Grown Woman Talk
Your Guide to Getting and Staying Healthy
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A must-read for anyone who cares about their quality of life . . . Dr. Sharon Malone is the first person I turn to for a whole host of issues, especially my health.”—MICHELLE OBAMA
A practical guide to aging and health for women who have felt ignored or marginalized by the medical profession, from a leading OB/GYN and expert on menopausal and post-reproductive health
There’s not enough talk around women’s health, and what little there is rarely helps. Women are routinely warned, lectured, or threatened about their health. Or they are ignored, dismissed, or shamed. But they are rarely empowered. And empowerment, more than anything, is what women—and women of color, in particular—need.
Grown Woman Talk is for every woman who has felt marginalized or overwhelmed by a healthcare system that has become more impersonal, complex, and difficult to navigate than ever. It’s also for any woman who is simply standing at the intersection of aging and health, anxious and wanting solutions.
Part medical handbook, part memoir, and part sister-girl cheerleader, this book is filled with useful resources and real-life stories of victory and defeat. It not only highlights the current data around women’s health issues, but it also places that data in a helpful context.
In a tone that is lively and intimate but unflinchingly direct, Dr. Sharon Malone details how to live better, age better, and get better medical treatment, especially when it’s most needed. This is not a medical activism book designed to fight the power. This is a book designed to show women that they already have the power—they need only to increase their capacity and willingness to use it.
Most important, Grown Woman Talk seeks to eradicate the silence that surrounds women’s health by facilitating discussion between women of all ages and encouraging more accurate and productive medical insights. It is Dr. Sharon’s belief that giving women more agency can, literally, give them life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"It's time to talk openly and unapologetically about the common things that we all should know could happen in our bodies," contends obstetrician gynecologist Malone in her spirited debut guide to how women over 50 can take control of their health. Offering scientific background on and advice for preventing Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and hypertension, among other illnesses, Malone explains that cardiovascular disease "is caused by the accumulation of damage to your blood vessels caused by cholesterol plaques, blood clots, chronic inflammation, and/or high blood pressure," and recommends that patients exercise for 30 minutes five times per week and refrain from smoking to stave off the condition. Highlighting the health troubles faced by Black women, specifically, Malone explains how the "chronic stresses induced by systemic injustice steadily erodes the health of marginalized people" and notes that "Black women tend to have higher levels of stress hormones even when they do not self-report feeling stressed." Frequent parenthetical references to thematically relevant songs distract, but Malone's social insight elevates her advice and the emphasis on advocating for oneself ("Don't normalize discomfort. Demand to be heard, seen, and have your complaints addressed") tackles an often-overlooked obstacle to receiving adequate treatment. It's a robust primer on grappling with the health issues that come with aging.
Customer Reviews
Thankful!!
This is the best book by far that I have read so far this year!!! Very helpful to my life and I am very thankful!!