Interview with Christiane Northrup, MD

On Women's Health, Menopause, Hysterectomy, Spirit, Energy Vampires and more.

At the end of Male Practice by Dr Robert Mendelsohn is a great Additional Reading list.

The first book on that list is Immaculate Deception by Suzanne Arms. With a title like that I had to get a copy.

It arrived the other day and I noticed it had a Foreword by Dr Christiane Northrup, who I’ve been aware of for some time on Substack, and been on my list to approach for an interview. I took the hint.

Christiane has done incredibly important work regarding women’s health, for a very long time, reaching large audiences. I’m grateful that she made the time for this interview. I have gotten a lot out of the exchange and I’m hoping you will too.

With thanks to Dr Christiane Northrup, MD.

Dr. Christiane Northrup | Women's Health Expert, NYT Best-selling Author

True North by Christiane Northrup, M.D. | Substack

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1. Dr. Northrup, you've had a fascinating journey in women's health. Can you please tell us a bit about your path from practicing OB/GYN to becoming an internationally recognized authority on women's wellness?

My current path was set in motion back in childhood. I am from a medical family. My father’s older brother was a general practitioner. And his younger sister was a pediatrician. My Dad—the middle child—was a dentist who had served as a facial surgeon in a MASH unit in Northern Italy during WW 2. Though our family was on friendly terms, my aunt and uncle often belittled my father because he wasn’t a “real” doctor. This is important information because my family had access to medical knowledge and care that most others do not.

I had a baby sister named Bonnie who died in the hospital after not being able to eat. I was 5 years old. No one knew the cause, but my mother had been on daily antibiotics during the pregnancy for viral pneumonia. Antibiotics were the new “wonder drug” at the time and were used for everything. And it is possible that this drug somehow damaged my sister. When the next baby-- my brother -- was born, he wouldn’t eat either. And was hospitalized. And not getting better. One night a nurse told my mother that she should take him home because the doctors didn’t know what was wrong and my brother was deteriorating. (this would NEVER happen today). So my parents signed him out against medical advice. We tube fed him every hour on the hour. And finally found a pediatrician at the former Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (which no longer exists). She was a pioneer in pediatric gastroscopy (putting a light down his esophagus). She found it so irritated from the nasogastric tube that he was in danger of a ruptured esophagus. She said, “Let’s remove the tube and just see what happens.” Three days later my baby brother started to eat. To this day, no one knows why. His original doctors told my mother he was mentally retarded. She knew this was not the case. At a year old, he weighed 10 pounds. But was otherwise normal. He soon became a healthy and happy normal little boy.

Years later, when I was applying to medical school, I was interviewed by my brother’s original pediatrician from Buffalo... When he heard I was a Northrup from Ellicottville, NY, he remembered my brother—and assumed he had died. I told him that my brother, who was 16 at the time, was just fine.

During that same time when I was interviewing for various medical schools, my father developed chest pain and was taken to the cardiac intensive care unit of Buffalo General. Three days later he called my mother and told her to come and get him. That the doctors didn’t know what was going on. Indeed she went to get him. His IV had infiltrated (pumped fluid into in arm—which was now swollen and red). And he walked out of there with his chest leads still on. The nurses so furious they wouldn’t even call for a wheelchair.

When I returned home from a trip to Yale Medical School, my Dad was sitting up in a chair with fluid two thirds of the way up his chest in both lung fields. He could only breathe sitting up. He healed well on his own at home. His diagnosis was infectious pericarditis—not a heart attack. He was indeed right—the doctors didn’t know what was going on.

These two experiences affected me deeply. I had always been very interested in biology and was a biology major in college. I went into medical school knowing full well that doctors were not gods. And that they made mistakes. I also had great faith in our innate ability to heal since I had observed it at home.

My parents also raised us on organic food. We took vitamins. We had a compost pile. My parents did yoga and started jogging long before it was popular. On my father’s night stand, he had Weston Price’s famous book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Price—a Canadian dentist, had traveled the world and documented the fact that people who began consuming a western diet—full of sugar and processed foods—experienced dental decay and a loss of healthy facial features within one generation. The photos in that book have stayed with me for years.

When I decided to go to medical school (simply because it seemed like a better degree than a PhD), I never thought I would practice. I had watched the lifestyle of my aunt and uncle who never seemed to be able to make it through a holiday dinner without an emergency call from a patient. – I didn’t want to follow in their footsteps.

But once I got to Dartmouth Medical School and first saw a baby born, I was hooked. Nothing had ever moved me this much. My path was set. Attending women during labor and birth was a joy. I had found my calling.

Years later, during my time on the board of the American Holistic Medical Association—and eventually President of that organization, I had finally landed with a group of doctors like me—who understood the role of nutrition, lifestyle, the mind/body connection, and faith—all of which are critical to healing.

In the early 1980’s Family Circle magazine broke a story on PMS (premenstrual syndrome). Many women came to see me with this type of suffering. And by listening to them and working through this with them, I came to understand the menstrual cycle, fertility, menopause, and the entire hormonal cycle very intimately. I began to give lectures to local hospitals about nutrition and PMS and eventually began to give lectures around the country.

I eventually wrote the first edition of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom in the late 80’s and early 90’s—having to invent an entirely new language of women’s health—not women’s disease. The first edition came out in June 1994. And that classic is now in its 5^th edition. It is essentially a bible of women’s health.

2. Your approach to health emphasizes the connection between mind, body, emotions, and spirit. How did you develop this holistic perspective, and how has it shaped your medical practice?

In addition to what I’ve written above—I also sat in with Michio Kushi, as he did facial and oriental diagnosis. He saw many people with terminal cancer—and through a macrobiotic diet and a chance in lifestyle, I saw many of them get well. Many had been given up by standard western medicine. Their doctors had told them to go home and get their affairs in order.

Watching people change so dramatically for the better through diet and lifestyle left a lasting impression. Also during that time, I met Dr William Castelli , the found of the famous Framingham Heart project.. We sometimes lectured together about nutrition.

After finishing my residency in Boston – where I met Michio, I moved to Maine with my husband (an orthopedic surgeon). Many patients came to see me from all over the world because I respected their path and what they were doing with their diets. Unlike my medical colleagues I didn’t scoff at them.

3. You've written extensively about women's bodies and wisdom. What do you think are the most common misconceptions women have about their own health?

Women are taught that to be a woman is to suffer—from menstrual pain, childbirth pain, hot flashes, all of it. It’s even in the Bible. But this needn’t be the case.

In the late 80’s, I wrote a seminal paper that turned into the book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom. The piece was called Honoring Our Bodies, and it was published in a magazine called Woman of Power out of Boston in the late 1980’s.

This is what I wrote: “For the practice of gynecology and obstetrics to be healing for women in the deepest sense, we must understand the experience of being female in this culture and how this affects our bodies. Over her lifetime, one in three women will be the victim of rape. Forty percent of women are incest survivors. According to FBI statistics, 50% of married women are victims of battering. These statistics, though shocking, are probably understated when we consider the silence and subsequent under reporting that have surrounded crimes of gender.

In my eleven years as an obstetrician/gynecologist in Maine, I have come to believe that bodily symptoms such as PMS, abnormal bleeding, abnormal pap smears, and fibroids are the physical metaphors for the wounding of women. I spent the usual four years in medical school another four years in an obstetrics and gynecology residence, and then five years in practice before I began to notice the patterns that affect women’s bodies so commonly and profoundly.”

4. In your book "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom," you discuss the body's innate ability to heal. Can you elaborate on this concept and how women can tap into this natural wisdom?

When you cut yourself it heals. When you stand barefoot on the ground, the Earth herself grounds and heals you. We have enormous inner power through our thoughts and beliefs—and our behavior—to heal just about anything. There are documented cases of spontaneous remission from all diseases. But the medical profession and the culture in general doesn’t believe this. Hence we now give children 72 plus vaccines by the age of 18--- because as a culture, we’ve been trained to think that disease is inevitable and our bodies cannot be well without all manner of injections and drugs. 70-90% of all mainstream media is sponsored by Big Pharma.

5. You've been a vocal advocate for alternatives to hysterectomy. What options do you recommend women explore before considering this surgery?

The main thing is a second opinion. In my residency I was taught “There’s no room in the tomb for the womb” When both doctors and women themselves are taught that their pelvic organs are just cancer waiting to happen, then getting a hysterectomy is seen as the logical thing to do. There is a place for hysterectomies and I have done many. But there are so many alternatives—my books are loaded with this information.

6. Your book "The Wisdom of Menopause" has been a bestseller for years. What do you think is the most empowering message women should take away about this life stage?

That the perimenopausal transition is a gateway into the best years of your life—when you know what is important and what isn’t. The culture teaches us that after 50, we are designed to deteriorate. This belief leads to all kinds of problems which manifest as chronic degenerative disease. These need not be the case.

7. You've written that the choices a woman makes during menopause can secure vibrant health for the rest of her life. What are some of the most crucial choices women should consider?

The most crucial choice is to decide that what the culture tells you need not apply to you. Look for examples of women who are thriving, meeting the love of their lives, getting their body in the best shape ever, learned new languages, learning how to dance. One literally has to say NO to what the culture is telling women which is this: It is now too late. You are too old to …… fill in the blank….

8. You've challenged the notion that aging must be accompanied by decline. What practices do you recommend for women to maintain vitality as they age?

My Pilates teacher Hope Matthews says, “It’s not your age. It’s your fascia.” We have a connective tissue structure that runs through our bodies that most doctors know very little about. It is where the acupuncture meridians run. When you keep it supple and hydrated through proper movement and diet, you find that the joint aches and pains that so many people experience don’t have to be your experience.

I recommend walking, weight training, and Pilates. I have been doing Pilates for 20 plus years. And I keep getting better at it!

9. Your book "Dodging Energy Vampires" discusses how empaths can protect themselves in relationships. Can you explain what you mean by "energy vampires" and how to identify them?

Energy vampires is a term I use to describe Cluster B individuals. That is a psychiatric term which comprises the following personality disorders: narcissistic, borderline, histrionic, schizotypal. There is a spectrum with Cluster B’s—like autism. Someone can be “on the spectrum”- with a bit of Asperger’s. Or be a full blown autistic adult in diapers who doesn’t speak. Same with the Cluster B that is common known as narcissism. They can be a bit self- centered and self- absorbed—which you can life with—or a full blown psychopath—with no empathy or humanity whatsoever. A garden variety cluster B is 1 in 5 people. A psychopath is 1 in 100. I wrote the book because I began to see a pattern in my patients and in my life. And that is that a woman would get some kind of illness like chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme, or some other ill defined thing—and no matter what she did, she never got well. But finally—when she left the narcissist, she’d get better. Why? Because the energy vampire she was living with ( a husband, a parent, an adult child) was draining her life force.

All narcissists are self centered and are always seeking what is called “narcissistic supply” which is the money, time, attention, sex, and good will of others—mainly empaths—people born with the natural gift of feeling what others are feeling—and living in an attempt to heal others. The narcissist/empath duo is very very common. People who have trouble giving tend to attract those who have trouble receiving.

Given the long history of the degradation of women, it is quite easy to see how narcissistic individuals (often men, but not always) can prey on women who don’t feel good about themselves. It’s so easy to fall prey to someone who knows exactly what we’ve been longing to hear: “You are so beautiful. So talented. Why haven’t you ever been celebrated for this.” This is known as “love bombing”. Energy vampires are the ultimate chameleons—they have malignant intuition and know exactly what to say to empaths who often fall prey to them. They don’t have any empathy—they just know what they want and how to get it. Once you recognize these individuals and know who to steer clear, your life improves dramatically.

10. You've written about the importance of healthy relationships for overall well-being. What advice do you have for women who find themselves in draining or toxic relationships?

The first step is awareness. And you need to stop making excuses for the bad behavior of the toxic individual. Happily there is far more written about this now than ever before. Melanie Tonia Evans from Australia has on line courses that have helped thousands of people all over the world.

11. You've been open about your own health journey. Can you share a personal health challenge you've faced and how you overcame it?

I have had many. Classic migraines in my teen years. These finally went away when I became nearly suicidal in my sophomore year of college. It was a cold, grey fall day in Cleveland, Ohio. And I had to write a paper on the meaning of the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn by Keats. I had NO idea what the professor wanted me to write. And on a walk back from the library, I briefly thought about throwing myself in front of a car. But quickly thought better of it---- figuring I’d just break my leg—and would still have to write the paper. I called my parents from my dorm room for some advice. My father said, “Come home. No one is making you stay there.” And I realized that I had a choice!!! That all the pressure I was putting on myself was self-generated!!! Despite years of excruciating migraine headaches—including a week in the hospital—I never had a headache after that. From this I learned that I was creating a mini explosion in my head regularly because of the way in which I was thinking. When I changed that, the headaches went away. This was dramatic.

12. What does your daily wellness routine look like? Are there any practices you consider non-negotiable for maintaining your health?

I awaken each morning when I’m finished sleeping (anywhere from 7:30AM to 8:30PM. I then sit down and read scripture of some kind. I like the daily inspiration called Jesus Calling—and I open my Bible and read the verses that are suggested.

I write down my dreams and give them a title. Then I read some other inspirational writing, e.g. The Creation Frequency by Mike Murphy.

I write in my journal—making notes of the synchronicities that have happened recently.

After that I have a green drink. Then wait 30 minutes and have my coffee. I do Pilates twice a week. And I also walk 10,000 steps/day listening to podcasts.

I also do weight training—with my body weight about 6 days per week. Triceps dips, push ups, squats, sit ups.. generally 30 of each.

I also listen to Praise Music regularly as I start and end my day.

13. You often discuss the spiritual aspects of health. How do you see the relationship between spirituality and physical well-being?

Without understanding the importance of one’s Spirit true physical health is not possible. The Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce said

The Spirit is the Life

The Mind the Builder

The Body the Result

14. You've written about the power of thoughts and beliefs in shaping our health. Can you give an example of how changing one's mindset can lead to tangible health improvements?

After menopause and the divorce from my husband, I set out to prove to myself that the usual path of a post menopausal woman didn’t have to be one of loneliness and deterioration—cast aside and invisible. My personal journal and research led to the publication of my book Goddesses Never Age. This book is blueprint for how to step out of the “cage of age”. My colleague Dr Mario Martinez, founder of the Biocognitive Institute, has studied 700 healthy centenarians all over the world. They are future oriented, live in subcultures of wellness, and most importantly, are living proof that our chronological age often has very little to do with our biological age. We have the ability to turn back the clock of age at any time. Professor Emeritus Ellen Langer of Harvard has also done extensive research on how our thoughts influence our physical health. Her latest book The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health is loaded with example after example of how our perceptions shape our physical health

15. As we wrap up, could you share what you're currently focused on in your work, including any new books or projects, and let our readers know the best way to stay connected with your ongoing teachings and insights?

My life’s work has been about one basic concept: Conception, gestation, labor, birth, and the postpartum period are physical metaphors for how God comes into physical form. The Middle Ages mystic Meister Eckhart put it this way: “For all eternal, God lies on a birthing bed. Giving birth. The essence of God is birthing.” Each of us is a spark of Divinity in human form. My mission is to teach and support this on all levels.

I am currently focusing on the true meaning of the phrase “Made in the Image of God” — And also the teaching of Jesus that said “These things and more ye shall do also”. I have no interest in religion—it has brought too much suffering to so many. But I believe we can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And that we can take him at his word. I am working on my faith.

I have a newsletter than goes out twice a month. You can sign up at:

Dr. Christiane Northrup | Women's Health Expert, NYT Best-selling Author | Christiane Northrup, M.D. (drnorthrup.com)

My most up to date current teaching is available on my substack:

True North by Christiane Northrup, M.D. | Substack

I also have a product line formulated to help women in perimenopause and beyond. It also includes a man’s product to help with prostate health.

Amata Life - Safe & Natural Menopause Relief

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