In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lonsdorf was one of about 20 women in her class of 120 at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
“Hopkins was the first medical school ever to admit women at all—and that's because a woman donated money and said ‘I'm giving you money to make Johns Hopkins Medical School, but you have to admit women on the same basis as men.’ So it has a long history of supporting women and today, over 50% of the class in medicine at Johns Hopkins are women and there’s tremendous diversity. It's really wonderful because we need healers with all different perspectives and backgrounds,” said Lonsdorf.
As the author of several books on Ayurvedic Medicine and women’s health, Lonsdorf said women should focus on self-care and establish healthy habits as soon as possible.
“Often women don't start paying attention to their own health seriously until their kids have left home and maybe they’ve gone through menopause or they're going through menopause and things are falling apart,” she said. “Do the best you can, but try not to leave out the self-care piece because it will catch up with you at some point and better to invest as you go along.”
