Remedies for Hot Flashes

Acupuncture (usually a minimum of six treatments) reduces the frequency and severity of hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and sleep disturbances by about 50 percent. An impressive 80 percent of people who try acupuncture significantly benefit—which makes it more than worth your while to give it a shot if you suffer from difficult menopause symptoms. Consider these statistics from recently published studies:

• A Swedish university study found that electroacupuncture reduced hot flashes by half.
• In Norway, individualized electroacupuncture reduced hot flashes by 77 percent.
• At Harvard and Stanford medical schools, university clinicians of Chinese descent collaborated on a study of acupuncture for nighttime hot flashes. Compared to placebo’s 6 percent improvement, acupuncture reduced nighttime hot flash severity by 28 percent.
• In another Stanford study by clinicians of Chinese descent, women who averaged seven moderate to severe hot flashes per day were randomized into seven-week sham versus real acupuncture treatment. The sham group had only a 4.4 percent reduction in severity of hot flashes, versus 24.5 percent in the real treatment group.

This acupressure exercise relieves menopause hot flashes and night sweats.

1. Sit on the floor with your knees bent. With your right hand, hold the point below your little toe (on the underside of your foot). Hold for one to three minutes.
2. With your right hand, hold the point above your middle toe, on the top of your foot. Hold for one to three minutes, then move your hand to the point behind your ankle bone. Again, hold for one to three minutes.
3. With your left hand, hold the point on your right hand on the outside of your fourth finger.

Repeat this sequence on the left side of your body.

For more information on menopause relief, effects of menopause, or menopause related problems, visit Dr. Lark's Web site. While there, you can also sign up for Dr. Lark's FREE eLetter or monthly newsletter.

Here is another yoga pose that's good for beginners, and for anyone looking for menopause relief. This one is called "The Pump."

This exercise improves blood circulation through the pelvis, thereby promoting healthier ovarian function. It helps relieve menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, as well as PMS and menopause-related anxiety. It also strengthens the back and abdominal muscles.

• Lie down and press the small of your back into the floor. This allows you to use your abdominal muscles without straining your lower back.

• Keep your back flat on the floor and let the rest of your body remain relaxed.

• Slowly raise your right leg while breathing in. Make a conscious effort to move slowly. Imagine your leg is being pulled up smoothly by a spring.

• Hold for a few breaths; exhale as you lower your leg.

• Repeat this exercise on your left side.

• Repeat entire sequence, alternating legs, 5-10 times.

Yesterday, I wrote about how wonderful yoga is for reducing perimenopause symptoms, particulary hot flashes and night sweats. To follow up, I wanted to give you a few poses this week that are easy, even for beginners. This one is called "The Sponge."

This exercise relieves anxiety and stress due to emotional triggers or menopause-related tension, and other menopause problems. As an added bonus, it relieves lower back pain, and also reduces eye tension and facial swelling.

• Lie on your back with a rolled towel under your knees. Your arms should be at your sides, with your palms facing up.

• Close your eyes and relax your entire body.

• Inhale slowly, breathing from the diaphragm.

• As you inhale, visualize the energy in the air around you being drawn in through your entire body. Imagine your body is porous and open like a sponge, drawing in this energy and revitalizing every cell in your body.

• Exhale slowly and deeply, allowing all tension to drain from your body.

• Repeat 2-4 times.

In this book, Lilias, who has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than 30 years, guides readers through her favorite poses and stretches—all of which are adapted for older practitioners who have reached menopause. One of the chapters I like best is called “The Yin Approach.” 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 femininity, receptivity, calmness, coolness, and moisture, while yang is associated with masculinity, aggression, heat, and dryness.

When dealing with menopause symptoms, you have a deficiency in yin and an abundance of yang. But with Lilias’ approach to yoga, you can focus on increasing yin, thereby reducing the heat that can lead to menopause hot flashes and other symptoms.

This is a fabulous book to get you started in yoga. I highly recommend it!

I have been using red light therapy for many years to treat a wide variety of conditions, including skin problems, migraines, and even to balance estrogen levels.  

You might be wondering what red light is all about, so let me explain. Various wavelengths of red light easily penetrate the skin and stimulate energy production within the mitochondria, the energy-producing parts of the cells. They enable the energy from food to be released and trapped as high-energy bonds called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is found in all of our cells and releases energy needed to fuel nearly all chemical reactions in our bodies. So, red light therapy helps our bodies create energy, vitality, and stamina, so every tissue and organ system can run more efficiently. 

If you suffer from PMS, irregular menstrual cycles, menstrual cramps, or menopause symptoms like hot flashes or night sweats, red light therapy can be a powerful treatment. For example, if you are post-menopausal, your ovaries and adrenal glands continue to produce small amounts of estrogen and male hormones, even though you no longer menstruate. Red light therapy helps to maximize their production, balancing out your estrogen levels and providing your tissues with more hormonal support. 

You can use red light therapy right in your own home with specially designed hand-held devices. Two red light devices I use and have been recommending for years are the X-Light from the Chee Energy Company and the Red Light-Shaker from the Light Energy Company.

• 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.