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 Neela Sakaria: Thank you for joining us Ms. Weed. Can you tell our readers a bit about your professional background?
Susun Weed: I have been actively involved in helping women with their health since 1972. I personally got interested in herbal medicine in 1965. It is interesting to me that my great grandmother, unknown to me at the time, was an herbalist in her village in Switzerland. All of my mother's sisters and my grandmother have herbal stories and seem to know things about herbs. Basically, I can say that is true of everybody. But once it became known that I was interested in herbs, there was a tremendous amount of information that was available to me through my extended family, that I hadn't known was available.
Neela: How long have you been writing about herbal remedies?
SW: My first book was published in 1984. All of my books have been about women's health and herbal medicine. My first book was WISE WOMAN HERBAL FOR THE CHILDBEARING YEAR.
Neela: What inspired you to sit down and write NEW MENOPAUSAL YEARS?
SW: After writing my first book, I did a more general purpose herbal, HEALING WISE, for everyone. After that, I looked around and realized I was getting into my mid-forties, with menopause on the horizon. I thought I better learn as much as I can and write it all down before I lose my memory! While I was working on the menopause book, it became very clear to me that while women do not die of hot flashes, they do die of breast cancer. So my next book was BREAST CANCER, BREAST HEALTH! THE WISE WOMAN WAY.
Now, 12 years later, many of the predictions of my first menopausal book have come true. I said that taking hormones would increase the risk of heart disease and breast cancer, and would not help in terms of maintaining mental acuity, and preventing fractures. Here we are about 12 years later, and these predictions have come true. So, I had to revise the book to help steer women away from the alternatives that they are being pushed towards - primarily, soy and progesterone cream.
Neela: Are you happy with the response that the book has received?
SW: I am tremendously happy with the response that all of my books have gotten. Many have been translated into French and German. The sell throughout the world in the British Commonwealth as well as many other countries. We get hundreds of emails from all over the world, from women who are delighted. Many say they find these books to be like bibles, and what is in there works and is safe. I have gone around and asked people what works, and have put all of that in a form and in a pattern that works for women.
Neela: How much research was involved in writing these books? What was the process?
SW: I don't do direct scientific research. My research is more on the order of talking to people and doing literature searches. I read more than 100 periodicals on a monthly basis - ranging from natural history, to science, to health, to archaeology, to specific things about the breasts or reproductive health. All of that goes into my "cooking pot," shall we say.
Neela: What are the most common misperceptions surrounding women and menopause?
SW: I would say the primary misconception is that menopause is a time when we have less hormones. In fact, it is a time when we have very high levels of hormones. As part of that, people believe women lose estrogen during menopause. In fact, we are born making 30 types of estrogen, and the 30th type turns on at puberty and off at menopause. So in fact, we continue to make those 29 types every day of our lives. As a post menopausal woman, this vision of the revised New Menopausal Years, came after I had gone through it. So it is full of juicy personal details as well. As a post menopausal woman, I can tell you I'm not missing anything at all.
Neela: You reach out to the public not only through your writing, but through other methods as well (radio, television, web). Looking back, do you feel satisfied with the work you have done as an educator on women's health?
SW: When I turned forty in 1986, I made a commitment to spend the next 20 years making the Wise Woman Tradition an option. At this point, we look around and see the words "Wise Woman Tradition" used commonly by people and authors. I am very satisfied, I feel that I have alerted women especially, to the idea that there is more than a choice between modern medicine and alternative choice. There is a choice for the world's oldest healing traditions, The Wise Woman Way, where we nourish the unique wholeness of the individual.
Neela: What is the "healing cloak of the ancients"?
SW: It is a metaphor for the idea that all of those who have gone before us, our ancestors, are the ancient ones. Each one of us represents a thread in an ongoing weaving. When we return to taking care of ourselves, we do something that is not just good for ourselves, but is good for our communities and for the planet. It is really kind of a political statement, to say that I can take care of my own self with simple, safe, home remedies.
Neela: What challenges did you face in founding the Wise Woman Center?
SW: I have faced the challenges that many before me have faced. Uncertainty about financial resources, whether or not I was going to be able to do everything I wanted to do. I write, I run a healing center, I run a publishing company, I train apprentices who live with me. I also milk a herd of dairy goats! The Goddess has supported me in all of my endeavors, and has allowed me to do everything I wanted. I have learned to take it on faith, one day at a time, and admit that I can't control life.
Neela: What wisdom would you share with women who might be afraid of the changes their bodies will face when menopause arrives - so afraid that they may not want to learn?
SW: That was a big issue in my book on breast health. One of my distributors refused to carry the book because it was a "scary topic." I told her I'd give her the first case free, and if she couldn't sell it, I'd take it back. They now order that book 3,000 copies at a time. My books are called the perfect antidote to fear. To a woman who is afraid of menopause, I'd say what did you do for puberty? Most women will laugh say, I didn't do anything for puberty! I'd say right, and you got through it. You don't need to do anything - menopause is just as natural as puberty, and just as upsetting.
Neela: Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?
SW: I'd like to say that my books and my teachings spring out of the three big ideas that I have had. One of those is called the three traditions of healing. I talk about that in HEALING WISE. Another one of those ideas is the six steps of healing - an ordered approach to taking the confusion out of which remedies to use. My menopause and breast cancer books are based on the six steps of healing. My third big idea is drinking nourishing herbal infusions on a daily basis to get teeming amounts of minerals and vitamins into our diets and our bodies. I continue to work on the Wise Woman herbal theories. I am working on a companion volume to HEALING WISE, called HEALING WELL. Also coming up within the next five years will be DOWN THERE, THE WISE WOMAN WAY - another simple, safe book of remedies.
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