| What do you do when you suffer hot flashes? | | | | can help modulate your body temperature. |
| Ask most women and they will agree that the | | | | 4. Keep a supply of ice water nearby - even at |
| most common and irritable symptom of | | | | night beside your bed. |
| menopause are hot flashes. Some women refer | | | | 5. Use lighter blankets or a fan near your bed to |
| to it as a "flash" because women report a flushed | | | | deal with hot flashes at night. |
| feeling about the face and neck. Those feeling | | | | 6. Limit your intake of red wine, chocolate, and |
| usually came together with sweats. | | | | aged cheeses, which contain a chemical that can |
| Current theory proposes that certain brain | | | | affect your body's thermostat and trigger a hot |
| chemicals called catecholamines and opiates may | | | | flash. |
| mediate hot flashes. It's now believed that the | | | | 7. Make use of other coping behaviors. |
| hypothalamus, one of the glands affected by | | | | Psychological or behavioral coping techniques are |
| estradiol withdrawal, somehow releases a trigger | | | | getting more attention from the scientific |
| substance that results in thermoregulatory | | | | community. For example, a small study conducted |
| instability. The body's signals get mixed, triggering | | | | by a professor of psychiatry, Robert R. |
| a warming and sweating sequence, in an effort to | | | | Freedman, Ph.D., at the Lafayette Clinic and |
| stabilize what it perceives as a change in body | | | | Wayne State University School of Medicine in |
| temperature. | | | | Detroit found that regular, practiced breathing |
| To help you with that situation, here are 7 tips to | | | | reduced hot flashes by 50 percent in the study's |
| cope with hot flashes which you might need. | | | | 33 participants. |
| 1. Dress in layered clothing, preferably cotton, | | | | Other self-help behavioral methods include |
| since natural fibers allow your skin to breathe. | | | | practicing self-acceptance (remind yourself, out |
| Then when you feel a flash coming on, you can | | | | loud if necessary, that this is a temporary |
| simply shed layers to cool off. Since some flashes | | | | symptom of menopause and perfectly normal), |
| are followed by chills, it can be helpful to have a | | | | tracking the emotions and situations that precede |
| sweater to put back on. | | | | a flash (thus putting some degree of self-control |
| 2. Limit or eliminate altogether substances that | | | | back into the equation), and trying to keep a |
| may act as triggers: caffeine; alcohol; hot, spicy | | | | sense of humor (share funny moments with |
| foods; diet pills; hot tubs; stress. | | | | friends who are also going through the transition). |
| 3. Drink plenty of water. Keeping well hydrated | | | | |