inspiring you to take control of your health rather than let ill health take control of you.”
The book is a synthesis of 10 chapters that address the 10 organ systems most essential to a woman’s body. These include the immune system, kidney, liver, heart, gastrointestinal, hormones, bones, breast, pelvis and brain. Each organ system chapter is composed of a best list of tools and techniques, remedies that may be easily accomplished at home and a viewpoint of health imbalances common to women that highlight both the Western natural medicine approach and the Chinese medicine approach. The book also contains six appendices that are elemental in providing women direction for where to find resources necessary to transition their empowerment into action.
Dr. Steelsmith outlines a way of health she calls the Naturally Healthy Lifestyle: “It is about creating a healthy emotional life with loving, fulfilling relationships, enhancing your mental health and knowing yourself. It means developing a heightened awareness of your health and a conscientious willingness to persevere when it comes to making healthy choices. It entails a level of self esteem that allows you to make your own health your top priority, to commit to taking care of yourself and to know that you are worth your vigilance.” Dr. Steelsmith speaks the wisdom of a true integrationist who, empowered by the voice of her own experience, shares knowledge empathically.
Stacie Deyglio, ND received her baccalaureate degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from the College of Mt. St. Vincent in New York. Personal health issues paved her way to discover naturopathic medicine in 1999. Resonating with the philosophy and principles of naturopathic medicine, Deyglio graduated from the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine in 2003. As a medical student, she was actively involved in student government, fundraising and the generation of two successful student-run health fairs. Currently residing in Arizona, Deyglio is an avid bookworm who is actively creating her practice after a three-year sabbatical taken to raise her son.
