Natural Alternative Solutions - What causes hot flashes?

If you are suffering from hot flashes you may not be interested in what the physical cause is. You may just want relief! The best natural remedy we have found for hot flashes is Black Cohosh. One of the ingredients in the Estro-All Cream is a black cohosh extract. Black Cohosh tablets or capsules, taken orally, are very effective if you have severe hot flashes and can be used in conjunction with the Estro-All Cream.The following will explain how and why you have hot flashes.

Here is a simplified account of what occurs in a typical hot flash cycle:

Diminished estrogen levels irritate certain sensitive neuroreceptors in the base of the brain. These neuroreceptors in turn signal peripheral blood vessels in the upper body to dilate. We are now just a few minutes away from the hot flash or flush.

Gradually the dilated blood vessels heat up the skin and as that happens, a flush unfolds. While skin temperature is rising during the several minutes of a hot flash, body core temperature begins to drop a few degrees. This cooling effect is heightened because newly formed perspiration evaporates from the skin. Chills may now follow this double cooling phenomenon.

As a result of body cooling, the hormone adrenalin begins to circulate; the adrenal gland is invoking its "involuntary fight or flight" response. Peripheral blood vessels constrict and the hot flash ends. Five minutes have elapsed.

Some other things happen during a hot flash or flush. Oxygen consumption increases. So does the pluse rate. Electrocardiograph recordings reveal fluctuations in heartbeat outside normal limits, but clearly without harmful effects.

Although flushes 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 variable number of years.