If there’s one symptom relating to your hormone imbalance, that almost everyone is familiar with, it’s hot flashes. A common symptom of menopause, hot flashes are even used in movies as a condescending iconic vehicle to “show” that the character is weak and menopausal. That’s not right, it’s not fair and it’s not an accurate portrayal of the entire experience you are having. There’s a lot more to know about hot flashes, READ ON.
What Is a Hot Flash?
The Mayo clinic website, mayoclinic.org defines a hot flash this way: “Hot flashes are sudden feelings of warmth, which are usually most intense over the face, neck and chest. Your skin may redden, as if you’re blushing. Hot flashes can also cause profuse sweating and may leave you chilled.” Up until the part about profuse sweating, that doesn’t sound all that bad.
Breastcancer.org describes hot flashes with a bit more of the detail that shows why this effect can be so miserable. They reference a “sudden, intense, hot feeling on your face and upper body, perhaps preceded or accompanied by a rapid heartbeat and sweating, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, headache, weakness, or a feeling of suffocation.”
Well, that clarifies why hot flashes are such a big deal! Most of us who suffer from hot flashes would surely describe them as “hot” and “sweaty” rather than “warmth.” And the rest of the effects are equally undesirable.
The strange thing about hot flashes is that we don’t really know why they happen—or exactly what causes them. They definitely relate to menopause, and the drop in progesterone, but why that messes with the hypothalamus, which controls the body’s temperature, isn’t completely understood.
Here’s what we do know.
The hypothalamus sends a signal indicating that the core body temperature is too hot. The brain’s response is to get rid of the excess heat. To do this, blood vessels expand, your heart beats faster and your sweat glands release a lot of sweat to cool off your skin. They catch you by surprise and cause you to feel anxious as if everyone in the room can see you aging. They can’t! Hot flashes are perfectly normal yet there are things you can do to help minimize their severity and their intensity. More on that in a moment.
Hot Flashes Are Common. You are Normal.
The majority of women experience hot flashes during perimenopause, the phase leading up to menopause. This typically occurs between the ages of 40 and 50, and can last from a few months to ten years. Even the frequency varies from woman to woman. Some women have them regularly, and others will only have an occasional hot flash.
Now there are steps you can take to reduce their impact and possibly even that window of time.
How to Get Relief From Hot Flashes
Before we get into ways to potentially find relief, we want to be very clear that if you’re considering any sort of treatments or medications, you should always consult your physician.
There are several things that women commonly report as providing some relief.
Medical Treatments
One of the most common “Doctor recommended” approaches of the past 3 decades has been to include hormone replacement therapy and bioidenticals. Hormone replacement therapy, or hormone therapy, has been the traditional way to relieve hot flashes by providing estrogen or an estrogen-progesterone combination. While many women find these treatments effective, it so often is accompanied by such severe side effects that it has fallen out of favor with many people – both patients and medical professionals.
Many Doctors are moving away from these prescriptions as the first line of defense and are often recommending natural courses and simple lifestyle changes including supplementation, nutritional modification, and even meditative therapies. These types of therapeutic solutions seem to hold the most promise for women that want to mitigate the negative expressions of hormonal imbalance while maintaining the most natural approach without the addition of prescriptions or injections. Great strides have been made in validating these approaches with research and seem to hold significant promise for the population at large.
Celebrity endorsement has made bioidentical hormone therapy a popular option, but it is important to realize that though the making of these chemicals starts with plants, they are a far cry from being natural remedies. Bioidentical hormone therapies are produced in a lab and have the same chemical structure as the natural hormones in your body, but long-term studies have not been conducted, so the safety of these chemicals is not certain.
Taking medical advice from a celebrity is not the most optimum rational choice.
In Summary. It’s certainly time to start.
What should you do?
Being wise and balanced in your decision making starts with erring on the side of safety, caution and control for yourself. You should always seek the advice of experts and people in the know that can lead you to an intelligent choice that gives you the freedom and control over your moods. mind, body and sleep. The important thing is that you have identified yourself as person that needs to do something now.
We agree. The body you choose to take care of today will be the one you are living in forever. How you feel in that body determines your joy and energy. Learn as much as you can and make healthy choices that you know get you moving in the right direction. Then commit and stick with the changes.
Ultimately, while there is no cure for hot flashes, the medical community tends to agree that they are a symptom often associated with hormone imbalance. Finding safe, natural ways to balance your hormones can go a long way towards avoiding and/or minimizing this common, unpleasant side effect.
Now, let us share a simple step that thousands of women report success with and the Doctor’s at Asensia® recommend based on the research and experience they have with their patients.
The post Hot Flashes Are a Red Flag Your Body Is Sending To Alert You About Your Hormone Imbalance, But Why Are they Still A Mystery To You? appeared first on DWC.