"America's Most Trusted Woman Doctor" -Roger Mason

We have revealed the real Susan Lark in a previous column, "Susan Lark Has Two Faces" (see the library under “S” for this). A slickly written promo has been sent to countless women calling her, "America's Most Trust Woman Doctor".

It is claimed for a quarter century she has been renowned for using natural, non-drug, non-surgical means for treating women. "I've told women the truth about the health choices they have." Susan pretends she has always promoted the use of natural progesterone, and never advocated the general use of carcinogenic estrogen therapy, especially the insanity of using horse estrogens for human women. "In my practice I've rarely recommended synthetic HRT." Not true folks! Go read her books, Making the Estrogen Decision and Menopause Self-Help Book and see the facts for yourself. "Many women are excellent candidates for HRT". She clearly was in favor of using cancer causing estrogens without any testing of blood levels, and also suggested using toxic progestin analogs instead of real, natural progesterone. She actually calls these poisonous progestins "progesterone". Go read her books and see the truth for yourself. If this is America's Most Trusted Woman Doctor, I'll take Dr. Kervorkian any day! In this promo she promises to show women how to "beat the top ten threats every woman faces." These include cholesterol, arthritis, cancer risk, weight loss, diabetes, menopause, colds & flu, allergies, heart health, and blood pressure. She further claims a new "weight-loss breakthrough" where you quit dieting and "effortlessly" lose up to 10 pounds this week and never, never regain them. She goes on to say you would, "only worry about getting too thin!" Folks, you couldn't lose 10 pounds in a week if you quit eating completely and went on a total water fast! It just isn't going to happen. She says women should take 50 mg of vitamin B-6. The RDA is only 2 mg, so that means she is suggesting a 2,500% overdose every day for the rest of their lives. Megadoses of anything are bad, including water soluble vitamins. Women should not take more than 10 mg of B-6 because it becomes toxic with long term use. Megadoses of ANYTHING are harmful to our health. This is just one of countless examples of her complete misinformation.

Her arrogance is just overwhelming. "We were told for years that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) would protect us from heart disease. We were told to put up with the dozens of side effects of HRT, suffer through the weight gain and live with the increased risks of cervical and uterine cancer - because we were getting protection from heart disease. And we were told wrong." In her two above mentioned books she repeatedly claims that HRT protects women from heart disease and heart attacks. Go read this for yourself in most any public library.

Susan Lark was, in fact, one of the main proponents of toxic HRT for years. She also recommends chaste tree berries for uterine fibroids as this will, "quickly relieve fibroids." Now chaste tree is a good herb, but it is next to impossible to shrink fibroids once they are established, even with a healthy diet, supplements, and natural hormones. You know from reading this column that flax oil is a wonderful supplement and part of the "cornerstone program" for lowering cholesterol. By itself it does not have a dramatic effect on cholesterol levels however. She claims one of her patients lowered her cholesterol by 100 points and lost 33 pounds by simply taking flax seeds and not changing her diet. Darn, it would nice if life were this simple wouldn't it? She also says flax, "had a natural estrogenic effect." This column has revealed that flax LOWERS (not raises) estrogen in both men and women. No plant contains any estrogen or estrogenic compounds. That includes soy isoflavones (which are not "phytoestrogens" no matter how many billions of people keep mindlessly repeating that fallacy.)

Got the blues? Depressed? She says you can fix this in only 3 minutes by taking a half teaspoon of baking soda. You think I made that up to make her sound stupid don't you? She doesn't need me to make her sound stupid. Folks, I'm not creative enough to make up things that ridiculous; illegal drugs couldn't get me to make something like that up. She also says, "The best friend a woman can have is ... the sweet potato." Seriously, she said that. That's a direct quote- your best friend is a sweet potato! Or, her suggestion for premenstrual problems... "PMS? How a turkey sandwich helps." This is not a misprint- "How a turkey sandwich helps," is a direct quote. Looney tune is an appropriate term certainly, Susan Looney Tune Lark.

She goes on to say that selenium can cut your risk of breast cancer in half. Now selenium is a wonderful mineral, and most Americans are deficient in selenium and many other trace elements. Selenium just isn't going to cut a woman's risk of breast cancer by 50%. In a perfect world that would really be nice, but not in the real world. Our All Your Minerals has selenium and 19 other vital minerals.

Got high blood pressure? Just take potassium. That's all, no problem, just take some potassium and all your problems are solved. She also suggests 12 ounces of tomato juice for your hypertension. "There are now hundreds of studies proving that potassium is as effective as blood pressure medication." I must have missed all those hundreds of studies while spending half my life in medical libraries doing research. Do you know why there's no potassium in All Your Minerals? Because, we get plenty of it in our diets. We don't have potassium, sodium, phosphorous or sulfur deficiencies. And what the heck does tomato juice have to do with high blood pressure? Looney Tune is an understatement.

Have diabetes? Take aloe vera to cure it. "How to cure diabetes with a common houseplant." That's another quote. Cure diabetes with a houseplant! Yes, you can cure diabetes naturally, but it takes major changes in your DIET, lots of supplements, stopping any prescription medicines, and avoiding bad habits like coffee. It takes major lifestyle changes to cure a serious illness like diabetes, and not just a capsule a day of a "common houseplant". Please read my book, The Natural Diabetes Cure. She tells all women to revive sexual desire by taking 10 mg of DHEA a day if they are over 45. Don't bother to test your levels - just take it. Ladies, women can be too low or too high in DHEA. If you are too high and take DHEA supplements you are REALLY in trouble. Hyper levels of powerful hormones are just as dangerous as low levels. This is why I keep preaching endlessly for anyone - man or woman - never to touch DHEA or testosterone without testing their blood or saliva levels to prove they have a deficiency that needs supplementing. You must test yourself before considering a powerful androgen like DHEA.

Had enough? Me, too. If you haven't had enough, please go to her website http://www.drlark.com/and you'll see a list of products that will make you gag. Progesterone spray with no amount of progesterone listed. This means it only has to contain 1 mg. She sells useless chondroitin (please see the ARCHIVES for "chondroitin" and "arthritis"). Her overpriced vitamin and mineral supplement is pitiful and overpriced.  (and you have to take six capsules a day!). She sells weak CoQ1O with a mere 30 mg and has the nerve to charge $24.95? Ours is 100 mg for the same price.

This was one of the foremost authors of women's health books in America. Go figure. In 2008 you don't hear much from her anymore. She's probably dying from her own asinine advice. The earth will be a better place…