Dr. Susan Lark's Premenstrual Syndrome Self-Help Book: A Woman's Guide to Feeling Good All Month

by Susan M. Lark

This book discusses symptoms and causes of fatigue, anxiety, and pain; provides nutritional guidelines to help reduce premenstrual symptoms; and is fully illustrated throughout with a comprehensive... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890875871
• ISBN13: 9780890875872
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Celestial Arts
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

This book saved my sanity

Fourteen years ago, I had such serious depression and mood swings that I was on the verge of committing myself to a mental institution. Then I started tracking those periods of "insanity" and found that they always hit a few days after I ovulated and ended a day or two after my period started. I went to an OB/GYN, told her I had PMS, and asked her for help. She informed me that there was no such thing as PMS and that I needed counseling. I was devastated because I *knew* what I was experiencing and I was desperate for a remedy. I left her office in tears and walked for a long time, until I reached a bookstore. I went in, hoping to distract myself for at least a little while. And then I saw this book. And I read that many of Dr. Lark's patients had gone through years of counseling and treatment for mental illness before they were finally correctly diagnosed with PMS. I bought the book. As another reviewer has pointed out, Dr. Lark does advocate some fairly drastic lifestyle changes--which, like any other medical treatment, may not be as effective for some people as they are for others. For me, however, they worked. I increased my exercise and followed her dietary recommendations and vitamin regime meticulously for two or three years, and I also used her accupressure massage every day during my PMS times. The depression lifted, the mood swings stopped, and I was finally able to function and relate to my family and just deal with life in general--no matter what time of the month it was. Gradually, I was able to back off the megavitamins and to allow myself caffeine, sugar, and chocolate in moderation--the time I spent following Dr. Lark's regime apparently "reset" my cycle. Of course, now my body and my cycle are changing again, so pretty soon I guess I'll be buying Dr. Lark's Menopause Self-Help Book!

Great guide to help start an understanding and useful strategies

I purchased this book years ago for myself & x-girlfriend, to help us understand & create some kind of plan for her drastically debilitating PMS. As an outsider, I'd see the changes and pains she go through and could differentiate the PMS from her (she had a hard time seeing the forest for the trees since she was in the eye of the storm). The insight on which foods & habits (exercise) affect mood swings and cramps was a welcome realization. I could count the minutes that would follow consumption of foods like chocolate, coffee, or sweets (even strawberries) where moods would crash & burn. It was extremely difficult realizing how vulnerable she was to a biological force that would come like an unwanted guest and wreck house. We ended up reading 4 books that gave histories, case studies of extreme PMS (which hers was), and biological & physiological assumptions & reasonings about PMS. Susan Lark's book was the best for looking at what lifestyle choices might affect PMS onsets & taking action to help minimize those. This book was a life saver, it gives you a doable plan and helps monitor daily cause and effect of any implemented changes with a 'mood calendar" which helped her realize her moods weren't her but because of the PMS and gave her the ammunition to take action. Susan Lark had PMS supplements she had put together that used to be sold at any pharmacy chain manufactured by Squibbs. I don't know if they are still made, but I believe they helped a lot as well. I'm purchasing this book again for my younger sister who only has mild PMS, but she finds herself craving chocolates and coffee during PMS and doesn't realize she's only adding wood to the fire. Those foods are like allergies/addictions to the body that only throw it off balance. Life is too short to not learn how to make it better, this books will help put some tools that do make it better under your belt. Good luck...

Very helpful

This book has everything, meal guides, yoga and accupressure and other ways to get rid of your PMS symptoms, and they really work!!