Julie Kernick

Wonderful news about the rewiring of our brains at different stages of life. As one experiencing long term peri- l, menopausal, or post menopausal symptoms the chapters on the effects of healthy living and alternate 'herbal aids left me feeling extremely frustrated. I worry that other women may wonder how they are failing when healthier lifestyle changes may reduce symptoms but not below 'debilitating'. Similarly I feel sheer terror at the thought of women trying multiple alternate supplements as this book seems to suggest many will significantly reduce symptoms to background level. I do take Vit E for about a 1% reduction in symptoms. The Menopause Australia website s research reports of the efficacy of non hormonal treatments is totally different to the claims in this book A balancing cost-benefit analysis would help stop women putting themselves at risk with some quite risky options for barely placebo benefit or be helped by untested and unregulated supplements that contain undeclared Estrogen. With diet there is much work done on diet by Michael Moseley that would help people navigate diet in a more accessible form than the multitudinous bits of advice in the book. Also a proportion of women benefit from a low FODMAP diet. Monash University leads in research and has an App to assist those who have worked with an appropriately trained Dietitian and may gain real tailored benefit to overall well being by being able to pro actively manage gut health. Overall many valuable pieces of information and a massive undertaking to assemble. The book would benefit from latter chapters being in a more digestible form and utilise work already printed and readily available that does just that.