Tag Archives: anxiety and depression

Is There A Safe And Effective Cure For Hot Flashes?

  By | February 6, 2011 - 12:09 pm | Articles
Leave a comment

Is There A Safe And Effective Cure For Hot Flashes?

If you’re a woman and you’re in menopause, then it almost goes without saying that you’ve suffered from hot flashes at one time or another. Hot flashes affect 75-85% of all women in menopause to varying degrees. It is not completely understood exactly what causes them, but most agree that it is due to hormonal imbalances caused by changes in the level of estrogen. Because they can be so uncomfortable and disruptive, most women are searching for a safe cure for hot flashes.

Some of the earliest symptoms of menopause are hot flashes, abnormal menstrual bleeding, and mood swings. Hot flashes and night sweats often result in sleep problems and insomnia, which can lead to anxiety and depression. Women in menopause quite often also experience heart palpitations, vaginal dryness, weight gain, loss of libido, and urinary changes. Some women float through menopause with few symptoms, but for most of us it’s a different story. Is it any wonder that searching for a safe and effective cure for hot flashes can be such a priority?

Since the imbalance is caused by falling estrogen levels, it makes sense that estrogen itself is the most effective treatment for hot flashes. That’s why for so many years Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) – also known as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) – has been the primary cure for hot flashes. In fact, it generally results in an 80 to 90% reduction in hot flashes and other symptoms.

The peak age for hot flashes is the early 50′s, but many women start getting them in their 40′s. There is also a growing number of women who have undergone breast cancer treatment who suffer from hot flashes as well. Estrogen is the most prescribed medication to cure hot flashes, often as a pill or a skin patch. Generally, the amount of estrogen it takes to reduce hot flashes and other symptoms is less than the amount needed for normal menstrual periods. In recent years, doctors have prescribed much lower dosages than in the past.

Unfortunately, very recent studies have made it very clear that hormone replacement can increase the risk of breast cancer, uterine cancer, and strokes. That means the hot flash cure can be worse then just coping with the symptoms. This has led increasing numbers of women to search for a more natural cure for hot flashes.

Breast cancer survivors don’t even have the option of using estrogen as a cure for hot flashes. The concern is that taking estrogen would cause the reappearance and further growth of breast cancer cells. Hot flashes then become a routine occurence in women undergoing breast cancer treatment. Many of these women have severe hot flashes.

Fortunately, there are natural remedies and strategies that can lessen the effects of hot flashes and other symptoms. Many women have turned to herbal remedies that include black cohosh, soy, and vitamin E. They have found these natural remedies to be an effective part of their search of a cure for hot flashes. Lifestyle and dietary changes also play a part. Foods and beverages that often increase hot flashes are alcohol, caffeine, and hot, spicy foods. Removing them from the diet can improve your symptoms. Increasing physical activity will also help.

In summary, hot flashes are the most common symptom faced by women going through menopause. They are caused by changing levels of hormones, especially of estrogen. Hormone Replacement Therapy is still the most prescribed cure for hot flashes. However, women are increasingly investigating natural remedies due to the increase in breast cancer, uterine cancer, and stroke risk associated with HRT. Fortunately, they don’t last forever. For most women, they will decrease in intensity and frequency. It’s only a matter of time.

Discover how YOU can stop your hot flashes and menopausal symptoms without HRT. Pick up your free special report ”Coping with Hot Flashes the Natural Way” by clicking here: http://www.survivemenopause.com


Article from articlesbase.com

www.healthymenopauseremedies.com There’s plenty you can to reduce hot flashes and other menopause symptoms, but it will help a lot if you can fully understand what causes hot flashes in the first place. This will also help you decide on what, if any, menopause treatments you may want to look into.
Video Rating: 0 / 5


Other sites that may interest you

Menopause - University of Maryland Medical Center
Male Menopause?
Endometrial cancer - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


Recommended Reading

Having Trouble Sleeping During Menopause? Here’s What You Can Do About It

  By | February 6, 2011 - 4:18 am | Articles
Leave a comment

Menopause insomnia is more common than you may think. While it’s frustrating in and of itself, it also exacerbates all the other symptoms of menopause and can be the cause of mood swings and low libido. In fact, an April 2008 issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing published a report of a survey in which participants deemed sleep problems as the worst menopause symptom. It came in ahead of forgetfulness, hot flashes and irritability.

The usual pattern

For most women, sleep problems during menopause usually take the form of waking up in the early morning and not being able to get back to sleep for half an hour or more. What wakes you up may be night sweats, an anxiety attack, nightmare or seemingly nothing at all. Other women have trouble falling asleep when they go to bed at night.

The causes

Although the exact causes of menopause insomnia aren’t know, it’s thought menopausal women often wake up in the middle of the night due to fluctuations in body temperature, which are caused by hormone fluctuations. Usually you wake up when your body temperature has reached a high enough point that your system wakes you in attempt to get you to do something to cool off. That’s why so many women often wake up right before having night sweats.

For other women, there may be no obvious feeling of being too warm, but from a change in estrogen levels, the body’s regulatory systems have gotten the signal they need to cool things down. In either case, it can take between 20 minutes to an hour or more before hormone levels settle enough to let you go back to sleep.

Another common, though often overlooked, cause of insomnia during menopause are emotional issues like stress, anxiety, and depression. These feelings are often responsible for an inability to fall asleep after going to bed. Stress and worry keeps your mind skipping from one problem to the next and just won’t let you fall asleep. Although sometimes these emotions are caused by hormone fluctuations, they can also be caused by the prospect of facing major life changes such as retirement.

Natural remedies

So, now you know what might be behind your insomnia, but the question of how to get to sleep during menopause still remains. Fortunately, though, since sleep problems aren’t exclusive to menopausal women, plenty of natural remedies for insomnia have been developed and many of these are remarkably effective.

How you treat your insomnia depends on the cause, though. If you believe night sweats are the primary cause, you’ll do best with treatments that get those under control, such as black cohosh and wild yam.

For sleep problems related to emotions, there are two tracts you can take. The first is to find a way to work through the stress. This may be meditation, relaxation techniques, or guided imagery. Use these to come to grips with any social or job related issues before you go to bed.

If those don’t seem to work for you, try one of the herbal treatments for relaxation like chamomile, hops, lavender, passion flower valerian, kava kava, or St. Johns wort.

Not being able to sleep during menopause is a fairly common symptom, but it’s not something you should ignore. Lack of sleep can worsen just about every other symptom of menopause, including weight gain, and just make you all around miserable. To keep yourself healthy, do what you can to manage emotional stress and consider natural treatments for night sweats and insomnia.


Other sites that may interest you

Menopause | What to expect during menopause | womenshealth.gov
Definition of menopause - NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms - National ...
Menopause (journal) - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


Recommended Reading

Balancing Estrogen And Progesterone

  By | January 16, 2008 - 2:05 pm | Uncategorized
Leave a comment

In a woman’s body, the hormones estrogen and progesterone work together in what could be called a sort of “ying” and “yang” relationship. There is a delicate balance that exists between these two in the body of a healthy woman.

In the months making up a woman’s reproductive years, estrogen is produced in higher levels during the first 14 days of her 28-day menstrual cycle (Note: Not every woman’s cycle is exactly 28 days). Its job is to cause the thickening of the lining of the uterus and a change in the cervical mucus in preparation for a pregnancy.

In the second 14 days of the menstrual cycle, progesterone is secreted from within the womb itself, causing the endometrium (surface of the lining of the uterus) to be thick with mucous. If pregnancy does not occur, progesterone further causes the unfertilized egg and thickened lining to be sloughed off in the menstrual period.

If either estrogen or progesterone becomes imbalanced within their relationship to one another, the timing of the entire menstrual cycle can be thrown off or completely disrupted. In addition to that, a number of other problems or symptoms occur including weight gain, water retention, anxiety and depression, mood swings, unclear thinking, low blood sugar levels, fatigue, sleeplessness, night sweats, headaches and more.

The amount of estrogen and progesterone produced in the body fluctuates from month to month and is affected by various factors including overall health, differing stress levels, environmental factors which can cause “estrogen dominance”, diet and physical activity. The goal for enjoying optimum health is to maintain the bodies hormonal balance through attention to diet and exercise, diminishing sources of stress and anxiety, and protection from harmful environmental circumstance so that the body’s systems, including the production of hormones estrogen and progesterone operate harmoniously.


Other sites that may interest you

Premature ovarian failure - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
BBC - Health: Menopause
Andropause - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


Recommended Reading