Foreword by Christiane Northrup, MD

FOREWORD

Christiane Northrup, MD, FACOG, author Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

Think back to when you were in middle school. Think back to when you got your first period. Was this event something you talked about with your classmates? Your family? And if you had symptoms, such as heavy bleeding, irregular periods, or cramps, was there a wise healer in your life who told you exactly what you needed to do to establish a healthy partnership with your body, your menstrual cycle, and your cyclic lunar wisdom? Did anyone tel you that your periods, the condition of your skin, and the state of your bowel movements were al indicators of how wel your hormones were balanced? Did anyone tel you how to find balance natural y?

Were you ever put on birth control pil s to “regulate” your periods?

Mil ions of women the world over are subjected to a barrage of medications and synthetic hormonal treatments designed to mask the symptoms of hormonal imbalance that lead to menstrual cycle, fertility, and libido problems in the first place. The most common of these treatments is birth control pil s—which result in over fifty different metabolic consequences that further disrupt a woman’s hormonal cycle (for example, birth control pil s increase the need for folic acid and vitamin B12, two vitamins that are already in short supply in many women).

Giving birth control pil s and other medications to women to regulate their periods, improve their fertility, or enhance their sex drive is akin to putting a piece of tape over the flashing indicator light on the dashboard of your car and pretending you have addressed

the engine problem rather than looking under the hood and dealing with the underlying issue.

As a board-certified ob/gyn, I spent years and years being indoctrinated into finding better and more sophisticated pieces of tape (in the form of drugs) to put over the indicator lights of women with hormonal imbalances. But I always knew that there had to be a better way. And that is why I wrote Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, a book that was quite radical at the time of its original publication. Happily for me, many women intuitively knew that drugs and surgery were not the whole answer. Little did I know that I was breaking ground on a trail that Alisa Vitti and others are now making into a superhighway of women’s wisdom. In fact, Alisa is part of a new generation of thought-leaders in women’s health who are at the forefront of truly assisting women to understand how to best care for and heal their bodies—including having healthy periods, optimal fertility, and a healthy sex drive.

Her protocol is a tried-and-true plan that brings tangible results for women trying to solve their hormonal issues. You’l be excited to read the stories of the women who have used Alisa’s approach and have fixed their periods; gotten pregnant successful y; and restored their sex drive, mood, and energy al without drugs or surgery.

WomanCode is bril iantly organized and scientifical y sound—yet free of jargon so that anyone can understand the principles and how to apply them. Alisa’s goal is to help you understand your uniquely female biology in a way that wil make balancing your hormones second nature to you.

To understand how important Alisa’s work on hormonal balance is, beyond her expertise as a holistic health coach, you also need to know something about what I cal her “soul qualities.” Imagine, if you wil , a bright young sixth-grader named Alisa Vitti who was so taken with the hormonal changes in her body she formed a PERIOD club at her school. Yep—a club for her and her middle school pals to bond around their menstrual cycles—one of our Western society’s last real taboos. Now THAT takes ovaries. And of course, Alisa’s ovaries were quite large and robust—so large and robust, in fact, that she was later diagnosed with what is cal ed PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome)—a condition characterized by absent periods,

stubborn weight gain, unwanted facial hair, and infertility. A condition for which medicine offers very little hope except for birth control pil s, blood sugar regulators, ovulation enhancing drugs, and occasional surgery.

But Alisa—being a bright and audacious bulb—decided that she was NOT about to succumb to simply applying “tape” over the flashing indicator lights of her ovaries, and the rest of her endocrine system. Not her. She decided to defy the prognosis that she was given, which was this: PCOS is incurable and you may be infertile and obese the rest of your life. (NOTE: not al women with PCOS

have weight problems, but most do.) So instead of going the traditional medical route, as any science geek such as herself would normal y have done—Alisa’s ovaries led her on a different quest, a quest to find the real cause of her problem. A journey that led her to research intensively the healing properties of foods and how they can be applied to the organs of the endocrine system to bring it al back to balance. She wanted to find real solutions—not just fancier tape for the indicator lights.

And she succeeded bril iantly! She not only reversed her own condition—she has, through her center in NYC and her website, also helped thousands of women around the world end their suffering with period issues, infertility, and low libido. Together they have learned to partner with their bodies, create hormonal harmony, and reclaim their wonderful cyclic wisdom as wel as their libido and their fertility. Al without expensive drugs and surgery.

You hold in your hands the precious fruit of Alisa’s considerable labor to find her own women’s wisdom and pass it on to you. You hold in your hands a very clear, practical, user-friendly solution to the most pervasive and al too common gyn problems that legions of women face today. Here are the solutions that your inner wisdom has been seeking al along. You too can fol ow Alisa’s guidance to find your own fertile, comfortable creative flow—in both your body and your life.

I believe that every woman should learn how to be proactive about her hormonal balance by using food as medicine in order for her to flourish in her body and her life. Having watched Alisa and the FLO

Living Center grow over the years, I know I am putting you in excel ent and experienced hands.