For far too long, doctors thought hormone replacement therapy was the answer to menopausal symptoms from hot flashes to sleepless nights to stubborn belly fat. But while it does help, HRT can be risky—and may raise women's chances for breast cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Luckily, there's a growing stack of research that natural remedies can be just as effective.

In The Natural Menopause Solution, the editors of Prevention and integrative medicine specialist Melinda Ring, MD, distill that research into the easy-to-follow 30-Day Slim-Down, Cool-Down Diet, which can help women lose 21 percent more body weight. Plus it's proven to help reduce the number and intensity of hot flashes by 50 percent. In addition to this easy eating and exercise program, there are hundreds of drug-free solutions for sleep problems, memory lapses, mood swings, lack of energy, low libido, and more—and strategies to protect against heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis, and cancer.