We have revealed the real Susan Lark in a previous column, "Susan Lark Has
Two Faces" (see the ARCHIVES for this). A slickly written promo has been
sent to countless women recently 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." 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 not only cancer causing estrogens without any testing of blood
levels, but 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
risks, 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 very toxic with long term use.
The arrogance here 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.
And Susan Lark was one of the main proponents of exactly that- HRT- for
years. She says chaste tree berries will make uterine fibroids go away and
"quickly relieve fibroids." Now chaste tree is a fine herb, but it is next
to impossible to shrink fibroids once they are established, even with
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 estrogen in women and
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? Folks, I'm not creative enough to make up
things that ridiculous; you give me far too much credit if you think I
made 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.
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, but it 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.
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 Total 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?
Have diabetes? Take aloe vera to cure it. "How to cure diabetes with a
common houseplant". That's another quote. 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". 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.
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 lacks silicon,
iron and vanadium (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?
This is one of the foremost authors of women's health books in America. Go
figure.