Herbs For Hot Flashes

No single symptom turns more women to estrogen replacement therapy (ERT)than hot flashes. In women who have entered their "perimenopause," the two to seven years before complete menopause when periods are becoming irregular, and in women who have surgical menopause, the sensation of blood rushing to the head followed by heat, dizziness, redness, and profuse sweating is a common occurrence. Herbs, however, can also control hot flashes, sometimes as effectively as estrogen.

There are a lot of reasons to avoid ERT. A paper in a 2002 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association reported the results of a study that tracked 16,608 women for five years. The study found that taking estrogen increased the risk of breast cancer by 26 per cent and upped the rate of stroke by 41 per cent. ERT doubled the rate of pulmonary embolism and tripled the rate of ovarian cancer.

Estrogen replacement does get quick results. Many women know the risks and take it anyway. But women who can stand their flashes for just a few weeks often get lasting results from herbs.

The best known herb for hot flashes is dong quai. It contains a compound that keeps blood vessels in the face from opening up to rush blood to the head. A study at the Kaiser Permanent Foundation in California found that the herb does not help women who are already on ERT, but other women report good results.

Also used for hot flashes is black cohosh, found in products such as Remifemin. There have been clinical studies that find that black cohosh is actually more effective than estrogen replacement therapy for stopping hot flashes, but there is one significant drawback. Black cohosh make take six months to begin to work. A few women experience mild stomach upset when taking this herb.

Hot flashes in women taking estrogen sequestering agents after breast cancer are problematic. There is a Japanese herbal formula called kami-shoyo-san that often works. It's a standardized, quality-tested, shelf-stable combination of combination of angelica, bupleurum, Cornelian cherry, ginger, licorice, mint, moutan, peony, poria mushroom, and white atractylodis root.

Honso USA sells this formula under the somewhat odd trade name of Kampo4WomenMindEase in North America. It's also sometimes called Augmented Rambling Powder (referring to a Chinese poem written centuries ago that herbalists thought captured the results of treatment, giving women freedom from hot flashes). This combination of herbs does not interfere with tamoxifen (Nolvadex) and side effects are not reported.

Many women take soy to relieve hot flashes, but tofu is not what works. The best results come with eating miso and using shoyu or tamari soy sauce. Even better results come with taking soy isoflavones (daidzein + genistein), 100 milligrams a day.

And herbs are not all that women can do to stop hot flashes. Here are some more tipe:

• Treating constipation with fiber relieves hot flashes by reducing the amount of estrogen reabsorbed from bile salts released into the intestine to be mixed with stool. Other methods of enhancing regularity do not have this effect. The fiber absorbs the estrogen.
• Hot peppers trigger a nerve reaction that causes sweating and eye watering when you place them in your mouth. They usually cause cooling, not heat, but women who get hot flashes may still find the reaction unpleasant.
• Wearing clothes in layers allows you to take off clothes to cool off without getting chilled or having to undress in public.
• Magnets do relieve hot flashes, but a clinical study got some really publishing results. Magnets applied to the accupressure points for hot flashes stopped hot flashes, but fake magnets worked even better than real ones. At least you do not have to worry about finding an expensive brand.
• The accupressure points to relieve hot flashes are the "bubbling springs," smack in the middle of your feet between the ball of the foot and outer edge, the "third eye" between your two eyebrows, the "elegant mansion" or the hollow below the collarbone next to the breastbone, the "sea of tranquillity" three thumb widths above the bottom tip of the breastbone, and three other points I do not recommend because they can cause damage to bones or, at least in Chinese medical practice, induce uterine contractions. Gentle pressure or magnets applied to these points can sometimes to stop a hot flash.

Read about Aroma, Pheromones & Men's Sexual Arousal and Aroma, Pheromones & Women's Sexual Arousal. Robert Rister is the author or co-author of nine books on natural health.

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