If you’ve ever experienced an intense sensation of overheating when you were in the midst of your menopause, you aren’t alone. Hot flashes represent the most common form of menopause-related discomfort. More than 75 percent suffer from hot flashes in their midlife. Hot flashes feel like heat and can be felt on the head, neck, and chest. Your skin might become reddened and flushed. Additionally, some women may experience rapid heartbeats and chills.
How Often Are Hot Flashes Common?
Many factors affect the severity and frequency of hot flashes. Each episode usually lasts only a few seconds and can last up to a year. They can happen multiple times per month for some women. For others, they may be more frequent than that. Hot flashes may disrupt your sleep, especially if they occur at night. In severe cases, they can cause memory, anxiety, or depression.
What Causes Hot Flashes?
Hot flashes can be caused by hot spots, according to recent theories. Hot flashes affect the hypothalamus at the base of your brain and act as your body’s thermostat. The hypothalamus can mistakenly think that a woman has become too warm due to hormone changes. This causes blood to flow more quickly to the surface of the skin, which in turn heats up. The woman then perspires to cool her body.
Why Are Certain Women Experiencing Hot Flashes but Others don’t?
We don’t know the reason for this. We know that smoking, being overweight, and being physically inactive will increase your risk of getting sick. Ethnicity may also play a role. Women experience more hot flashes after menopause than women from other ethnicities. Caucasian women also have them more often than Japanese and Chinese women.
What Is The Best Treatment For Hot Flushes?
Hormone therapy works best to relieve hot flashes. However, it can be risky for women in their late years of menopause. These can include blood loss, stroke, heart disease, or breast cancer. The other treatments for hot flashes are antidepressants as well as anti-seizure drugs, which can cause nausea, dizziness, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, and dizziness.
Women suffering from hot flashes (or other menopausal symptoms) should talk to their doctors about the pros of medical treatment. Different drug options might be better for different patients, depending upon the severity of symptoms or personal or family health history, such as breast cancer risk factors and heart disease. Medical evidence has shown that the best way to manage symptoms is to take the lowest dose of medication for as little time as possible. Starting treatment early in menopause to address symptoms sooner than they appear a way to minimize risk and ease the burden on women.
Are There Non-Medical Options For Managing Hot Flashes?
Lifestyle changes can be a great way to combat hot flashes for many women. These lifestyle changes include:
- Losing weight and exercising regularly.
- It is important to dress in layers and remove the outer layers when you feel hot.
- Cool your environment, especially at night.
- It is reducing stress.
- You should eat a diet rich in fruits and veggies and low in refined white sugar and flour.
LMA provides Treatments such as therapeutic hypnosis and behavioral therapy that effectively relieve hot flashes. These treatments lowered the frequency of hot flashes and intensity flashes. However, studies were limited, so more research is needed.