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.

Iodine, Thyroid and Fibroids

I recently came across an article that claimed one of the first conventional medical treatments for severe fibroids was to paint the uterus with iodine, yes that brown smelly ointment the school matron or nurse used to smear all over your cut and grazed knees as a child.  

Quite how and with what quantities of iodine they painted the uterus with I have not been able to discover - interesting nevertheless!

Iodine in our diets is an essential trace mineral and the vast majority of iodine (about three-quarters in the body) is needed by the thyroid gland.   

Iodine is vital in the production of two hormones, these are the thyroid hormones; T3 (triiodothyronine) and T4 (thyroxine).  Three iodine molecules are added to make T3 and four are added to make T4. 

So what is the thyroid?  

It is a small bow tie or butterfly shaped gland that is situated in the lower part of the neck, in front of the windpipe.

The thyroid’s most important purpose is to produce, store and release 2 key thyroid hormones T3, T4.  The thyroid is able to produce this hormone by absorbing iodine from food, iodised salt and supplements.

The role of thyroid hormone is to control metabolism and has a wide reaching affect on our health from controlling the processes by which cells convert oxygen and calories into energy, the proper functioning of the nervous system, the digestion and elimination of food, brain function, heart health, functioning of muscles, immune system, respiration, bone growth etc...

When our thyroid is diseased or damaged problems can occur such as hypothyroidism or under active thyroid.  This lack of hormone can be due to a thyroid that isn’t producing enough hormone due to drugs, nutritional deficiences or impairment due to nodules, inflammation, infection, or atrophy.  

Symptoms of hypothyroidism can include fatigue, weight gain, constipation, foggy thinking or poor brain function, memory impairment, low energy and an intolerance to cold (cold fingers and toes), brittle hair and nails, hair loss, constipation, slow reflexes, decreased libido, immune system sluggishness and weakness, dry skin and even vision impairment in advanced stages. 

Conventional medical treatment for hypothyroidism typically involves replacing the missing thyroid hormone using prescription thyroid replacement drugs.  Natural or holistic treatments tend to focus on nutritional support with thyroid precursors like tyrosine and iodine and adrenal support.

Thyroid problems are widespread and the European Thyroid Association estimates that more than 200 million people around the world have thyroid problems.  In the united States the vast majority of thyroid conditions are the result of an autoimmune disease.  

About 20% of the American public is iodine deficient but the primary cause of thyroid problems is an autoimmune disease and is not thought to be iodine related.

Hashimoto’s disease is the most common form of thyroiditis, an inflammation of the thyroid - it is the most common thyroid problem and is the cause of most hypothyroidism in the US today.

The conventional medical treatment for hypothyroidism involves a lifelong thyroid hormone replacement therapy.  Natural or holistic treatments tend to focus on healing the underlying autoimmune imbalance and may include nutritional support for the thyroid (selenium, tyrosine, B vitamins etc)  elimination of toxins and overall support for the the immune system.

Both an excess and a deficiency of iodine are risk factors for thyroid disease.

But what has the thyroid got to do with fibroids?

Firstly it’s important to understand that the thyroid and the reproductive system are all part of same system ...the endocrine system

Having too much estrogen in one's system relative to progesterone, a state often referred to as estrogen dominance will cause uterine fibroids to develop and grow.  One theory for their development is that persistent estrogen dominance causes a woman’s uterine lining to thicken far more than is healthy during her monthly cycles.  

This repeated, excessive thickenings can result in localised growths in the muscle and connective tissue that line the uterus resulting in uterine fibroids.  

Anovulatory cycles (cycles where you don’t ovulate) are one of a number of different causes of estrogen dominance.  During an anovulatory cycle no progesterone is made leading to an imbalance of estrogen over progresterone.  

Estrogen dominance can further prevent the thryroid hormone molecules from properly binding with receptors making thyroid hormone unavailable to your cells leaving you functionally hypothyroid at a cellular level.

As the thyroid hormone has some chemical similarities to estrogen the various receptor sites for thyroid, found through out the body, can therefore be ‘blocked’ by the presence of estrogen.

Thyroid hormone is essential in the process of converting cholesterol into pregnenolone, which is then converted into progesterone, DHEA, estrogen and testosterone.  So any deficiency of the thyroid hormone can disrupt the entire hormone production process in particular exacerbating the imbalance of estrogen over progesterone and drive the growth of fibroids.

Interestingly anovulatory cycles are far more common in thyroid patients!

One of the many side effects of an under active thyroid is weight gain, fat tissue can itself become like an endocrine gland, releasing leptin and estrogen!

Certain foods can also impact on your thyroid’s function in particular there is a certain class of foods known as goitrogens.  These foods can promote thyroid enlargement (goiter) and cause hypothyroidism by blocking the body’s ability to use iodine in the production of thyroid hormone.  

Such goitrogens are considered most potent when eaten raw and in larger quantities and studies show that cooking reduces or eliminates much of the goitrogenic potential.

Here is a list of some more common goitrogenic foods:

Brussel sprouts, rutabaga, turnips, radishes, cauliflower, millet, cabbage, kale, soy products, mustard, corn, broccoli, turnips, carrots, peaches, strawberries, peanuts, spinach, watercress...

...as you can see many of these foods are especially beneficial to our health so please remember that they are far more goitrogenic when eaten in larger quantities and or raw.

Flouride added to drinking water and present in toothpaste is a chemical with strong anti thyroid properities that increase the risk of hypothyroidism.

Tips to optimising your thyroid health

Many cases of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis are caused by weak adrenals, so take better care of your adrenal glands 

• Avoid eating processed/refined foods and sugars

• Get good restorative sleep

• Manage stress

• Consider supplementing your diet with vitamin D, selenium, magnesium, vitamin E, vitamin C, tyrosine, vitamin A, B2, B3, B6, B12 or better still seek out and eat foods that can enrich your body in these vitamins/minerals

• Minimize your exposure to environmental toxins

• Get more active!

• You only need 150 micrograms of iodine (or 20,000th of a teaspoon) to meet your daily requirement - good sources are some seafoods and seaweeds such as kelp

• Avoid un-fermented soy including soy milk (and all GMO soy products).  Soy isoflavones can wreak havoc on your thyroid.  Kaayla Daniel's groundbreaking book, The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food is a powerful exposé that reveals the truth about the soy myths that have infiltrated our culture.

Dr. Daniel states thousands of studies link soy to malnutrition; digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid- and hormonal dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility-even cancer and heart disease.

The diagnosis of any thyroid dysfunction requires a thorough clinical examination by a licensed medical practitioner as well as blood tests.

Alcohol and its effects on Fibroids

I have just spent my first dry Christmas, well at least since I was in my late teens and to be honest it wasn’t all that difficult.  I stopped drinking all alcohol last summer and certainly didn’t think I would make it all the way to Christmas let alone through the festive holiday.

Why?  Well my research into fibroids and alcohol consumption threw up some quite disturbing revelations and I like many other women enjoy a glass or 2 of wine.  I used to drink everyday and for me one glass of wine was never enough.  

More often than not one glass would lead to 2 and 3 and so on until before I knew it I had finished the bottle!  So cutting down alcohol consumption for me would be quite difficult and so I decided to stop altogether and see what effect if any it would have on my fibroids and menstrual cycle. 

But before I post my experiences let’s look at the affect alcohol can have on our bodies:

• Women have a different response to alcohol intoxication to that of their male counterparts. Studies have shown that acute alcohol consumption tends to cause increased levels of testosterone and estradiol - estradiol is the primary fibrosis driving estrogen with testosterone being a close second. 

• Our reproductive system is controlled by a delicately balanced mechanism called the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Alcohol can interfere with the working of all three areas. 

• We all know that alcohol is stressful to the liver and estrogen is metabolized or broken down by the liver. If your liver is unable to perform this function higher levels of estrogen can build up in your body!

• Alcohol also depletes B Vitamins and minerals like magnesium.  If you deplete your store of B vitamins and magnesium with alcohol, it can worsen the cramping during your menstrual cycle

• Regular drinking can disrupt a woman’s menstrual cycle and ovulation. In one study, half of ‘social’ drinkers who drank three to four drinks a day over three weeks experienced abnormal menstrual cycles, including a lack of ovulation. 

• When women don’t ovulate they don’t produce progesterone which will create an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone within your body.

• The good news is that many of alcohol’s effects on our bodies are temporary and the reproductive system will return to normal if you stop drinking. 

I’m firmly of the belief that just by stopping drinking it has had a measurable affect on my fibroids and their symptoms.  It took a couple of months for the effects to be really noticeable but my menstrual cramps were greatly improved, my periods were certainly lighter and shorter in duration.  I also lost some weight and my quality of sleep has greatly improved and I rarely now suffer from fatigue during the day.

If you have fibroids and suffer from their symptoms try cutting out the drink for a couple of months.  It doesn’t have to be forever but if it helps it has to be worth it.

If you like the ‘keep calm’ poster head over to  Keep Calm and Posters and create your own mantra.