What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause
John R. Lee, M.D. (Warner Books)

This is the classic on natural hormones, and natural progesterone in particular, that every woman should have on her bookshelf. Dr. John Lee covers everything from the politics of menopause to the biochemistry of hormone balance, as well as gives wonderfully down-to-earth advice about diet and exercise. There is an extensive chapter on osteoporosis, help for women with tired adrenals, and detailed instructions on how to use natural progesterone cream. This is a book you will go back to over and over again as a guide and reference.

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What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause
John R. Lee, M.D. (Warner Books)

No, PMS is not all in your head! And neither are cramps, irregular periods, PCOS, infertility, endometriosis, fatigue and weight gain! Dr. Jesse Hanley joins Dr. Lee and Virginia Hopkins to take the mystery out of hormone imbalances that can disrupt a woman’s life in her thirties and forties. Many case histories make this book an easy read, and detailed instructions are provided on how to use progesterone cream, herbs, supplements, diet, exercise and stress management to achieve hormone balance.

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What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer: How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life
John R. Lee, M.D. and David Zava, Ph.D. (Warner Books)

Dr. David Zava brings his expertise in breast cancer research to this amazing book, co-authored with the great John R. Lee, M.D. There is no other book on the market that details the underlying mechanisms of breast cancer in a way that is so thorough and accurate yet readable and useful. Did you know that high cortisol or low thyroid can contribute to breast cancer? That changes in diet can change how your body processes estrogen? That natural progesterone balances excess estrogen and may protect you from cell changes that create breast cancer? The authors also tackle tough issues such as why synthetic HRT causes breast cancer, whether mammograms are safe and effective, and whether breast cancer drugs may do more harm than good.

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Dr. John Lee's Hormone Balance Made Simple - The Essential How-to Guide to Symptoms, Dosage, Timing and More
John R. Lee, M.D. and Virginia Hopkins (Warner Books)

This is the go-to guidebook for women who want quick answers to hormone imbalance and an easy, step-by-step reference guide to using natural hormones. There is a hormone balance test, a handy chart for tracking symptoms, and an extensive list of symptoms and their possible causes. In simple language, you will find out the how, when, and why of hormone testing. You’ll also learn how to rebalance hormones naturally through lifestyle changes and appropriate supplementation with bioidentical hormones.

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From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well: Discover Human-Identical Hormones as a Safe & Effective Treatment for PMS, Perimenopause, Menopause or Hysterectomy
C. W. Randolph, Jr., M.D. and Genie James, M.M.Sc. (The Natural Hormone Institute of America)

In the midst of troubling reports about the dangers of using synthetic hormones, this book helps women and men to understand how their bodies can be treated effectively by using human-identical hormones. Co-authored by trained pharmacist and Board Certified gynecologist, Dr. Randolph, and Genie James, a 20-year veteran of health system business development, the book builds a solid foundation of clinical evidence to support the safety and efficacy of treating patients with human-identical hormones vs. synthetic hormone replacement therapies. From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well contains case study examples of women and men at various ages who initially sought out Dr. Randolph’s help because they were suffering from symptoms of hormone imbalance due to PMS, perimenopause, menopause, and hysterectomy. The book offers safe and effective treatment options for such symptoms as weight gain, depression, osteoporosis, mood swings, premature aging, breast health, hot flashes, low sex drive, fluid retention, and fatigue. Besides providing insight into women’s hormonal issues, Dr. Randolph also explains andropause in men — the male equivalent to menopause — and provides treatment options. By telling his patients’ stories and detailing their individual treatment regimens, Dr. Randolph dispels the idea of a “one-size-fits-all” approach to hormone replacement therapy.

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Awakening Athena — Resilience, Restoration, and Rejuvenation for Women
Kenna Stephenson M.D. (Health Mind and Heart Institute)

Kenna Stephenson, a family medicine physician, researcher, wife, and mother of two, shows that to succeed at home and at work, women must first nurture their own physical and emotional needs. By exploring 60 case studies from her practice, Kenna demonstrates how women of all ages can overcome physical and emotional challenges. She provides practical, affordable suggestions that women of any age, profession, or economic status can use to bring balance to their lives. Readers will appreciate Dr. Stephenson’s empathy and understanding of the issues, along with her simple and effective recommendations for achieving a more balanced lifestyle through use of bioidentical hormones; stress reduction; and the mind/body connection with yoga, Bio-Touch, cinematherapy, bibliotherapy, dreamwork, and more.

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You’ve Hit Menopause, Now What? 3 Simple Steps to Restoring Hormone Balance
George Gillson MD, PhD and Tracy Marsden BScPharm. (Rocky Mountain Analytical Corp.)

Dr. George Gillson and Tracy Marsden help women and their healthcare providers to untangle the jumble of information available about hormone replacement. Using results from the Women's Health Initiative Study as a springboard, the book discusses HRT in an easily understood, yet informative manner. The book is framed around three simple concepts: assessment of symptoms potentially related to hormone imbalance, laboratory testing to confirm or rule out hormone imbalance, and restoration of hormone balance with bioidentical hormones if indicated with testing. This book explains why the synthetic Premarin-Provera HRT combination failed to deliver overall health benefits for women, and why bioidentical hormone replacement (and particularly transdermal delivery of bioidentical hormones) may be a viable alternative to synthetic HRT.

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Ageless:  The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones
Suzanne Somers (Random House)

In her #1 New York Times bestseller, Suzanne Somers brings together prominent, Western-trained experts in anti-aging and integrated medicine to present a medically validated approach to reversing the aging process. In Ageless, Ms. Somers tells how bioidentical hormone replacement and lifestyle changes can help both women and men alike to lose weight; regain their youthful physiques; and restore heath, energy, and sexuality.

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The Sexy Years: Discover the Hormone Connection: The Secret to Fabulous Sex, Great Health, and Vitality, for Women and Men
Suzanne Somers and Robert A. Greene (Random House)

Suzanne Somers describes her own experiences with menopause and the reasons she believes most women should take bioidentical hormones during this stage of life. She describes how estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone work together to keep people healthy and active. Ms. Somers provides interviews with a variety of physicians who specialize in natural hormones, sexual dysfunction and menopause; as well as with women in various stages of menopause. Ms. Somers also discusses her breast cancer surgery, along with her choice to follow up her surgery with the use of bioidentical hormones rather than with standard follow-up treatments. This book provides a challenge to those who wish to discuss these treatment options with their doctors, and offers natural alternatives to standard synthetic hormone replacement.

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Feeling Fat, Fuzzy, or Frazzled?: A 3-Step Program to Restore Thyroid, Adrenal, and Reproductive Balance, Beat Hormone Havoc, and Feel Better Fast!
Richard L. Shames and Karilee Shames (Penguin Group)

For the estimated 33 million Americans who feel sluggish, spacey, and stressed out daily, this book addresses the delicate balance between thyroid, adrenal, and reproductive glands — a life-altering balance that can make the day-to-day difference between feeling awful and feeling good.  Long-term, if left undiagnosed or improperly treated, this imbalance can cause heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, infertility, and severe menopause.  Married physician/nurse team, Richard and Karilee Shames, offer readers an innovative program to identify their particular hormone-related metabolic disorder; a “5-day jumpstart program” to help alleviate weight gain, low energy, or frayed nerves fast; and a long-term plan to achieve optimal health.

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Thyroid Power: Ten Steps to Total Health
Richard L. Shames and Karilee Shames (HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.)

If left undiagnosed and untreated, low thyroid is an energy-sapping illness with diverse symptoms that make diagnosis difficult, including "waking up tired," unexplained aches and pains, mental sluggishness, overweight despite light eating, low sex drive, infertility, allergies, and more. Thyroid Power explains why a person may have low thyroid even if their blood tests are "normal", describes those most likely to suffer from low thyroid, explains ways in which thyroid masquerades as other illnesses and/or makes any illness worse, and lists ways in which our modern lives contribute to the problem, from environmental toxins to stress. Thyroid Power provides 10 steps to harness the thyroid gland's power for health and well-being. Husband/wife physician/nurse team, Richard and Karilee Shames, explain how to get an accurate, cost-effective diagnosis; how to discover the optimal dosage, brand, or mix of medications; and how to adopt a lifestyle that maximizes thyroid health, including the right foods, supplements, and holistic methods. The book also includes Karilee's personal account of dealing with low thyroid.

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The Thyroid Diet
Mary J. Shomon (HarperCollins)

More than 25 million Americans are packing on the pounds due to a malfunctioning thyroid gland that slows down their metabolism. The Thyroid Diet will help many previously unsuccessful dieters to get diagnosed and properly prescribed thyroid treatment, thereby boosting their chances for successfully losing weight. For patients still plagued with weight problems despite optimal treatment, The Thyroid Diet identifies the many frustrating obstacles to weight loss, and offers conventional and alternative help. Discussing optimal dietary changes, thyroid-damaging foods to avoid, and metabolism-supporting herbs and supplements, the book contains several different eating plans, food lists, and a set of delicious and healthy gourmet recipes. With handy worksheets to use for weight-loss tracking and a special resource section featuring Web sites, books, and support groups, this book offers vital help.

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Are Your Hormones Making You Sick?
Eldred Taylor M.D. and Ava Bell-Taylor, M.D. (Physicians Natural Medicine Inc.)

Along with other books written about women’s hormonal problems, this book recommends the use of objective and accurate testing of hormone levels before prescribing treatment.  Husband/wife physician team, Eldred and Ava Bell Taylor, provide much-needed information that allows patients and doctors to understand the value of salivary testing. The Taylors stress that salivary testing is a must for every woman who intends to supplement with natural hormones and is concerned about breast cancer, osteoporosis, infertility, menopause, fibroids, and PMS.

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Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome
James L. Wilson, N.D., D.C., Ph.D. (Smart Publications)

More than 80 percent of North Americans suffer from stress-related adrenal fatigue ― a deficiency in adrenal gland functioning that can result in debilitating symptoms such as chronic fatigue, increased susceptibility to illness, lowered sex drive, lethargy, and weight gain.  Although many people realize that stress is a problem in their lives, few understand the ways that stress negatively impacts their bodies and minds, much less what to do about it.  Dr. James Wilson’s Adrenal Fatique draws on his 24 years of clinical experience and research to explain how stress affects your health and what you can do to help yourself.  The book contains a comprehensive diagnostic questionnaire and simple self-tests to determine if you have adrenal fatigue and, if so, how severe it is. The book’s cartoons, illustrations, charts, and fascinating case studies from Dr. Wilson's files enhance interest. From beginning to end, Adrenal Fatigue takes you step-by-step through everything you need to know to overcome the negative effects of stress, as well as how to treat the condition through lifestyle and dietary changes.

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The Irritable Male Syndrome: Understanding and Managing the Four Key Causes of Depression and Aggression
Jed Diamond (Rodale Press, Inc.)

The best-selling author of Male Menopause offers this life-transforming book about how to overcome the mood and behavior changes brought on by fluctuating hormones that affect up to 30 percent of all males. Jed Diamond examines the reasons why so many loving husbands, fathers, and sons suddenly become irritable, angry, and withdrawn. Identifying four common triggers for Irritable Male Syndrome (IMS) — including fluctuating testosterone levels, biochemical imbalances, loss of masculine identity, and stress — Diamond shows how to detect, understand and treat this condition that affects so many men, particularly those in adolescence and midlife.

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Menopause: A Spiritual Renaissance - What You Can Do To Empower Your Life From Someone Who's Been There and Done It
Helene B. Leonetti, MD (Bridger House)

Practicing physician and published researcher, Dr. Helene Leonetti, describes her journey with the struggles of menopause, and how she overcame a life-threatening depression and turned her life around toward one of spiritual growth. In this book, Leonetti shows others the lighted path to their own healing and self-empowerment through practical control of their own body-mind-spirit health.

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Hormones, Health, and Happiness
Steven F., M.D. Hotze and Kelly Griffin (Forrest Publishing)

Dr. Steven Hotze examines the underlying causes of poor health and presents an eight-point treatment program that holistically addresses all aspects of a person’s wellness. He describes how most illnesses are due to poor dietary habits and nutrition, lack of exercise, allergic disorders that weaken the immune system and make it more prone to infection, yeast overgrowth due to overuse of antibiotics, an imbalance and decline in the body's production of thyroid and sex hormones, and stressed adrenal glands. He reveals how all of these factors can be addressed safely, effectively, and naturally without the use of pharmaceutical drugs by restoring optimal hormonal levels using natural, biologically identical hormones in a safe, effective way that preserves vitality as you mature.

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Fight Fat After Forty: The Revolutionary Three-Pronged Approach That Will Break Your Stress-Fat Cycle and Make You Healthy, Fit, and Trim For Life
Pamela Peeke, M.D., M.P.H. (Penguin Books)

Written by scientist and clinician, Dr. Pamela Peeke, who studies the link between stress and fat at the National Institutes of Health, Fight Fat After Forty examines how chronic, long-term stress leads to destructive eating behavior, particularly in women over forty. Peeke tells how to evolve from a diet POW (prisoner of weight) and a victim of “toxic stress” to a mentally and physically powerful, stress-resilient woman. Using her three templates centered on stress-resilient nutrition, stress-resilient physical activity, and stress-resilient regrouping, as well as identifying your own, personal stress profile, you can tailor Peeke’s program to your individual needs. Following Peeke’s optimal plan will relieve your stress/eating cycle, relieve stress, reduce body fat, and benefit your overall health.

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The Thyroid Solution
Ridha Arem, M.D. (Ballantine Books)

In The Thyroid Solution, medical pioneer and leading authority in the field of thyroid research, Dr. Ridha Arem, has written a comprehensive book about thyroid imbalance — a disorder that often goes unrecognized.  Arem explains the connection between stress and thyroid imbalance, describing what happens when the thyroid is underactive and when it is overactive.  He goes into detail about how thyroid imbalance affects wide areas of life: weight and metabolism, sex life, and emotions, with a separate section on women’s thyroid issues.  The last section of the book includes chapters on diagnosis and treatment, and living with thyroid or thyroid-connected disease.  Case histories are included thoughout, making this already readable book even more so.

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Discover Your Menopause Type
Joseph Collins, N.D. (Three Rivers Press)

Take Charge of Your Menopause! In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Joseph Collins describes 12 distinct menopause types, and explains how to treat each type, rather than assuming that the same treatment is effective for all women.  Collins takes a comprehensive approach to this time in a woman’s life, addressing nutrition and diet, homeopathic remedies, and hormone balance and supplementation.  He includes a discussion of hormone replacement therapy, with an analysis of synthetic vs. bio-identical hormones, and a questionnaire to help a woman figure out her hormonal status. An earlier version of this book, under the name What’s Your Menopause Type?, published by Prima Health, is also available.

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The Wisdom of Menopause
Christiane Northrup, M.D. (Bantam Books)

Dr. Christiane Northrup (Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom), co-founder of the Women to Women health care center in Maine, continues the mind-body approach to women's health she uses in her previous books. Menopause does not have to be a miserable time of hot flashes and wild mood swings. It often marks the beginning of a woman's most satisfying phase of life — sexually, creatively, and professionally. As an obstetrician and gynecologist, Northrup has the credentials to speak with authority, as well as with experience, and shares with the reader her personal story of having gone through menopause herself. Her book goes into the hormonal changes and what they do to the body, and explains how to have a positive and healthy menopause. Also included are discussions about diet, attitude, breast health, bone loss, emotions, dietary supplements, bio-identical hormones, insomnia, and more.

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Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing
Christiane Northrup, M.D. (Bantam Books)

Dr. Christiane Northrup covers the power of natural therapies and herbs, including the use of natural progesterone to treat menopausal symptoms, along with traditional allopathic medical treatments including surgery. Dr. Northrup is both a gynecologist and an M.D. who believes in treating the whole person, not just the symptoms. While the book addresses the physical issues — childbirth, menstrual cramps, breast cancer, menopause, fibroids, endometriosis, etc. — it does not stop there. Northrup explains how such physical issues can be connected to the emotions and stressors in daily life, and how the patient can begin to perceive and heal those connections.

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Outsmart Your Cancer – Alternative Non-Toxic Treatments That Work
Tanya Harter Pierce (Thoughtworks Publishing)

Traditional medical treatments for cancer — surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation — are not always the only options. This easy-to-read book looks at other choices, explaining the scientific foundation for alternative approaches. Pierce lays out the mainstream medical approach to treating cancer today, and details a number of non-toxic alternative treatments that take advantage of the characteristics that are unique to cancer cells.  She addresses recovery issues, and provides guidelines for evaluating and choosing a treatment.

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DHEA: A Practical Guide
Ray Sahelian, M.D. (Avery Publishing Group)

Dr. Sahelian discusses the benefits and limitations of DHEA — an over-the-counter hormone that is produced in the body by the adrenal glands. He goes past the hype, addressing the safety of the hormone, and describes the way it affects the body — particularly the brain, the heart, and the immune system. Incorporating stories from DHEA users, he addresses appropriate DHEA levels, how those levels change with age, and practical aspects of taking DHEA supplements.

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Vitamins: Hype or Hope?
Pamela Wartian Smith, MD, MPH. (Healthy Living Books)

Dr. Smith is a public health expert and emergency room physician. In Vitamins: Hype or Hope?, she presents guidelines for healthy living. She explains the functions of the individual nutrients — vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and others — in our diet, and provides recommendations for different health conditions. This is an excellent book for your reference shelf.

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The Testosterone Syndrome
Eugene Shippen M.D. and William Fryer (M. Evans & Company, Inc.)

Shippen and Fryer have put together a comprehensible picture of the role that testosterone plays in the human body, and relationship of testosterone to the other hormones, particularly estrogen.  There is a chapter on male sexuality and one on the prostate gland.  The reader will learn about “male menopause,” how it can be dealt with, and how testosterone affects women.  A useful book for anyone who is considering testosterone therapy, or who just wants to learn more about this hormone.

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Overcoming Thyroid Disorders
David Brownstein, M.D.

Board-Certified family practitioner, Dr. David Brownstein, shows how a holistic treatment program can effectively treat not only hypothyroidism, but other thyroid-related disorders such as Grave’s Disease, Hashimoto’s Desease, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Arthritis. The book provides information on safe and effective natural therapies to help the body heal itself, and contains over 30 case studies describing Brownstein’s success in treating thyroid disorders. You will find treatment recommendations regarding natural thyroid hormone, bioidentical hormones, diet, detoxification, as well as vitamins and minerals important to thyroid function.

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Drugs That Don't Work and Natural Therapies That Do!
David Brownstein, M.D.

Dr. David Brownstein describes the reasons why drugs such as synthetic hormones, antidepressants, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and antacids cause so many adverse effects. It also shows how drugs work in the body and provides safe and effective natural alternatives to drugs including use of bioidentical hormones, diet modifications, vitamins, among others.

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The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fat and Ruins Your Health - and What You Can Do About It
Shawn Talbott, Ph.D. (Hunter House)

Dr. Talbott explains the connection between this hormone and stress, and how they lead to an increase in many common health problems including obesity, depression, suppressed immune system, osteoporosis, and hypertension.  As people find themselves under more or less constant stress in our modern world, chronically high levels of cortisol produce harmful if not dangerous effects. Talbott includes recommendations for exercise and diet that can help control stress hormone levels.

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