Vibrant Health * Natural Beauty

Lauren Kent is the General Manager of Daily Balance, the official source of Dr. Susan Lark's nutritional supplements, and health and beauty products.

A native of Philadelphia, she currently resides outside Washington, D.C. with her husband, David, and two little girls, Maya and Alexis.

I rarely get sick, which is surprising since I have 2 young kids. I'll get a cold here and there. But, rarely does something really get me down... until last weekend.

My 3-year-old, Maya, had started coughing on Friday, then developed a fever that night. By Saturday, I had the chills and felt incredibly sore. I ended up sleeping in Maya's room that night, and what a miserable night it was. I was burning up, and she was clearly uncomfortable. At one point she started crying because her room was "moving".

Sunday was spent napping. And, by Sunday afternoon, Maya seemed fine. I was still exhausted and achy. But Maya was energetic and ready to play. We both returned to work/school on Monday and seemed to be improving. Then, Maya's cough returned on Tuesday. The fever returned that night, as well.

We stayed home on Wednesday and ended up at the pediatrician's office that afternoon when I took Maya's temperature and it was 103. Once at the doctor's office, they took her temperature again and it was... NORMAL! Then Maya started singing and dancing, acting like a healthy child. I felt like a paranoid mother.

The doctor did confirm that Maya's symptoms were "consistent" with what they were seeing with H1N1. They don't actually test for H1N1 because the test has proven to be unreliable with false positives (and false negatives). And, since her symptoms were my symptoms, I have reason to believe that what I had was H1N1.

Could it have been avoided? I don't think so. The vaccine is scarce. Our doctor's office has a vaccine wait list for kids over 3. We wash hands and encourage coughing into our arms. But, let's be honest. Trying to get a 3-year-old to cover their cough is next to impossible. So, we got sick, and survived!

We're still early in the flu season. It's not too late to start taking care of ourselves and fortifying our own immune system. You can read Dr. Lark's recommendations for "bullet proofing" your immune system here.

I was at a conference on women's healthcare last week where there was some discussion as to why women are hesitant to discuss some of their health issues, and possible treatments, with their doctors. Perhaps the condition is embarassing to them. Or, maybe their doctor isn't open to new solutions, beyond the traditional treatments.

One presenter at this conference shared a quote from a doctor that perhaps explains it, "no one ever died from peeing on onself." It's sad to think that our health professionals would have such attitudes about women's health issues.

When I heard this quote, I was immediately reminded of a doctor's visit I had during my first pregnancy. I was about 7 months along, and meeting with one of the most senior doctors in the practice. I asked him if he could tell the position of the baby, to which he responded rudely "I don't care about the position of the baby." I asked a couple more questions, which he blew off, as well. He ended the exam by saying, "Don't buy the farm." I was shocked. Did he actually just tell me not to die? I got in my car and cried all the way home. I had never been treated so poorly by a doctor.

When I got closer to my due date I started asking my OB/GYN practice for their on call schedule. I'm convinced that I went into labor when I did because I knew Dr. Jerk wasn't on call, and wouldn't deliver my baby.

I later learned that this particular doctor was notorious for being awful during exams. There have even been discussions about him, and his poor bedside manner, on my mommy listserv.

So, tell me. Have you had a similar experience. Have you ever been disappointed by a doctor? And, if so, what did you do about it?

I was recently in a meeting where some my colleagues where sharing their "other" uses for our Squalane and Trilane formulas, beyond their wrinkle reducing benefits. One woman mentioned that she uses Trilane as a massage oil. Another mentioned that she's used Squalane to soothe her kids' bug bites. Since it's a natural beauty care product, she feels more comfortable using it on her kids than many of the solutions at the stores. One woman even uses Squalane to remove her eye make-up.

Personally, I keep a bottle of Trilane on my desk for my hands. Now that the weather has gotten a little colder, and we have the heat going, my hands have started to get dry and my cuticles are a bit cracked and rough. So, at least once a day, I squirt a few drops of Trilane on my hands and rub it in. It not only makes them feel baby soft, but it does wonders for my cuticles.

Trilane and Squalane are two of the best natural skin care products for wrinkle free skin. But, beyond wrinkles, what special uses have you discovered?

Over the summer Women's Health magazine wrote an article about "Bumpaholics"--women who get a high from being pregnant. I didn't give it much thought at the time. But, recently I've been wondering if I may be one of those women.

The woman who sits in the office to my left just gave birth last week. The woman to my right is pregnant and due in February. On top of that, we have a few other women working here who are either pregnant or on maternity leave. I'm starting to feel a little jealous of them.

One of my colleagues on maternity leave just brought in her 5-week-old baby girl today and as soon as I heard the little squeals of a newborn my body reacted. I felt this electric shock. I got chills. And, for a moment, I thought I might start producing milk again. It was a true physical reaction.

I enjoyed both my pregnancies. In fact, I would say that I loved being pregnant, despite the morning sickness, heartburn, weight gain, and all the fluctuations in hormone levels. But am I addicted? Perhaps I am.

I have no desire to be Octomom or Kate Gosselin. But, maybe one more baby? I'm really on the fence. I do know that I'm not ready to have another baby now. The thought of 3 kids under the age of 5 scares the daylights out of me.

My husband and I have decided to revisit the matter when our baby turns 2 in June. We'll see then if my baby pangs have subsided by then. Stay tuned!

Read Women's Health article Bumpaholics: the Belly-Rubbing High.

Last month we learned that my mother-in-law has breast cancer. The tumor was small, and removed a few weeks ago, along with a couple lymph nodes that were tested and came back clear. She began radiation treatments this week.

My grandmother was also breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed in the late 1970's, had a mastectomy, and remained clear of the disease for the rest of her life.

I was upset to learn about my mother-in-law's diagnosis, not only for her, but also for what this means for my girls. Knowing that family history is a risk factor, I worry about what this latest diagnosis means for them.

There have been many advances in breast cancer research and treatments since my grandmother's mastectomy 30 years ago. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month we've done a number of wonderful blogs on this site discussing new, natural ways to deal with this retched disease.

I encourage you to read these entries:

Honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Natural Solutions for Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer and Estrogen Levels

As General Manager of Daily Balance I get to receive lots of customer feedback regarding our products. This is great because it gives me a sense how our products are received in the marketplace.

In the last year we've introduced a number of exciting formulas--both supplements and beauty products. Trilane, our olive-based squalane formula, has been especially well received for its wrinkle reducing and firming benefits.

We've also introduced a couple of natural remedies for weight loss that have been flying off the shelves. Daily Balance Silhouette helps reduce 'false fat' (water retention and bloating), while TonaLean tackles true body fat and can help you lose up to 30 pounds in 90 days. Both formulas would be a great addition to anyone looking for a natural weight loss plan.

If you're taking one of our supplements, or using one of our beauty products, I want to hear from you! What do you love? Is something not meeting your expectations?

Also, we're always looking for new solutions and natural beauty product to offer our customers. Have a great product to reduce cellulite? Is there a cleanser that you can't live without? Let me know about it! I'd love to hear from you.

Did you know September is Menopause Awareness Month in the United States? Evidently 5 years ago the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) worked to declare this month "Menopause Awareness" month, stating that they wanted women to be informed about new and emerging safety information about menopausal hormone treatment (i.e. hormone replacement therapy or HRT).

It's interesting that the FDA says that they want women to be informed about treatments for menopause symptoms, but at the same time they take efforts to limit women's access to solutions, such as bioidentical hormones, that have been proven to help ease hot flashes, night sweats, and the other unpleasant menopause symptoms. In addition, they continue to allow synthetic hormone replacement therapy to be distributed to women despite the known risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and more. It's time the FDA got with the program.

Dr. Lark knew the risks of synthetic hormone replacement therapy long before the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) studies were released and has successfully used alternative therapies to help ease both menopause and perimenopause symptoms. She often discusses natural solutions for hot flashes, night sweats and other hormone-related issues in her monthly newsletter, Women's Wellness Today.

So, in celebration of Menopause Awareness Month, I encourage you to learn more about the safer, natural therapies for menopause symptoms by reading these blogs and visiting Dr. Lark's site here.

Last month I wrote about how hormonal imbalances really go beyond the hot flashes and night sweats, and can affect women of all ages. I shared my personal story of dealing with horrible headaches and fatigue on the first day of menstruation.

My goal this month was to eliminate my symptoms by following Dr. Lark's recommendations in her PMS Self Help Book. I was to eliminate alcohol, tropical fruits, chocolate, and sugar. How well did I do?

Tropical fruits - check!
Alcohol - check!
Chocolate & sugar - not so great. It's kind of hard to avoid these things when your husband brings home a large chocolate cake for your birthday. But, I did do my best to avoid chocolate & sugar once the cake was gone.

The outcome? I felt pretty good this month. I did have a dull headache, but nothing like the killer ones I've experienced in the past. I was a little tired, but that could have been do to the fact that my 1-year-old was up a couple times the night before.

This month I'll try to curb the chocolate & sugar more and see how I feel. With no birthday to celebrate it should be a lot easier.

To read my earlier post "Dealing with Female Hormones-Not Just a Menopause Thing" click here.

Last week the FDA announced that is was reviewing new safety information regarding reports of liver-related adverse events in patients taking the weight loss formula, orlistat. Orlistat is marketed in the United States as a prescription product, Xenical, and as the over-the-counter (OTC) product, Alli.

32 reports of serious liver injury, including 6 cases of liver failure, in patients using orlistat were submitted to FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System. The most commonly reported adverse events described in the 32 reports of serious liver injury were jaundice (yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes), weakness, and abdominal pain. Hospitalization was reported in 27 of the 32 cases.

But what's most disturbing is the FDA announcement is that they're not recommending consumers stop taking the product.

I understand that women are looking for help with their weight loss plans, especially women over 40. During this time weight often begins to creep up as estrogen levels begin to fluctuate and female hormones become unbalanced.

But the liver issue, coupled with the unpleasant side effects of Alli, make it clear that this is no friendly weight loss remedy. Just go to the Alli web site and you can read all about it:

You may get:

• gas with oily spotting
• loose stools
• more frequent stools that may be hard to control

So, you may lose some weight, but you have to stick close to home, just in case you experience an "episode".

Dr. Lark advocates a far safer approach, with with a natural weight loss plan that incorporates a healthy diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes.

Click here to read about Dr. Lark's latest natural weight loss recommendations.

"Am I going through early menopause"? That was the question I was asking myself one year ago today (which also happens to be my birthday). I had delivered my 2nd child, Alexis, a few weeks earlier, and had started experiencing horrible night sweats nearly every night. Luckily, the menopause symptoms were solely at night. I wasn't having hot flashes during the day. Since I never experienced night sweats after my first child was born, I had started to wonder if I might be going into menopause... at the age of 36.

I consulted a dear mommy friend of mine who was actually surprised that I didn't get night sweats after my first pregnancy. Evidently, post-partum sweating, especially at night, is quite common. Sweating is one of the ways your body gets rid of the extra water retained during pregnancy. It's also possible that the drop in estrogen that occurs right after delivery contributes to the night sweats. Who knew?

So, here I am, one year later, no longer having the night sweats, but knowing that menopause will come one day. Luckily, for all of us, there are now natural solutions for menopause relief. We do not need to suffer like our mothers once did. And, we certainly don't need to put ourselves at risk with hormone replacement therapy.

Last week it was reported that researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Chicago had found that black cohosh and red clover do not relieve menopause symptoms such as hot flashes.

Am I surprised by this news? Not really. But I do take issue with labeling all black cohosh as being ineffective in providing menopause relief. That's because all black cohosh isn't created equal.

Dr. Lark has mentioned in the past that while some women found relief from menopause symptoms with black cohosh, others did not. That's why the form of black cohosh we use in Daily Balance's Harmony Hormone Balance for Women isn't your run-of-the-mill variety. It's a patented, studied form of black cohosh called BNO1055. No other black cohosh product is similar to BNO1055. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, BNO1055 was shown to provide up to an 80 percent reduction in "heating episodes" (i.e. hot flashes and night sweats).

This is not the generic form of black cohosh that you can pick-up in any store, and certainly not the form used in the study.

To read Dr. Lark's own response to the study click here.

So many women think about female hormones and only relate them to menopause--the hot flashes, night sweats, etc. But this is an issue that many women deal with of all ages, myself included.

Each month, on the day I'm starting menstruation, I get an awful headache, feel exhausted, and just want to lie down and go to bed. I've always assumed that my symptoms were related to my estrogen levels, and that something was out of balance. (That or my body was simply punishing me for not getting pregnant, since I absolutely love being pregnant.)

This week, after suffering through an awful day of PMS, I consulted Dr. Lark's PMS Self Help Book. And there it was confirmed what I had already suspected. On the first day of menstruation, estrogen and progesterone levels are extremely low. I even learned that what I was experiencing was known as "Type C" PMS (the "c" is for carbohydrates or cravings). Women suffering from Type C PMS often experience sugar cravings, fatigue, and headaches.

For the Type C PMS sufferer Dr. Lark recommends eliminating sugar, chocolate, alcohol, and tropical fruits from the diet. No problem on the alcohol and tropical fruits. But sugar and chocolate? I'm just going to have to take that one day by day. She also recommends a strong vitamin and mineral multinutrient.

I'm going to start incorporating some Dr. Lark's recommendations this month. And hopefully, my days of headaches and exhaustion will be a thing of the past. Stay tuned!

I was recently forwarded an email from a customer with some concerns about the squalane products she had been using. Seems she had received an email that had described squalene as a "toxic" substance. The email stated that squalene in vaccines had been linked to Gulf War Syndrome.

Let me assure you that the natural skin care products we sell here are Daily Balance are 100% safe. We use squalane, the hydrogenated form of squalene, in our Ocean Actives product line, as well as our new Trilane formula. Since squalene is easily oxidized, its hydrogenated form, squalane, which is more stable, is preferred in skin care products.

Squalene is naturally-occurring in the body, so to call it "toxic" or "harmful" would be incorrect. It's component of human sebum, an oily substance produced by the sebaceous glands that protect and waterproof the hair and skin, preventing them from drying out, or becoming brittle and cracked.

Applied topically, squalane is one of the best natural skin care ingredients to help hydrate the skin and reduce the appearance of wrinkles. It's also completely safe. You can use Trilane and Ocean Actives Squalane with complete confidence.

This week it was reported that a recent study found that post-menopausal women who underwent synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) had a sharply increased risk of ovarian cancer. The study included 900,000 Danish women between the ages of 50 to 79 and resulted with scientists determining that 140 cases of ovarian cancer within an eight-year period could be linked to synthetic hormones.

Is anyone surprised?

For years, Dr. Lark has been reporting on the negative risk factors and side effects associated with conventional HRT. Previous studies have shown that this therapy increases a woman's risk of heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, and breast cancer, and it can intensify pre-existing conditions such as heavy bleeding from fibroids, migraine headaches, and blood clotting problems. Plus, some women experience terrible side effects, such as depression, anxiety, breast tenderness, weight gain, and fluid retention.

* Melatonin: A good night’s sleep is a necessity for all women, but night sweats can seriously interfere with that. Inadequate sleep also interferes with your ability to get your natural nightly dose of melatonin—the hormone your pineal gland secretes when you’re in a deep sleep during the darkest part of the night. Taking supplemental melatonin can help you sleep better, even if your sleep disturbance is due to night sweats. Dr. Lark recommends taking 3 mcg–3 mg of melatonin every night, about 30 minutes before you go to bed. Start with the lower dosage and increase, if needed, until you get the desired effect.

Dr. Lark has dedicated herself to providing women with natural, safer alternatives for menopause symptoms. You can find many more of her solutions on her blog and web site.

To learn more about the recent study, click here.

I was shocked reading Prevention magazine's article "Your best face" story this morning. Their endorsements of Botox and hydroquinone to achieve beautiful skin are downright irresponsible, and contradicts every recommendation made by natural skin care experts, including Dr. Lark.

For women in their 40s they recommended hydroquinone to help even out skin tone. As Dr. Lark reported in her newsletter, Women's Wellness Today, back in 2000, hydroquinone is the same substance that's in film developing chemicals. Who wants that on their skin? And, while it may be effective at bleaching the surface of your skin, it can damage deeper layers of skin and even cause white spots.

They also recommended Botox injections for wrinkle free skin. Are you kidding me? Yes. I'd love to have the beautiful wrinkle free face of my little 1-year-old, Alexis, but with Botox? No thanks. Botox contains a toxin derived from the same deadly bacteria that causes Botulism (food poisoning). You want that injected into your skin?

There are so many products on the market today with natural skin care ingredients that help reduce the appearance of wrinkles. Squalane is one such ingredient that Dr. Lark has recommended for years for it's anti-aging, anti-wrinkle benefits.

As General Manager of Daily Balance, I've received thousands of letters and emails from women who rave about how our Squalane natural beauty care products have given them wrinkle free skin. And, I can say from first-hand experience it's one of the best natural skin care products out there.

I urge all women to pay attention to what they put on their skin. Read labels. Check ingredients. And scrutinize every promise of youthful, wrinkle free skin. You could be doing more harm than good.

To read the full, shocking story from Prevention, click here.