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Average Customer Rating: 
(54 reviews)
Editorial Review: From renowned nutritionist and author of the bestselling Fat Flush Plan comes a revised and updated guide to taking charge of your perimenopause. Filled with the latest research as well as practical tips and menus, Gittleman also incorporates timely information, especially pertaining to Hormone Replacement Therapy.
Learn How You Can head off Depression and Mood Swings, Weight Shifts, Erratic Sleep, Memory Loss, and Other Changes Leading to Menopause.
Take charge of your perimenopause simply, safely, and naturally! This breakthrough book details a gentle incremental program for understanding your own changes and offers a wide range of options for taking care of yourself. By following the author's proven techniques for controlling the symptoms of perimenopause, you can continue to feel great through this vital phase of your life.
With this essential do–it–yourself program, you can say good–bye to hormone havoc and sail through your perime...
Customer Reviews:
1 of 1 found this review helpful:
I had immediate results/improvement! Thank God!, 2008-04-10
I am just about to turn 40. For the past two years, I've had insomnia and severe PMS symptoms every month. I've been to a sleep specialist, an endocrinologist, the gynocologist, all to no avail except money spent on meds that didn't work. I threw the meds out when a friend handed me this book, tried just the vitamin and mineral supplement suggestions (one of the perizappers) plus the magnesium suggestion for insomnia, and got relief within two weeks. Make sure the magnesium you get has a high absorption rate (I use Albion brand). That made an immediate difference in a day. The only "symptom" I have is cramps the moment my period starts, and Advil takes care of that. No more raging, angry, dark cloud of gloom in my life for days before it starts. My husband and I laugh because now my cycle starts without warning. And I'm sleeping great. I am so grateful to God that this came along.
1 of 1 found this review helpful:
Wish I'd found this 5 years ago!, 2008-03-11
I'd been dealing with bouts of depression that would come and go so quickly that I would feel like a big dark cloud came over the horizon, settle over my life for two days and then went on it's way. A friend gently told me that, yes, I COULD be dealing with hormonal issues attributed to peri-menopause even though I'm only 43. I saw this book at my local health food store and read it cover to cover in one day. It was easy to understand and easy to see myself in the examples. I started trying her Peri-Zappers and the results have been fabulous--regular periods for the first time ever, more energy and best of all, no more dark clouds of despair.
Thank you for de-mystifying the whole process and taking the "Change of Life" from something to be sad about, to just seeing it as another phase of life. It feels wonderful to be in control of my hormones instead of the other way around!
0 of 8 found this review helpful:
Say "no" to perimenopause, 2008-01-13
Perimenopause is a marketing construct, intended to sell drugs, books and other products by instilling self-doubt and insecurity. Resist the effort to pathologize everything about women's bodies.
0 of 0 found this review helpful:
Cutting Through the Questions, 2007-12-29
I had heard about this book from many of my friends, all of us just over the 50 Mark....and it turned out to be very informational and helpful and encouraging. There are so many books out on the subject of menopause and all the blood, sweat and tears that are part of this time in a woman's life....going into a bookstore is like going into Toys R Us and looking for a Barbie outfit....quite overwhelming.....this book is one of the smart ones to have and to hold and to keep.
7 of 9 found this review helpful:
Useful, but Flawed, 2007-05-08
"Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Menopause" by Ann Louis Gittleman explains how to control your Menopause symptoms by changing your diet. There are two parts to the book: Part One is called "Alleviating Symptoms" and Part Two is called "The Changing Diet". The book starts with a list of Perimenopause symptoms and a quiz to see if you are in Perimenopause. The book covers topics such as how to curb carbs, vitamins and minerals, natural hormone cream, exercising, and safe estrogen replacement therapy. There are also several case studies in the book. The Changing Diet Plan Section also includes several recipes. A major part of the book is ten remedies for Perimenopause symptoms. Gittleman calls these remedies "All-Star Peri Zappers" and they include: Flaxseed oils and ground flax seeds; black currant seed oil; multivitamins and magnesium; zinc; natural progesterone cream; exercise; destressing stress; adrenal refresher; hesperidin; and natural estrogen replacement.
"Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Menopause" is a good book for women who like to try and control their Menopause symptoms, especially through diet and nutrition. Gittleman is a nutritionist and the book mainly focuses on how women can use nutritional therapy for Menopause symptoms. There are several useful lists in the book including a list of symptoms caused or made worse by estrogen dominance; a list of Perimenopause symptoms caused by magnesium deficiency; and a list of symptoms of hypothyroidism. There is a very helpful quiz designed to figure out if you burn food fast or slow. The case studies are very interesting. The recipes were also very useful, as where the natural quick fixes for Perimenopause symptoms. What I especially liked about the book is that the lists of symptoms and case studies show that Menopause is a real, but controllable part of life.
While I found the book to be helpful for the most part, there were a few things I didn't like about it. Gittleman spends a little too much time promoting not only books she has written, but several times she'll say that only one product will work effectively and gives the brand name. This happens so often I was beginning to wonder if she was getting a commission from the companies. Her chapter on exercise, an important element in controlling Menopause symptoms, is extremely short and doesn't really explore how important exercise is for aging women. Her suggestion to wash food with a combination of Clorox and water seems extreme, to say the least.
"Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Menopause" is a useful, but flawed book on Menopause.
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