In previous centuries, the mean age of death for women may have been very low as women died as infants, as young children, in childbirth, as victims of epidemics, in famines, in war, etc., but this does not mean that these women were not biologically prepared to live very long lives. Medical anthropologist Margaret Lock, writing in Lancet in l990, said: "Since there is evidence that people have lived to a very old age for at least l00,000 years, this means that from an evolutionary point of view the female body is biologically prepared to do so. The maximum life span potential for a woman is estimated to be about 92 years."(7) (The authors add: "We feel even this is short--and not the actual longevity potential. To prove our point, the oldest known person living today is a 120-year-old woman residing in France.")(8)

In the early fifties, certain doctors began to define menopause as a disease--"estrogen deficiency" disease--which then needed to be treated with a drug. Traditional Asian medicine--which, by the way, is based on a "clinical trial" of at least a 2,000-year heritage and 400 unbroken generations of written patient experience--views menopause in an entirely different way than does standard medical practice in the United States. To the Asians, menopause is a necessary and vital process for the body's health. While obviously a signal that the woman has reached a certain age, passing through menopause actually serves to slow down the aging process by preventing the unnecessary loss of blood and jing, or essence, thus allowing the woman the possibility of good health for at least the next thirty years of life. To ensure a smooth passage in this "second spring" of a woman's life, Chinese doctors will prescribe tonics and other herbal remedies to balance the woman's hormones.(9) For thousands of years, Chinese women could live to a healthy old age--and what's more, they were venerated for it!

Looking Younger Than Ever
What has become evident in the United States is that women act and look younger for their age than in previous generations--forty today is what thirty was twenty years ago. Actresses can now actually be sexy onscreen past forty--Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, and Meryl Streep, to name just a few--which was not true a generation ago. Marilyn Monroe was considered over the hill at thirty-six. And now fifty for a woman is what forty was twenty years ago.

What's the secret? One thing we know is that these contemporary actresses are taking very good care of themselves. In fact, American women in general are taking advantage of a physical youthfulness that has been biologically possible for a long time. And they don't want to sink into the "Age fifty plus spends her life in the doctor's office" syndrome.

We're on the side of looking good at any age. We believe there is such a thing as healthy vanity. Wanting to look and feel beautiful is a woman's right. Some women have defensively embraced the idea of an old age with wrinkles and without sex. That's certainly an option. But any expectation you may have that after fifty you will turn into an old woman sitting on a park bench talking about her ailments is the function of an acculturated image. It doesn't have to be that way.

But the first step in taking full charge of your "second spring" is getting on good terms with your hormones--that is, understanding how they work in your body, and what you need to do to keep them balanced--and most important, learning how the plant-based diets and herbal medicines have supported human life for millions of years and are crucial to the well-being of women.