6 Natural Solutions for Hot Flashes

Is there anything more frustrating than hot flashes? You’re going about your day, feeling good, looking great, when all of a sudden—bam—that familiar rush of heat takes over. Your face and neck flush, your armpits start leaking, and you look like you’ve just been caught in the world’s most embarrassing lie.

Chase that with the inevitable chills that follow, and somehow that good day has been derailed. Here you are, left trying to regain your composure—and wondering how to stop this from ever happening again.

The bad news is that some 80 percent of women will experience hot flashes and/or night sweats during the transition through menopause. The good news is that there are several proven, natural methods to reduce or even eliminate them.

1.  Keep your weight in check

Our understanding of weight and hot flashes has evolved over the past few decades. Years ago, it was believed that carrying extra body fat—which increases estrogen production—could in fact protect against hot flashes.

But recent research has turned that idea on its head. One large study found that women who lost 10 pounds or 10 percent of their body weight during menopause were significantly more likely to completely eliminate their hot flashes.

If you are struggling with hot flashes and you could stand to lose a few, we can help. Our Body N Balance program is a reliable way to reset your metabolism, regain your health, and lose weight—for good.

2. Purge your personal care

The skin is the human body’s largest organ. What we put onto it has an effect on what happens inside it. Yet the average woman uses about a dozen skin products daily—with a total of 150 different ingredients.

Many of those chemicals are what’s known as endocrine disruptors, meaning they mess with our hormones. And that’s bad news when it comes to hot flashes, which occur as a result of imbalanced hormones.

So what specifically do you need to cut from your toiletry bag? The Environmental Working Group (EWG) developed a list of the Dirty Dozen Endocrine Disruptors to help sort that out. And their Skin Deep database is a wonderful resource for finding cosmetics and skin care products that won’t mess with your hormones.

3. Clean up your house, while you’re at it

No, we’re not talking about dusting your baseboards. We’re talking about getting rid of those endocrine disruptors. They’re in your cleaning products and cookware too. The EWG’s Healthy Home Guide will help you choose hormone-safe products for your home.

Here are a few quick tips, to get you started:

• Use glass food containers instead of plastics, since those contain phthalates.
• Ditch the plastic wrap (phthalates again) in favor of aluminum foil—or get crafty and make some reusable fabric covers.
• Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter to reduce the amount of toxin-laden dust in your home.
• Don’t use non-stick pans, which contain the hormone-disrupting perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).
• Avoid stain- and water-resistant coatings on fabrics and furniture for the same reason.
• Search EWG’s cleaning products database before picking a household cleaner.

4. Tame your tap water

Hydration is essential, but the way you hydrate matters. And sadly, municipal tap water poses so many risks that it’s impossible to consider it a healthy choice.

First, tap water is well-known for having hormone-disrupting chemicals. In fact, four of the EWG’s dirty dozen list—atrazine, perchlorate, lead, and arsenic—are common in municipal drinking water.

Second, tap water itself contains hormones. Part of the reason is that women’s birth control hormones come out in the urine and end up back in the water supply. Another, larger source of estrogen in the water from agriculture waste.

So what can you do? Drinking bottled water is hardly a sustainable solution (plus, plastic containers have their own set of hormone-disrupting problems).

Instead, I recommend investing in a whole-home water filtration and reverse osmosis system. The one I use is from Water Revolution, but you can find information on other filters to fit your budget at EWG’s Tap Water Database.

5. Protect your liver

When your liver is functioning well, it can help protect your hormone health—and prevent hot flashes—by eliminating the excess estrogens you’re exposed to in this toxic world. Unfortunately, most people’s livers are not operating at full capacity.

I recommend doing a liver cleanse regularly. Contact us to ask about our 25-day program that will support you as you support your liver to do its important work.

6. Get your hormones balanced

A tailored approach to hormone balancing—as with bioidentical hormone replacement pellets—is one of the best ways out there to get your hormones, and your hot flashes, in check. Our hormone health experts can help determine exactly how your hormones are imbalanced and develop a treatment plan to get you back to your ideal levels.

If you’re fed up with hot flashes, don’t despair. There are plenty of natural ways to help them—all without the risks of pharmaceutical hormone replacement drugs. Contact us today to find out how we can help.