Breakthrough

Customer Reviews

• It helps to be rich!  Sep 14, 2008 (72 of 77 found this helpful)

  Suzanne walks the walk for sure. The only complaint I have is that her suggestions involve thousands of dollars and really are only for the rich. IV Chelation costs thousands and is not covered by insurance. Stem cell preservation ($7500) and human growth hormone ($$ monthly). Also, you can't just take on her suggestions without the knowledge of a functional medicine type doctor. As a mom of 3 girls, I do and will continute to use BHRT with help from my functional medicine doctor but I even if I had the money couldn't bring myself to inject HGH. Her nutrition suggestions are spot on. If we only would all practice them consistently, we may have alot less disease.

• This "breakthrough" needs fixing  Nov 9, 2008 (257 of 293 found this helpful)

  Ms. Somers has taken an important subject and made it unnecessarily complicated and perhaps inappropriate/impossible for the average reader. If one were to follow her "breakthrough" recommendations, they would be spending much of their life detoxing, eating organic fruits and vegetables(and little else), exercising, getting lymphatic massages, having their root canals and fillings extracted, getting their electrical currents measured, setting aside blood for future stem cell needs(at $7500 a pop), having chelation therapy, taking HGH shots, and eliminating all foods that provide a modicum of pleasure in todays world.
  
  Much of what is stated is important and helpful, but a true wellness book should have been more definitive about people getting off medications, not just statin drugs. A true wellness physician should be able to eliminate all medications that his/her patients are on. This is achieved by eliminating the causation of illness, a subject that is not covered in this book. There are many people who have difficulty sleeping, have restless leg syndrome, anger issues, road rage, fibromyalgia( which is not an auto-immune disorder or an inflammatory condition as stated in the book ), depression or IBS from internalization of anger, hypertension, a problem with excessive drinking,or smoking, or drugs in order to "chill out", anxiousness-type feelings, bipolar disorders, excess cortisol production leading to weight gain, chronic interstitial cystitis, etc. Every one of these conditions are caused by an over-production of a hormone that is scarcely mentioned in the book - adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone. The control of this hormone is imperative to achieving wellness; ironically, it is easy to do. Every one of the conditions mentioned can often be eliminated by lowering the levels of this hormone.
  
  I am a wellness physician and very much supportive of what Ms. Somers is trying to accomplish. It does not have to be complicated, it involves sitting down and talking to the patient, getting hormones in balance appropriately without unnessarily high doses of estrogen(or any at all since most women never stop making it),removing medications, an education in nutrition, and the correct use of supplements.
  
  For the record I would like to clarify some statements in the book: Estrogen lowers IGF-1 levels. It is dangerous to use these levels as a guide to HGH dosage when taking estrogen(as does Ms. Somers).
  Progesterone lowers insulin levels, it does not raise them.
  HGH is not an anti-aging hormone; it increases IGF-1 which speeds up aging.
  Testosterone does not lower cholesterol levels, but is certainly cardio-protective for both men and women.
  In men,testosterone can easily convert into estradiol, the cause of prostate cancer. Perhaps some mention should have been made about how to prevent this conversion.
  Migraine headaches are not "a classic response to low estrogen". They are caused by estrogen and are eliminated by progesterone cream.
  "A backed-up gall bladder" is not the most common cause of headaches.
  
  Suzanne Somers began her book with the same quotation that I ended mine with. My book begins with a quotation from Voltaire who stated that, "Doctors give drugs of which they know little/Into bodies of which they know less/For diseases of which they know nothing at all".
  
  Michael E. Platt,md The author of The Miracle of Bio-identical Hormones,2nd edition.

• WAKE UP TIME !!!  Sep 16, 2008 (48 of 54 found this helpful)

  Eveyone should read this book!!!! It is a wake up call to all people to see what medicine in our country has morphed into. We have lost all insight into the way our bodies work and respond to the food we put in our mouths, the toxins we eat, drink and are exposed to. Our bodies were not made to ingest the chemicals and nasty oils. Read this book then start reading labels!!! And for the love of Pete, get your hormones checked if you are over 35!!! Why in the world would you not want to use natural bio identical hormone therapy to feel better and fight disease??? Some of the things that are cutting edge mentioned in the book are expensive. However, bio identicals, supplements and eating healthy is NOT! Find a good bio identical/alternative doc to handle your hormone replacement and help yourself. Don't let your standard medical doc talk you out of it because they don't know about it like mine did. The real wake up call from this book that everyone should take away is to be your own advocate. Don't just take what a doc tells you and believe everything they say. Check it out for yourself. Get off the pills and get your body right. YOU have to be the person in charge of your health. I have been through years of thyroid disorders due to the fact that the docs were using outdated info, failed to test thoroughly, and use common sense methods. Now I am scrambling to get it all back in order with great alternative doc. Lesson here, take this stuff to heart, do what you can to be healthy, spend the money on health rather than junk.
  Suzanne has lots of info on cancer and treatments. We need to note how our medical society treats cancer and how they should be dealing with it. It is a very sad reality. This book has a lot to think about and a lot to act on. I highly recommend it to all my friends and family. Thank you Suzanne for putting yourself out there for our education.

• What Your Doctor Doesn't Know  Sep 17, 2008 (54 of 64 found this helpful)

  
  Suzanne Somers has always been on the cutting edge of healthcare! She has a tremendous grasp of the subject, but her truly great gift is being able to transmit that knowledge in an easy to understand fashion. Her latest book, "Breakthrough" continues that tradition, while greatly expanding on important health information.
  This book is the most advanced book Suzanne has written yet because she is keeping up with a rapidly advancing field. She adeptly covers every aspect of anti-aging and bioidentical hormone medicine and features expert medical mentors at the forefront of the field. These doctors have years of experience and base their practices on information in current medical studies published in peer-reviewed medical literature.
  A very useful aspect of the book is that Ms. Somers organizes the information into eight steps to wellness and then elaborates on each one. She tells you exactly what it takes and what you have to do to maintain vibrant health! Then she goes beyond this information to give additional insurance for longevity like stem cell banking. As she elaborates on each step, she uses interviews with the experts in this field. I have attended many lectures by these doctors and continue to be impressed with their knowledge, integrity, and scientific approach to the subject.
  It is very valuable that Suzanne represents wellness as a group of things you have to do on a consistent basis instead of a quick fix. We are too oriented to taking a pharmaceutical that will cure all our problems. Health is a process and a journey that requires a set of consistent actions and attention. It is important that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is her first step, because hormones are basic to all good health by keeping our cells healthy.
  The information in this book is advanced medical knowledge that is not commonly known by the usual medical practitioner. Most of the information in this book is not taught in medical school and must be sought out by the medical practitioner who currently barely has time to see patients. Remember most of modern medical practice is disease based, so if you do not have a disease, but do not feel well, there is nothing your doctor knows to do for you. If you have a disease, medicine has tunnel vision of treating only the disorder without regards to the underlying cause or healthy options. Thank goodness for the medical vanguard in this book who are leading the way to a new concept of prevention, health, and wellness.
  If you are experiencing symptoms of hormone loss and aging or just want to maintain the best health you can, then "Breakthrough" is essential information to be read carefully and completely.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Another great book by Suzanne  Sep 20, 2008 (19 of 22 found this helpful)

  I must admit when I saw Suzanne Sommers books I was a bit skeptical and wondered if she really had the knowledge to write of what she speaks, but I have read a couple of her books and just purchased Breakthrough and I am really impressed. She really has a radiance about her and seems very content in her life after enduring some serious health issues. I think this book is a great read for women and it is easy to connect with Suzanne and feel she is really giving women detailed important information..I do agree with her that many medical professionals are out of touch with the issues concerning women's hormones, menopuase etc and after reading this book I really felt inspired and I hope alot of women will read this and know that they do not have to suffer the sometimes difficult passage of menopause etc..Suzanne has researched this topic extensively and I am very grateful she has given such great info to her readers.