Interview with Dr Tags.
If you suffer from PMS or are just about to enter menopause, you may want to learn a thing or two about Dr.
Tagliaferri and her formulas. She is a breast cancer survivor who was determined to create an all-natural remedy for PMS and menopausal symptoms. Dr. Tags (a childhood nickname) says “I want an all-natural plant-based remedy that, unlike a pharmaceutical drug, is not going to harm my body while trying to help me. And I want a remedy that is going to treat my symptoms holistically, in an integrative approach and as a natural part of aging, not as some disease to attack and wipe out.”
Can you tell the Mother & Fitness readers what you are passionate about?
I am deeply passionate about both women’s health and the intersection of spirituality and science.
What do you believe are the most common misconceptions about PMS and menopause?
The most unfortunate misconception some have is that, because neither PMS nor menopause are fatal diseases, they do not require adequate medical attention, treatment or research dollars for finding improved therapies. I think people underestimate the debilitating nature of the symptoms. Women with PMS can be debilitated for 10 days per month with depression, irritability and a host of distressing physical symptoms including breast tenderness, bloating, fatigue and lower abdominal cramping. Those monthly changes can have an enormous impact on a woman’s ability to function in the workplace and at home. Women going through menopause can suffer not only from hot flashes and mood swings but also from insomnia due to frequent awakenings from night sweats. I also find that women tend to under-report their symptoms because those symptoms are associated with biological processes that are currently taboo to discuss. No one wants to stand up and say, “I am in menopause” because that transition is associated with several physical changes that run counter to our youth-obsessed culture.
How did surviving breast cancer change your outlook on life?
Breast cancer shattered many of my strong convictions about health and healing. I’d always thought that if I had cancer, I would follow a macrobiotic diet and take herbs to fight the cancer, boost my immune system and restore my ‘qi’. I was deeply intrigued by the concept of diet and herbal medicine providing cures for all disease states. Once I was faced with my own mortality, I had a very different outlook on health and healing, and most of all on Western Medicine. It was really my own personal plight with cancer that allowed me to become an integrative medicine pioneer and understand the many virtues of combing the best of Eastern and Western Medicine. I’ve spent the last 20 years researching Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for breast cancer and women’s health. I would have dedicated my career to researching the biological effects of TCM had I not had cancer, but the experience certainly helped focus me on breast cancer and women’s health very early on. My efforts in breast cancer research helped me trace the emerging link between estrogen, breast cancer, PMS and menopause from its earliest inception, and led me to focus my career on the mitigation of women’s health issues brought about by estrogen imbalances.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
The people who inspire me the most are individuals who are not afraid to step outside the box to find more creative and expansive solutions to our current problems. There are many wonderful leaders who fall into this category, among which the following jump to mind: Mother Teresa, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and the man who most recently has embraced a series of departures from established tradition, Pope Francis.
What advice would you give to other women?
We need to prioritize finding safe and effective solutions for the nonfatal conditions that dramatically affect our quality of life. Women have done a fantastic job de-stigmatizing breast cancer and raising awareness about this awful affliction. Last year alone, $1.7 billion was raised in the US for breast cancer research, detection and treatment. We need the same kind of fire lit under the movement for developing novel solutions to treating PMS and menopause, as those conditions are widely prevalent in women. I also suggest that women look closely at the research and products emerging in the field of herbal medicine. My products are setting a new standard for scientifically-based, rigorously-researched botanical products. Women who suffer from either PMS or the symptoms of menopause should try one of my clinically-tested formulas, which blend the 2000-year history of TCM with modern science to provide safe and effective all-natural, plant-based formulas for these very crippling, nonfatal conditions. My formulas can be found at http://www.drtags.com.
Read Dr Tags full bio here.
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