Hot flashes simply crack me up.  It's funny to talk about in groups, awful to experience, and simply a wonder that our bodies were created to get all heated up.  Well, I may be exaggerating a bit… I have other favorite things in life, but I see it as a nice excuse to get a swimming pool in the back yard.

Hot flashes in menopause… what can we do about them?  The hot flashes are probably caused by the hormonal roller coaster in your body, which affect a majority of women during perimenopause (the time leading up to menopause).  The hot flashes and night sweats can start as early at the late 30’s for some ladies.  Hormone therapy can help, but with that there is an increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease.  These other options might help as well.

Some studies have suggested that some women taking yoga at least once a week may cut the hot flashes down by 30%.  If yoga isn’t your thing, then try walking or another form of exercise to release stress and cut down on the hot flashes. 

Just like with giving birth, slow, controlled, deep breaths at the beginning of a hot flash can reduce the amount of hot flashes by half and may also decrease the intensity.  You want to try and reduce your breathing from about sixteen cycles a minute to half of that at eight per minute.

Some women have found acupuncture and herbal remedies to help.  Over 25% of women saw a decrease in their night sweats by using acupuncture.  Woman have used black cohosh as a hot flash reliever for years, but recent research shows that it may not be as helpful as originally thought, but that doesn’t mean to stop using it.  If it helps you, then great, use it.  It seems to decrease the risk of breast cancer and does reduce the severity of the hot flashes for some women. 

Some women find that keeping a written log of when the hot flashes occur and what happened just before the hot flash helps them to stay out of those stressful situations and further reduce their hot flash attacks. 

Since hot flashes and night sweats will affect many women, it is important to know what we can do to reduce their frequency and severity.  It may take a combination of a few or all of these things to help you through, but try them and see what works best and try not to rely only on hormone replacement unless necessary. 

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