Hot Flashes/Flushes What Causes Them & How To Reduce Them

One of the most common symptoms of the menopause are hot flashes or in the UK we tend to refer to them as hot flushes and they are characterised by a sudden feeling of heat which seems to come from nowhere and which spreads through your body.

Whilst not every woman will experience hot flashes it is estimated that 3 out of 4 menopausal women have hot flushes, further more some women experience them years before menstruation stops.

Hot flashes/flushes can include sweating, palpitations and a red flush (blushing) and can vary greatly in their severity.  Some women will only encounter the occasional hot flush whilst others report 20 hot flushes a day that are not only uncomfortable, disruptable but embarrassing.

What Causes Hot Flushes/Flashes

Most experts are still not in agreement about the cause of hot flashes/flushes but most attribute them to the decrease in the production of estrogen which occurs in women as they progress towards the menopause.  The theory is that when estrogen falls the hypothalamus is adversely affected and as your hypothalamus regulates your body temperature the decrease in estrogen causes the brain to falsely detect too much body heat.  In order for the brain to cool the body it releases hormones to help lower body heat by increasing the heart rate and causing blood vessels to dilate for blood to flow through the body and dissipate heat.  Increased blood flow causes the body to produce its natural cooling method ...sweat.

The key to reducing symptoms is to firstly understand what makes them worse...

Hot flushes/flashes can happen without warning day or night and some might say they can occur with regular irregularity!  Well known triggers can be woolly jumpers, especially polo necks, stress, drinking alcohol or coffee or eating spicy foods.  I have even read reports that wheat can exacerbate symptoms.

In general, leading a healthy lifestyle may be a way to keep symptoms to a minimum.  Factors such as obesity, inactivity and smoking may worsen symptoms.

Genetics are also said to play a large role.  According to one study, women who have naturally lower progesterone levels tend to suffer more severe symptoms.  Ethnicity may also play a part with doctors at the North Texas Health Science Center finding that African American women were more likely to experience more frequent and more intense hot flushes than their caucasian counterparts.  Latin women also experienced more frequent flashes in the study although the intensity of their flashes were less.

What worked for me...

I started to experience hot flushes some months ago and set about researching how to reduce their intensity and regularity.

I cut out coffee, alcohol and abstained from all wheat products for 30 days.  I also supplemented with Biovea Progesterone Cream which is a bio-identical progesterone and not a pharmaceutical derivative.

My symptoms have very much diminished and whilst this protocol might not work for everyone it is definitely worth trialing to see, if at least, it can lessen your symptoms - who knows it might even eradicate them completely.

I experienced improvements in as little as 5-7 days!

Biovea progesterone cream can be purchased on-line in the UK/USA from biovea.com - they also ship to many other countries - see top left location tab on their website.

There may also be an upside to hot flashes as some studies suggests that hot flashes bode well for post-menopausal health. Researchers have found that women who experience hot flashes, especially early in menopause, have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, stroke and heart disease.

If you have had encouraging results from naturally controlling your hot flushes/flashes please do share and help other women benefit from our experiences.