Menopause Hot Flashes

• CoQ10 enhances mitochondrial energy for high-demand heart tissues, helps maintain normal blood pressure, and fights free-radical damage. Some studies show that individuals with heart disease have low levels of CoQ10. Take 30 mg twice daily with food. 
• L-carnitine works with CoQ10 by carrying fatty acids into the mitochondria, where they are converted to energy and help your heart work more efficiently. Take 1,000-2,000 mg daily between meals.
• Natookinase is a powerful enzyme that can help lower blood pressure and support normal blood clotting. Take 100-200 mg per day.

In traditional Asian medicine, health and well-being are believed to be a balance of two equally important, but opposing, principles—yin and yang. Yin is associated with attributes such as femininity, receptivity, calmness, coolness, and moisture. Yin also regulates the fluids, blood, and tissues of your body, as well as its structural components, including flesh, tendons, and bones. Yang, on the other hand, is associated with masculinity, aggression, heat, and dryness. It also regulates your body’s energy, which acts as the spark plug to your structural elements.

In younger women, this balance seems to be maintained almost effortlessly. But maintaining an optimal yin-yang balance becomes much more difficult once you reach middle age and menopause, when it’s common to experience symptoms such as menopause hot flashes, night sweats, tissue dryness, insomnia, and mood swings. In Asian medicine, these menopause symptoms occur, in part, because yin becomes deficient. But in Western medicine, these bodily changes are explained by the decline in estrogen—which, coincidentally, is a yin-like element.

To restore your yin--and, as a result, balance your estrogen levels--you can take a variety of yin-supporive herbs. One such supplement is royal jelly, which has been used for centuries to balance female hormones, promote reproductive health, and ease menopause symptoms. Take 1/4 teaspoon of the liquid form of organic royal jelly twice a day.

In more recent black cohosh news, according to a study in the March 2003 issue of the journal Maturitas, specific formulation of black cohosh, known among researchers as “CR BNO 1055,” has been found to significantly reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes in breast cancer survivors—completely eliminating the hot flashes in nearly half of the women.

Black cohosh also builds bone strength as effectively as estrogen, and it decreases vaginal dryness. In conventional review studies, black cohosh is the one therapy that is universally named as the most effective for hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings--and overall balancing of estrogen levels.

I suggest taking taking 80–160 mg of a standardized extract of black cohosh twice a day. This dose should contain 2 to 4 mg of the active components (triterpenes, calculated as 27-deoxyacteine). One good brand to try is Bionorica’s Menopret.

#5: Soy isoflavones

Soy is a hormone substitute that provides a safe, estrogen-like effect in your body to balance your female hormones.

Soybeans contain active compounds that mimic the effects of estrogen produced in your body. Soy contains two phytoestrogens--genistein and daidzein, which belong to the class of chemicals called isoflavones. Asian women eat much more soy products than most American women, whose isoflavone intake is very low. This was confirmed in a study published in the Lancet, which found that Japanese women who regularly ate a range of soy products had 100 to 1,000 times more isoflavone breakdown products in their urine than Western women. Additionally, menopausal women in Japan are rarely troubled by symptoms such as hot flashes.

In the meantime, for menopause relief and balanced estroten levels, take 50–100 mg of soy isoflavones each day, either through foods or isoflavone capsules, or a combination of both. If you are allergic to soy, or if it causes you digestive upset, then avoid consuming it entirely.

While I ususally focus my blog on alleviating menopause symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats, today, I'd like to address new mammography guidelines that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force proposed yesterday. Essentially, the recommendations now state that women between the ages of 40 to 49 should not get annual mammograms unless they are high-risk (i.e., strong family history and/or positive for the breast cancer genes BRCA-1 or -2) because the risks outweigh the benefits. The new guidelines also state that women over the age of 50 should get mammograms, but every two years instead of yearly. Finally, they state that self-breast exams are no longer necessary.

There are aspects of these new guidelines with which I agree, and others that, quite frankly, anger me.

First and foremost, I have been speaking out against mammograms for decades because I, too, believe that the risks outweigh the benefits. As I stated in my February 2008 issue of Women’s Wellness Today:

A routine mammogram’s sensitivity (how good it is at detecting suspicious tissue) varies. If a woman is still menstruating, her breast tissue is denser, which drops the sensitivity of routine mammograms to below 70 percent. That means that as many as 30 percent of existing breast cancers are missed, which is troubling because cancers in younger women tend to grow faster. After menopause, a mammogram’s sensitivity is better, but still not great. Routine mammograms are hamstrung by the fact that any tumor smaller than about four-tenths of an inch across is less likely to show up, so a tumor might be just small enough to escape detection, and then have lots of time to grow and spread before the next mammogram. On top of all this, human error in reading the films is also a very real possibility.

Here’s another problem with mammography. Five out of six “suspicious” routine mammograms turn out not to be cancer. Those five women are undoubtedly relieved, but they also got the scare of their lives, underwent more tests, maybe got biopsies, and possibly even had surgery they didn’t need.

The latest studies show that for every 2,000 women who get a routine mammogram, one life is prolonged. If that seems mediocre, you should know that protecting any individual woman against breast cancer was never the goal of routine mammograms—it’s well known that they miss too many cancers in the early, most treatable stage. As a routine screening tool, their purpose is simply to reduce the percentage of women who die from breast cancer.

For these exact reasons, I recommend a breast imaging test called thermography over mammography. In short, mammography looks at the structure of a woman’s breast tissue, while thermography looks at its behavior--which is a much more accurate indicator of potential future problems.

Keep Up with Those Self-Exams
The Task Force’s belief that self-exams are no longer important really frustrates me. I strongly believe that becoming familiar with your breasts, and how they look and feel, can help you determine if any scars, dents, lumps, or bumps are normal for you. Plus, you'll be more sensitive to any little changes that might indicate the need for further testing.

In a nutshell, I recommend that you look into getting breast thermography done, and I strongly encourage you to keep up with your breast self-exams. To learn more about thermography, visit the International Academy of Clinical Thermology or Infrared Sciences Corp.

• L-dopa is the natural precursor of the neurotransmitter dopamine--which is a powerful physical arouser. I recommend using an extract of the herb Mucuna pruriens—a concentrated natural L-dopa source. Try Herbal Herbal Powers Mucuna Pruriens. Take 300 mg per day in capsule form, standardized to 60 mg L-dopa.
• L-arginine is an amino acid shown to be effective in sending blood to the clitoris, which boosts physical sensitivity and arousal. Take 500 mg one to three times a day, or try a product called ArginMax for Women. 
• Maca is a root vegetable with aphrodisiac qualities. The traditional dose is between 2 to 10 grams, but start low and work up to the dose that gives you the desired effects. 

When traveling, always keep your eye out for fresh, local fruits or vegetables. However, if you have menopause problems, you’ll want to avoid highly acidic fruits like oranges and grapefruit. Instead, stock up on high-enzyme foods like sprouts, carrots, celery, or papaya to snack on.

If you are eating in a restaurant, aim for salads, steamed vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fish, and poultry, especially if you suffer from hot flashes or night sweats. Be sure to order the less acidic, more alkaline fruits such as melons and papayas.

Conversely, if you have estrogen dominance, you should load up on spinach salads with vinegar- or lemon juice-based dressings, entrees with tomato sauce, spicy entrees, or healthy meat-based dishes.

If you are flying and your trip is an hour or more, try brown bagging it. That way, instead of raiding the frig or mini-bar, you can reach into your own store of energy-rich foods that you brought from home. These can include raw, fresh vegetables with a flavorful dressing or dip, whole-grain crackers with almond butter, and a piece of fruit.