naturopathic physician - drjuliebowman.com

Whatcha’ readin’? I often recommend health-promoting books to my patients, and I’m currently re-reading this gem: Consciously Female: How to Listen to Your Body and Your Soul for a Lifetime of Healthier Living by Tracy Gaudet, MD (Random House).

What’s it about? It’s an owner’s manual for the physically, emotionally, and spiritually aware woman. Dr. Gaudet reminds us that following our intuition is just as important as using rational discernment when making choices involving our health. She offers step-by-step instructions on how to “reframe and reclaim” what it means to live in the female body. It’s empowering!

Desert island material or doorstop? Knowing how to optimize menstrual cycles and fertility could certainly come in handy on a desert island if repopulation is a concern!

Your favourite book of all time is… That would have to be the first book written by my budding novelist mom, Patricia Corbett-Bowman.

If we looked at your bookshelf we’d be surprised to see… several books about surfing all over the world. I try to go on local and faraway surf trips every chance I get.

Given the choice, would you be Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, or Nancy Drew? Definitely Nancy Drew. I often feel like Nancy at home after my fiancé has done the tidying up and I can’t find anything in his newly reorganized system. I am also always up for a challenge, which is why I became a naturopathic physician.  

Guilty pleasure time. What kind of mind candy do you sometimes read? Not the juiciest of disclosures, but I love Yoga Journal magazine. 

If you could spend 30 minutes with any author—alive or dead—who would it be? Rudolph Steiner. He founded anthroposophical medicine in the 19th century in Berlin. His philosophy is that a system of medicine must emphasize health and use therapies that enhance a person’s capacity to heal.

What would you want to do with said author in that time? I’d love to hear his insights on the creation of a truly integrated system of health care.

They say that everyone has one great novel in them. What would yours be? A wonderful adventure about superheroine healers who travel the globe teaching women how to listen to their bodies, cook healthful food, heal their relationships, and live their wildest dreams.

—Erica Gehrke

The Homeopathic
Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy (Book) by Dana Ullman (North Atlantic Books, $26)

What do Gandhi, David Beckham, Cher, and Emily Dickinson have in common? All have been enthusiastic fans of homeopathy, the medical tradition that treats “like with like.” Dana Ullman—author, homeopath, and physician to Queen Elizabeth II—offers a new definition of homeopathy as “nanopharmacology” and highlights its remarkable capacity as a therapeutic art and science of unique potential. After explaining some of the reasons why conventional medicine is inadequate and why homeopathy works, the author references important scientific studies in user-friendly language that verify the value of this widely used but still misunderstood tradition of health.

The Story of Stuff (Streaming video)
by Annie Leonard (storyofstuff.com, free)

TVs, laptops, iPods, shoes, cellphones, blenders—ever wonder about where it all comes from or where it ends up? Activist Annie Leonard spent 10 years travelling the world tracking “stuff”—from when it’s first dreamed up to when we eventually discard it—and offers her insights into our consumer-driven culture, while exposing the real costs of our “use-it-and-lose-it” approach, in 20 precious minutes. The fast-paced, fact-filled film provides the missing links in our understanding of how consumerism works, and why it is causing such damage to our planet and to the people involved in producing our stuff.

UNSTOPPABLE GLOBAL WARMING: Every 1,500 Years (Book)
by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery (Rowman and Littlefield, $24.95)

In this updated and expanded edition of the New York Times bestseller, authors Singer and Avery argue that global warming is the result of a natural cycle that occurs every—you guessed it—1,500 years. Drawing from data obtained from ice core and seabed sediments, Unstoppable posits there have been roughly 600 warming periods in the last million years. And—as the title would also suggest—there’s nothing we can do to stop them. While the majority of scientists working on climate change seem to agree that global warming is man-made, it pays to understand both sides of the argument before taking a stand.