Customer Reviews

PMS Self Help Book

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I found this book at a tag sale for a quarter. Since I've suffered from PMS at different levels of severity since adolescence, and since the price was right, I bought it.

There is definitely a good deal of useful information therein. Lark has some tips on herbs, yoga, and other things that might prove useful, and I intend to use the book as one of several reference guides and to experiment with a few of her suggestions.

What bugs me, though, is the unrelenting emphasis that you MUST radically change your diet if you want to get rid of your PMS. How does Lark want you to change your diet? Why, she wants you to get rid of beef, pork, caffeine, booze, cheese, white pasta and bread, salty snacks, and sweet desserts (especially chocolate) -- in other words, all the fun stuff.

This, to be frank, is hooey, at least for me. I've found that if I minimize my intake of these things from a week before onset of menses until four or five days into my period, and also up my intake of Vitamin B, things get much better.

As David Shaw writes in _The Pleasure Police_ -- a book I highly recommend, by the way -- one of the best things you can do for your health is to enjoy yourself. Despite all the scolding nanny types out there who want to convince us that everything we consume should be oh so wholesome, we all know that fettucine alfredo, Southern barbecue, Godiva chocolates, steaming lattes, and good stiff drinks are some of what make life worthwhile. (Sex is, too. Given this, it's rather odd that Lark doesn't mention how orgasm can diminish PMS and cramps. However, I digress.)

Judging from Lark's other books, in which she hawks a macrobiotic diet, homeopathy (what a crock *that* is), and other "natcheral" cures, it seems like she's really into this lifestyle and devoutly believes everyone else should be, too. Hey, if it's your cup of herbal tea with honey in it, go ahead. But it's not mine. If it's not yours, either, you should be aware that it's not your only option.

One last note: Antidepressants can also help immensely with PMS. But if another edition of this book ever comes out, expect Lark to condemn them as the product of "overly goal-focused Western medicine obsessed with magic pills." Thing is, sometimes pills *do* work like magic.

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