For men, unless a chronic disease process or an exposure to toxins is involved, hormones remain at healthy levels while gradually declining over a lifetime.

Women, unfortunately, must face menopause, a more immediate and distinct decline in hormone levels over as little as 5–10 years.

Needless to say, this kind of rapid hormonal decline often creates symptoms that run the gamut from irritability to debilitating pain. It’s during this difficult time that some women may need hormone therapy (HT) to regain their peace of mind and quality of life.

I want to make it clear that I am not an advocate of HT for the purposes of extending youth or elevating levels to those of a 25-year-old.

The hormonal cascade requires a very delicate balance, and without the proper knowledge and precision of application, the introduction of exogenous hormones (those obtained from outside the body) can wreak havoc on one’s health. …

Everyone loves a fine wine because it gets better with age.

Grapes have just enough sugar inside to feed the yeast on their skins to sustain a fermentation process that creates incredible depths of flavor over many years. The trick is, in order for the yeast and sugar to interact to create this state of richness, the grapes must be smashed.

Wine has always had a sacred significance because it’s a metaphor for a state of being, and what it means to be human.

How many times do we find ourselves feeling smashed by the circumstances of our lives, thinking that everything is ruined, only to come through the experience wiser, stronger, and, dare I say, grateful?

This type of breaking down to build back up into something better explains the evolution of human consciousness and the reason we’re alive. This fermentation of the soul happens to us individually and together in our relationships, especially our intimate ones. …

Biologists at Emory University conducted an experiment with monarch butterflies that had been infected with a parasite that damaged their bodies and sometimes their wings, limiting their ability to fly.

Here’s how the experiment worked: Although monarchs eat milkweed exclusively, some species of milkweed are toxic for them.

The researchers placed an equal number of toxic and non-toxic milkweed plants in an enclosure with monarch butterflies that all suffered from the parasite infection.

What the researchers found amazed them.

When given a choice, the sick butterflies chose to lay their eggs on the toxic milkweed 68% of the time. The butterflies weren’t trying to cure their condition, but they were giving their larvae and future generations a chance to absorb massive amounts of toxins from the milkweed as they feasted on it. By absorbing the plant toxins into their larval tissue, these future butterflies would be much more immune to parasite infection, and protected from other predators like amphibians and birds. …

Every mother knows that “a mother’s intuition” is a very real thing—but no one has ever been able to explain it.

But in recent years, a study has emerged that may shed light on the science of how a mother’s intuition actually works.

A 2012 study published in the medical journal, PLOS One1, examined the brains of 59 women who had died between the ages of 32 and 101. Nearly two-thirds, or 37 women in the sample, were found to have traces of male DNA with the Y chromosome in various regions of their brains.

The Y chromosome could not have come from the women’s fathers because if it had, they would have been born male. The only logical explanation was that the male DNA had come from their sons. …

Making the Connection

The idea that bras are connected with an increase in breast cancer was first raised by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer in their 1995 book, Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras.

In the book, the authors were following up on a 1991 study conducted at Harvard University which was published in the European Journal of Cancer and Clinical Oncology.

In examining breast size and breast cancer risk, the study discovered that pre-menopausal women who did not wear bras had half the risk of contracting breast cancer when compared withto bra wearers.

In conducting their own research with 5,000 women between 1991 and 1993, Singer and Grismaijer discovered that breast cancer risk dramatically increased in women who wore their bras over 12 hours per day. Their other findings…

When it comes to consciously creating our lives, we talk about thoughts most of the time.

However, the truth is that the feelings we attach to what we think are the real catalyst for manifestation.

We live in a feeling universe and therefore, emotion is the language of our cells. Emotions are energy in motion, and we can direct that energy to our benefit by choosing what we feel in any given moment.

Instead of struggling with which thoughts to think or not to think, the fastest way to plug into the energy of what you desire is to be it now. …

Recently, I received a beautiful email from a prominent corporate executive who I’d been working with through the Master Mind Mentorship Program (M3P) I offer. The email contained a recording of Alanis Morissette’s song “Thank U.”

My client’s kindness and the lyrics of the song brought me to tears, as it spoke of being thankful—not just for positive things, but all experiences that make us who we are—experiences including frailty, consequences, grief and disillusionment. I was also struck by the first lyric of the song where Morissette sings, “How ‘bout getting off of these antibiotics?”

There’s an old saying that goes, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” It’s most often used to reference a person or group of people whose true intention is to make a situation better but, through poor decision-making or lack of knowledge, only end up making things worse. …

Scientists who have studied meditation extensively define it as a hypermetabolic physiological state—a condition in which the mind exists outside of waking, sleeping or dreaming.

In other words, it’s a verified fourth state of consciousness, far removed from simple relaxation. When we sustain ourselves at this unique level of mind for even short periods of meditation, the body responds in amazing ways.

In fact, the quality of rest achieved during meditation is more concentrated than anything that can be experienced during sleep, and it’s much better at reducing stress and cortisol levels.

Some studies show meditation reduces cortisol by 30% more than standard stress relief exercises. This is significant, not just to overall health, but to weight loss goals as well, because elevated cortisol both promotes weight gain and prevents the body from losing existing weight. …