Almost every woman will admit to feeling stress. What many of us fail to realize is that the mental and emotional turmoil that comes with a too-busy lifestyle leads to side effects that, in turn, create more stress -- constant fatigue, weight gain, insomnia, depression — not to mention very serious physical ailments such as heart disease and osteoporosis that often result from stress imbalance.

In fact, most medical problems suffered by women have their root in hormonal imbalance. How’s that for a wake-up call?

Stress and its little friends are largely a result of our ambitious, multitask-‘til-you-drop lifestyles. We know that, don’t we? But what we fail to recognize is the exact nature of stress and how powerful it can be. It comes down to the havoc wreaked on our hormones, according to Dr. Claudia Welch, who writes, “One stressful conversation can increase stress hormones for more than twenty-two hours.” Imagine it! If you have a single argument or tense exchange every day, your body is suffering the side-effects all day long. And if you have two stressful conversations…

Early in the book, Welch explains exactly what hormones are and how they work. More importantly, she explains why an imbalance is so damaging: “Hormones are all-pervasive. They enter the cells of every tissue in our bodies and brains, and affect both our physical and mental well-being.” Anything that powerful running loose in a body certainly needs to be respected and treated kindly.

Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life is a guide to understanding how hormones affect us physically and mentally. This comprehensive, plain-speech book explains exactly what we can do to bring them back into balance and regain our health (and our minds). Based on ancient ayurvedic principles, Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life is loaded with good advice, spelling out simple changes that are both practical and easy to implement.

Dr. Welch advocates a Three-Tier Treatment Strategy, which means that we needn’t turn our lives upside down in order to get healthier. The first tier suggests gradual changes to diet and lifestyle. Tier 2 encourages learning about and using natural remedies. Tier 3 is pharmaceutical drugs or invasive techniques to be used only as a last resort if holistic methods aren’t sufficient.

Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life is THE book for anyone who suffers from stress-related issues or who simply feels ‘crummy.’ As Dr. Welch points out, feeling crummy is a symptom of imbalance; while many people experience it, few are aware that it signals a health crisis-in-waiting and even fewer will discuss it with a physician for fear of being ridiculed. Thank goodness Claudia Welch has brought this ubiquitous but seldom acknowledged symptom into the light and taught us how to tame it.

All of the advice in this book is based upon Ayurveda, an Eastern science that has been practiced for thousands of years, primarily in India. Ayurvedic methods are incorporated not only by the food we eat and healing techniques we choose, but also by the layout of our households and the company we keep. It is truly a whole-life approach to health and well-being. For your own sake, read this book and take its lessons to heart.