Women’s Health Care – Valuable Guide To Hot Flashes And Menopause

Hot flashes are the commonly experienced symptoms in menopausal and perimenopausal women. Hot flashes also known as hot flushes are transitory feelings of heat which could at times lead to facial flushing, reddening and breaking into sweat. The reason for hot flashes is unknown, though it could be linked to modifications in circulation.

Hot flashes are the outcome of dilatation of the blood vessels located close to the surface of the skin for cooling purposes. This leads to a reddishness and facial flushing. A woman could additionally start perspiring for cooling off the body. Few of the women could sense a fast heart rate or feel coldness.

Hot flushes along with perspiration could additionally happen during night times which are known as night sweats and could hinder sleep patterns. Hot flushes are hot flashes along with an ocular appearance of facial and neck reddishness.

Hot Flashes: what is the length of their continuation?

The length of time and how severe the hot flashes are could vary in menopausal women. A number of women experience hot flashes for brief spans of time when they become menopausal while there are other women that would endure hot flashes for some extent of their life span. Usually, their severity lessens with the passage of time.

How could Hot Flashes be averted?

Hot flashes during menopause cannot be totally warded off. However one could keep tabs on the particular triggering factors which often elicit them or cause them to become more acute, namely: being stressed out, intake of caffeine, alcoholic drinks, spiced up food items, tightly fitted clothes, heat and cigarette smoking.

There are several other approaches that one could adopt to thwart hot flashes such as:

• Staying cool, maintaining a cool environment during slumber times, using fans in the day time and wearing fabrics that allow the skin to breathe with preferably innate ones like cotton.
• Attempting to regularly practise deep and unhurried breathing that involves the abdomen and taking 6-8 of these breaths in a minute. These could be done for about fifteen minutes twice a day in the dawn and dusk times and at the inception of hot flashes.
• Regularly exercising, taking a swim, walks, some kind of dance form and riding a bicycle are immensely beneficial options.
• Chill/Cooler cushions or pillows to be placed below the head during night times could also help.
• The doctor could be consulted regarding starting off on an interim – lesser than 5 years HRT or hormone replacement therapy. This therapy helps in preventing hot flashes amongst several women and also allays other signs inclusive of dryness felt in the vagina and mood disarrays. But, the interim HRT could also pose some risks like blood clots and inflamed gall bladder. In case HRT is not suiting, there are numerous other therapies that could provide respite that comprise of both non-prescription and prescription ones.

The over-the-counter therapies include B-complex vitamins, Vitamin E and Ibuprofen. The prescription therapies comprise of oral contraceptive pills, antidepressant medications like Zoloft, Paxil and Effexor , hormonal medicines like Provera and Megace, Neurontin, a medicine for treating seizures, blood pressure normalizing medicines, Aldomet, Catapres  and Catapres-TTS.

Alternative Treatments for Relieving Hot Flashes

As alternative treatments comprising of botanical and herbal treatments could cause unfavourable side effects or show detrimental reactions along with other medicines, hence it is imperative to seek medical advice prior to starting off on any of the below mentioned products.

• Soy produce
  Soy produce contain plant estrogens like isoflavones that are believed to possess frail estrogen-similar outcomes which could lower hot flashes. However soy food items and not the supplement form is advised.
• Black Cohosh
  Research has revealed that the consumption of black cohosh for up to half a year’s time period could help in the treatment of hot flashes and night sweats. The side effects involve irritation to the gastrointestinal tract.
• Evening Primrose Oil
  The mostly employed product for treatment of hot flashes though no technical proof to back this claim as yet. The side effects involve feeling nauseous and loose bowels. Those women on the course of blood thinning medicines must steer clear from this botanical.
• Flaxseeds or Linseeds
  Though no technical proof for backing the claims of flaxseed’s benefits are available, it is believed to lower the signs of menopause, especially hot flashes.

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