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Menopause & Perimenopause
Hot Flashes - Causes and Remedies
If you are suffering from hot flashes (or flushes) you may not be interested in what the physical cause is. You may just want relief! Hot flashes are mostly caused by the hormonal changes of menopause, but can also be affected by lifestyle, foods, and medications.
A diminished level of estrogen has a direct effect on the hypothalamus. Somehow the drop in estrogen confuses the hypothalamus—which is sometimes referred to as the body's thermostat - and makes it read "overheated!" The brain responds to this report by sending out a wide spread alert to the heart, blood vessels, and nervous system: "Turn the heat down!" The message is transmitted by the nervous system's chemical messenger, epinephrine, and related compounds: serotonin, nor-epinephrine and prostaglandin. The message is delivered in record time. Your heart pumps faster, the blood vessels in your skin dilate to circulate more blood to radiate off the heat, and your sweat glands release sweat to cool you off even more.
This heat-releasing mechanism is how your body keeps you from overheating in the summer, but when the process is triggered instead by a drop in estrogen, your brain's confused response can make you very uncomfortable.Your body cools down when it shouldn't, and you are miserable: soaking wet in the middle of a board meeting or in the middle of a good night's sleep.
Although hot flashes are the most common symptom of menopause, their intensity and occurrence rate varies greatly from one woman to another. Nevertheless, 85 percent of all menopausal women experience hot flashes for over a year and up to 50 percent for over five years.
Night sweats are essentially the same as the daytime flushing phenomenon, but happen during normal sleep. Heat generated by the hot flash that occurs while you are sleeping makes you kick off your sheets and blankets; this subconscious baring of the flesh is naturally followed by body coolness from evaporating sweat. Thus the classic nocturnal "cold sweat".
Unlike many of the serious long-term consequences of menopause, hot flashes and night sweats gradually diminish and disappear after a number of years.
See: Women's Health
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