What can I do to help avoid or alleviate hot flashes?

Answer 1

Lay an egg?

No, no, on a serious note:

Beating the heat naturally
The best way to beat a hot flash is naturally. Hot flashes have a lot to do with the low levels of estrogen in your body, but other factors can cause your temperature control to go out of whack. Recent studies show that medication is not always helpful. Instead of estrogen therapy, look at less drastic measures first, partly because estrogen therapy is not known to be safe for women with a history of breast cancer—but also because you should always begin with the least aggressive approach to treating your menopausal symptoms.

Avoiding triggers
If you can identify the things that trigger your hot flashes, you've made the first step in getting the upper hand. Keep a record of when they occur and what you were eating or doing, or how you were feeling at the time. Many women find that stress tops the charts as a trigger. Was that hot flash in the boardroom a random hit, or were you feeling under pressure at the time? Was it a full day of pressure without a break?

Solution: Ease the pressure. Give yourself more time to plan your work, to rehearse your presentation, to deliver your assignments, to arrive where you're going. If you are doing a series of presentations, give yourself a chance to relax and cool off between sessions. And plan your schedule so you avoid meetings or decision making when you're most likely to be in a sweat.

Other hot flash triggers:

alcohol


caffeine


diet pills


spicy food
hot food


hot tubs


saunas


hot showers
hot beds


hot rooms


hot weather


smoking.


Hot flash survival tips
Dress in layers, so you can peel off one layer after another as you get warmer.


Don't wear wool, don't wear synthetics, and be wary of silk. That leaves cotton, linen, rayon, and more cotton. (Look at the bright side: You'll save on cleaning bills, and you can stop worrying about moths.)


Avoid turtlenecks. Stick to open-neck shirts.


Keep ice water at hand that you can sip to cool down your insides.


Where possible, lower the thermostat. Maybe it's time for a decent air conditioner or a ceiling fan. Or maybe you'd prefer one of those little hand-held battery-operated fans or the foldable kind you flutter in front of your face. You can find perfectly adequate paper fans for about a dollar.


Wear cotton pajamas or a nightgown. If you perspire a lot at night, your nightclothes are easier to change than the sheets.


Use cotton sheets only, not synthetics.


Get a bigger bed if you and your partner are on different heat planets but you still want to stay in close orbit.


Take cool shower before bed.


Try a mild medication like Tylenol


Arrive at meetings early so that you can get the coolest seat.


Use your freezer liberally. A number of women talked about opening the freezer at home (or in the supermarket) and sticking their head in when a hot flash hits.
Lifestyle changes to alleviate hot flashes
Exercise: Increasing your level of activity (for example, taking the stairs instead of the elevator) can reduce hot flashes and have a positive impact on just about every other symptom attributed to menopause and growing older, including:

insomnia


mood swings


eroded self-image


loss of libido
fatigue


elevated cholesterol levels


heart, bone, and muscle health.


Exercise also increases endorphin levels, increasing your threshold for pain.

Relaxation and stress reduction: It isn't unusual to have trouble dealing with stress, especially if you've undergone treatment for breast cancer. You may find that one of the following techniques will help you minimize the devastating effects of stress on your body:

relaxation exercises


breathing exercises


meditation


visualization
massage


hypnosis


yoga


biofeedback techniques.


Changing your diet: Over time, a low-fat diet helps some women with hot flashes. Losing excess weight helps, but losing too much weight, or being too thin, can worsen symptoms. As you consider other food changes, keep in mind that natural doesn't mean harmless. Herbal remedies and soy preparations may work because of their plant estrogens, but you can't assume that just because an estrogen comes from a plant it's a safe remedy.

Chinese medicine: Chinese medicine has a long tradition of treating hot flashes. There are all kinds of hot flashes, and the Chinese have descriptions for all of them. Before treating you, a Chinese doctor takes a full history and performs a complete physical, with particular attention to your tongue and your pulse. He or she then determines whether you're suffering from a "hot" menopause or a "cold" menopause. If you have gone through a surgical or medical menopause, Chinese herbs are usually not considered strong enough to eliminate your menopausal hot flashes, but they can help.

Chinese medicine usually involves:

acupuncture, which moves your Xi (your inner wind, energy, or spirit). For every woman who's skeptical about this approach, there's a woman who's found acupuncture helpful for hot flashes.
herbology, in which many different herbs are cooked together to make a tea customized to your particular symptoms. Common to all Chinese herbal mixes is dong quai, thought to be a plant estrogen. More plant estrogens that women have found effective in treating hot flashes over the centuries can be found in ginseng, evening primrose oil, licorice root, red raspberry leaves, sarsaparilla, spearmint, damiana, motherwort, chasteberry (also known as Vitex), black cohosh, and wild yams. These herbal remedies, Chinese and other, may be effective at reducing hot flashes but, again, their relative safety in women who have had breast cancer is not known. Avoiding, or using plant estrogens with great caution, is best, and never try them without telling your doctor. Even leading Chinese medicine practitioners caution women not to self-treat with Chinese herbs.
Vitamins: Some women find that taking vitamin E every day (800 I.U., range 400–1000) helps. Actually, a placebo works almost as well. The National Cancer Institute's/National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project's Tamoxifen Breast Cancer Prevention Trial also recommends vitamin E, or one of the following: vitamin B6, 200–250 milligrams daily, and Peridin-C (containing antioxidants), two tablets taken three times daily. If vitamin E helps you, great, but if you have significant hot flashes, you will probably need something more effective.

Answer 2

the above information is excellent! my hot flashes hit at night.i sleep with a fan on year round.it might be snowing outside but i have my summer night gown on and you would think i was dying in the middle of the georgia heat...LOL and i'm in NJ.hang in there,trust me i know what you are going through and my family thinks i am CRAZY!