Having trouble sleeping because you know the second you drift off into dreamland, you will be yanked back awake by a hot flash or wake up in a pool of your own sweat?
Do you feel like your body could heat an entire New York City apartment building during a blizzard? You are not alone.
Up to 85 percent of women have reported hot flashes during menopause. For some women, hot flashes and night sweats come and go and are completely manageable.
For others, they are intense and interfere with the quality of life. Do you fit into the latter category? Again you are not alone.
Read on to learn about hormonal imbalance symptoms and the causes of hot flashes and night sweats. Learn how you can treat them at home or with the assistance of your doctor.
Don’t Be Afraid of Menopause
According to the National Institute of Ageing, it’s a normal stage of life that generally occurs between 45-55 years of age and can last for 7-14 years. Surgery or chemotherapy can also cause menopause in some women.
Hot Flashes and Night Sweats are Normal
They occur before and during menopause because of changes in hormone levels. When estrogen and progesterone levels change, other hormones that are responsible for regulating the body’s temperature are impacted.
This causes the feelings of sudden warmth, flushing, and excessive sweating, commonly referred to as hot flashes.
Hot Flash From the Inside Out
You already know the drill but here’s what a hot flash looks like from the inside out:
- The portions of your brain that control body temperature react to changes in the level of hormones in your blood.
- Then your brain’s insular cortex, which controls perceptions of heat, cold, pain and pleasure, wakes up.
- Your core body temperature begins to rise.
- Your skin temperature rises, and your body prepares to rid itself of the extra heat by dilating vessels and moving your blood.
- You may feel dizzy, anxious, or your heart may race.
- You feel intensely hot on the upper third of your body.
- Here’s where the sweats arrive: your sweat glands prepare to cool you down.
- You become flush because blood rushes to the skin across your chest, neck, and face.
- Now your sweat glands produce sweat full throttle.
- Heat shoots out of your arms, torso, legs, and face as the blood vessels fully dilate.
What Can You Do to Prevent Hot Flashes and Night Sweats?
Many women learn to deal with hot flashes and night sweats and can live a healthy life with them; for other women, they can be quite disturbing.
There are plenty of home remedies that you can try before moving on to medication. But if your symptoms are severe, give yourself a break and talk to your doctor.
Home Remedies and Lifestyle Changes
Remember, it can take time for these types of remedies to be effective— and for you to get into the routine of regularly applying them.
Take notes:
- What time of day did the flash occur?
- What have you had to eat or drink in the hour before the flash?
- Did you get adequate sleep the night before?
- How much exercise have you gotten in today?
- What is your level of stress or anxiety?
According to the National Institute of Ageing, common triggers of hot flashes and night sweats include:
- Alcohol
- Spicy food
- Caffeine
- Smoking
Tips for Hormonal Imbalance Symptoms
Give yourself up to three months of consistent application before you judge whether they are working or not. Let’s start with some very straightforward tips:
- Become aware of your triggers and avoid them.
- Wear light clothes or dress in layers so you can remove them when a hot flash strikes.
- Keep a fan beside the bed.
- Keep the room temperature low.
- Open windows and use a fan or air conditioner to keep air circulating in the room.
- Take a cool shower during the day and before bed.
- Run cool water over the wrists. There are many blood vessels in the wrists, so this may be a good way to cool off quickly.
- Keep a healthy weight. Hot flashes can be more frequent and severe if you are overweight or obese. Keep a healthy weight by doing regular exercise and having an active lifestyle.
- Relax and reduce stress. Breathing and meditation practices can help relieve stress and reduce hot flashes.
- Choose a diet free of processed foods. Eat whole foods with at least five servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit each day.
- Try meditation. Research from 2011 suggests that mindfulness may reduce how much women are bothered from hot flashes and night sweats.
- Drink water. General recommendations for water intake are half your body weight in ounces, every day.
- Exercise. The endorphins will help alleviate symptoms associated with menopause.
- If you smoke, get the help you need to quit. Smokers’ menopausal symptoms are often stronger and more troublesome.
There’s Hope with BHRT
For those of you who have already tried it all and need extra help, there are solutions! A visit with your medical doctor will help you better understand each option and how they would work for you.
When you do talk with your doctor, make sure you talk about Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy (BHRT). BHRT is a natural alternative to synthetic hormone treatments that often don’t provide the relief you are looking for. So if you have been taking synthetic treatments and they aren’t working for you, there is still hope.
What Is BHRT?
BHRT is a natural alternative to synthetic hormone replacement therapies. Subcutaneous bio-identical hormone replacement therapy uses hormones derived from natural, plant-based substances that are identical to the ones that occur in your body.
Unlike synthetic hormones, the structure of the bio-identical hormone – testosterone, estrogen, or both – closely matches each patient’s individual needs. Since they are derived from nature, plant-based hormones metabolize in the body, just the way nature intended.
Hormone Replicas
You may have heard of, or even tried, synthetic hormones. Bio-identical hormones are replicas of hormones your body already produces.
Synthetic hormones are not molecularly identical. Did you know that synthetic hormones are composed of either horse urine or mass-produced artificially formulated hormones?
And that manufacturers deliberately create synthetic hormones that are slightly different than natural human hormones to patent those formulations?
Hormone Therapy Is Not Scary
Hormone therapy need not be scary or overwhelming. At EvexiPEL, we use an advanced treatment option that employs hormone pellets.
This is a natural alternative to synthetic hormone replacement therapies. Subcutaneous hormone pellets use natural, plant-based extracts that are compatible with your body’s biological makeup.
What Would a BHRT Using Hormone Pellets Look Like?
- Bio-identical hormones are derived from plants, giving you an all-natural solution.
- Your dose will be determined based on your needs according to blood tests.
- Hormone pellets are placed in the fatty tissue under the skin where they release small, physiologic doses of bioidentical hormones. These pellets can be as small as a grain of rice.
- The pellets release small amounts of bioidentical hormones into your bloodstream over the next three to five months, depending on the determined course of treatment, and will provide consistent treatment during that time.
- Improvements can be seen within the first two weeks, but eight weeks is necessary to feel the full effects.
Plant-Based Pellets
You may feel uncomfortable with the idea of BHRT at first but consider this: practitioners have performed plant-based pellet implants since the early 1900s.
And recent studies revealed natural hormones might be safer and more effective than synthetics, which has caused a resurgence in the number of practitioners offering hormone pellet therapy.
Contact Us Today
At EvexiPEL, our team of BHRT experts has fine-tuned their integrated approach to pellet therapy. Our practitioners are trained to keep digging for the root cause of the patient’s health issues.
We know every patient has unique needs, and we’ll collaborate with you to find the best treatment plan. The EvexiPEL team is committed to making the EvexiPEL method comfortable and considerate of your needs. We also use a holistic approach to educate and treat you while opening the doors for lasting results.
It’s Time to Get Relief!
Severe hot flashes and night sweats are no fun. In fact, they can make life more than unmanageable. If you are experiencing severe symptoms and haven’t found a solution yet give us a call.
- Meet with you
- Discuss your health goals
- Run some blood tests
- See how your hormones currently stand up
- Create a treatment plan
We’ll go over hormone pellets and the improvements you can expect based on your unique health concerns. This may be just the solution that you are looking for!
Resources
- Article Reviewed By The Medical Faculty and Advisory Review Board
- Image attribution.
- Medicalnewstoday
- Healthline
- Webmd
- Northwell