Hot flashes
Hot flashes are a feeling of warmth, a sudden brief sensation of heat that spreads over the entire body, caused by a transient dilation of the blood vessels of the skin.
A hot flash (or night sweat) is a symptom of menopause and changing hormone levels, which usually expresses itself at night as periods of intense heat with sweating and rapid heartbeat and may typically last from two to thirty minutes on each occasion.
The event may be repeated a few times each week or up to a dozen times a day, with the frequency reducing over time. Hot flashes are experienced by many but not all women undergoing menopause. (Sleep And Menopause)
Menstruating women in their 40's regularly develop hot flashes. Hot flashes may last for a decade or more in some women. There is no way to predict when hot flashes will cease in an individual woman; however, they decrease in frequency with time.
What Causes Hot Flashes:
Hormonal balance is your body’s natural state. But when there are too many demands on your body, its ability to balance your hormones is overwhelmed. This hormonal imbalance causes hot flashes and night sweats.
Hot flashes are regarded by the medical profession as deficiency of estrogen and can be triggered by a variety of stimulants such as:
During hot flashes, flushes of heat sweep the body reddening the skin and promoting free perspiration. The reddening may be blotchy or even and the perspiration slight or copious. Hot flashes may last from a few seconds to four or five minutes, occasionally fifteen minutes, and rarely more than a hour.
If you begin to experience hot flashes, giddiness, heart palpitations, emotional chaos, sleep disturbances, night sweats, depression and/or headaches you may slip from feeling "in control" to the sense that things are beyond your control.
The idea of controlling these symptoms with drugs becomes very attractive, as we are conditioned to believe that menopausal changes are in some way considered an illness.
It is possible to influence these changes more effectively with herbal alternatives that carry with them few, if any, side effects when considered carefully. Hot flashes at night is called a night sweat, which may be accompanied by feelings of anxiety or terror
A solution may be to keep a glass of water and a bottle of motherwort beside you at night, and take 10-15 drops and a swallow of water if a night sweat awakens you. Not everyone experiences hot flashes, and only some of those who do also experience night sweats. Many women, however, experience both.
Not surprisingly, the demands that create that imbalance tend to peak in perimenopause, the years leading up to menopause itself. These symptoms are one of the main ways your body asks for help.
A latest report on menopause determined that lifestyle and psychological factors can increase the number and severity of hot flashes that a woman experiences. In fact, women who tested at a high level of anxiety (without depression) had nearly five times the number of hot flashes as those who tested low.
Women who smoked experienced twice the amount. Being overweight led to an increase in frustrating hot flashes, as well. We encourage you to listen to your body and respond. The good news is that you can fix the underlying causes of hot flashes.
Take Control Of Hot Flashes And Night Sweats :
There are natural solutions to fix the underlying causes of hot flashes and night sweats. The basic approach is to increase the support you give your body. Over time, you should also try to reduce or manage the demands you experience.
You will find that these hot flash therapies will help relieve other menopause symptoms as well.
