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How do I know if I’m having hot flashes or night sweats?
The symptoms associated with hot flashes and night sweats vary from woman to woman. Some women feel hot all the time, while others experience flashes. Here are some physical and psychological symptoms associated with hot flashes and night sweats:
An intense feeling of heat in the face and upper body
Increased heart rate
Dizziness
Nausea
Headache
Perspiration
Weakness
Feeling suffocated
Anxiety
Flushed appearance or blotchy skin
Chills as the hot flash subsides
Learn to flag your hot flash and night sweat triggers
The first step in pulling the plug on your hot flashes is to identify and understand your triggers. Try tracking your hot flashes in a diary, journal, or use Women to Women’s Wellness Diary. Are there certain times of the day when you are more prone to having a hot flash — or do your night flashes wake you at a particular time of the night? Are there foods that seem to set you off on a heat wave? Here are some of the triggers, including foods to avoid for hot flashes:
Sugar, foods that act like sugar in the system, and simple carbohydrates
Caffeine, nicotine, and stimulants in general
Alcohol (even one glass of red wine!)
Spicy foods and hot (temperature) drinks or foods
Hot places, such as saunas, hot tubs, showers and overwarm bedrooms
Anxiety or stressful events or people
Exercise — or any type of activity — that heats the body up without allowing adequate cool-down time
While some women see a clear correlation between their hot flashes and triggers, others find it more difficult to make these connections. Once you track your hot flashes for a week or two, you’re very likely to spot patterns in how, where, when and why you get them most. From there, a plan to address the triggers will be easy to develop.
Help for hot flashes and night sweats —
Women to Women’s three-tiered, natural solution approach
Most of the women we see at our practice and in our Personal Program take pride in their commitment to a natural, personalized approach to their health care. For them, addressing their health issues by merely filling another prescription doesn’t hold the appeal it might for others. Antidepressant use, a solution conventional medicine is turning to for hot flash relief, is not a standard approach at our clinic.
We’ve been practicing safe alternative solutions that effectively address the underlying causes of hot flashes and provide equivalent — if not superior — results for over 20 years. Our core approach to resolving hot flashes is embodied in our Personal Program and includes: 1) dietary and nutritional support; 2) lifestyle modifications; and 3) gentle, natural endocrine support.
When help beyond this core approach is needed, women have a variety of additional alternative remedies available to them. But time and again we find that the majority of women — upwards of 85% — experience rapid and marked reduction in their symptoms (including the number-one complaint: hot flashes and night sweats) when using our approach.
1) Diet and nutritional support
At Women to Women, experience has shown us that women get amazing results by giving their bodies the nutrition they need. Eating a balanced diet of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and fruits and vegetables provides your body and brain with the building materials it needs to function and keeps signals from getting crossed. An easy way to add protein to your diet and help hormonal fluctuations is by eating whole, non-GMO soy foods (see our article on soy for menopause symptoms). Remember that a balanced diet provides building materials to contribute to your hormones and neurotransmitters, both of which affect hot flashes, night sweats, and your overall sense of well-being.
Adding a high-grade multivitamin-mineral complex and supplemental essential fatty acids like the ones offered in our Personal Program will bridge any gaps in your core nutrition and ensure the adequate supply of micronutrients your body needs for neurotransmitter and hormonal balance.
With the proper building materials, you will find the passage through menopause to be a lot less bumpy. What’s more, providing your body with optimal nutritional support during times of hormonal change doesn’t have to be complicated. To learn how you can give your body the nutritional balance it needs, see our articles on nutrition.
2) Lifestyle modifications, exercise, and stress reduction
Though the connection may be intuitive to most women, stress is finally being recognized by conventional medicine as a major cause of hot flashes and night sweats. A recent study done on over 400 menopausal women showed a direct correlation between anxiety and the severity and frequency of their hot flashes. An NIH study also demonstrated that deep paced breathing and relaxation exercises done through the day significantly decrease frequency and severity of flushing symptoms — further supporting the precept of stress as a major trigger.
If you know that relaxing is what you most need to calm your hot flashes, you might try a behavioral therapy, such as meditation, the Emotional Freedom Technique, or biofeedback. Many women in our practice have found great success in emotional healing through the Quadrinity Process, and stress relief through deep breathing, which can be done without a therapist.
These therapies can help you to step back and put your life into perspective. At Women to Women, we feel that physical concerns, such as hot flashes, night sweats and other menopausal symptoms, are not only physical in their root. Many times our health depends heavily on our emotional state. Just as certain foods and drugs can be toxic to your system, stress and negative emotion can also be toxic. Anger is an emotion that mind–body practitioners relate to problems with the liver (our detox organ), and in turn is often implicated with hot flashes. Learn to identify and channel negative emotions accordingly, and find ways to give yourself more time for relaxation and reenergizing.
There is also little doubt that exercise is one of the best things you can do to calm your body and mind. Recent studies indicate that hot flashes are yet another health concern that exercise can help, principally by reducing anxiety. In a small study looking at the effect of exercise on overall menopause symptoms, exercise proved to reduce hot flashes, while those who did not exercise showed an increase in hot flashes.
When it comes to exercise, however, we recommend you time your work-outs so they do you the most good. Many forms of exercise raise core body temperature and can thereby trigger hot flashes unless you provide ample cool-down time. So it’s best to avoid dashing off to undertake activities that are stressful or involve a high level of activity directly following your work-outs.
Make a commitment to reducing stress, whatever form it takes in your life, even if you have to chip away at it one degree at a time. Whether that means setting better boundaries at work, home, or within your community, learn to value your own well-being enough to say no. Use your inner guidance to seek out and cultivate practices that will calm rather than stimulate your inner thermometer.
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