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Don’t let menopausal flushes get you all hot and bothered this summer! Time to track your symptoms, identify potential triggers and invest in some well-researched natural remedies that help support hormone balance during the hotter weather.
Turn up the heat
If you’ve hit a certain age, then our little British summer heat wave could be proving hard to handle, particularly at night when the temperature remains higher than normal. Moments (or minutes) of hot flushes throughout the day could cause you to linger by the fridge with the door open or long to be by an open window.
Being woken from your beauty sleep by a full-blown night sweat could leave you scrolling through Amazon Prime pondering the merits of a portable air conditioning unit. Surely there are much more effective ways at dealing with hot flushes during the summer months than investing in cooling gadgets?
Fortunately, there are many women who have already been through the menopause before you and survived to tell the tale. Their experiences have created a catalogue of women’s wisdom which has helped shape and create much of the menopause advice available to women today. Add to this, the layer of science and clinical trials which filter out facts from fiction and now enable you to shop with confidence when it comes to natural supplements aimed at the menopause.
Detective work
Most women start to experience hot flushes during the perimenopause, which could begin anytime from 45 to 55 years old. If you fall within this age range, then it’s safe to say that your night sweats and hot flushes could be a strong indicator that your reproductive years are ending. But rather than just sit back and accept your symptoms as part of the journey you could start to do a little investigating of your own and uncover the triggers that turn on the intensity and frequency of hot flushes.
Keeping a menopause diary is a simple and effective way to see what your patterns are. Jot down or tally the number of hot flushes you have a day and make a note of the nights when a hot sweat interrupted your sleep. Also make a note of how many coffees you drank a day, when you went to the gym or did some exercise and days or evenings when you drank more alcohol than normal. Finally, add a note about your emotional state and score your stress each day out of 10. Which days did you go to work? Which days did you stay late at work? Which days did you experience stress at work?
At the end of each month scan your diary and you might find that your hot flushes are worse when you didn’t go to the gym that week or your night sweats are more frequent when you drink more coffee. Researchers have identified that women who smoke, drink more coffee and more alcohol and are less active tend to have more hot flushes. So, which of these triggers is relevant to you? Your diary holds the key to this detective work. Once you can see how your stress and lifestyle is affecting your hormone balance you should feel more motivated to make positive changes and you can track the results.
Natural remedies
Taking steps towards a healthier diet and stress-free lifestyle is a great way to help support your general hormone health. Supplementing with a few key natural remedies helps provide another layer of hormone support. There is plenty of scientific evidence to show that phytoestrogens help to support hormone balance during the menopause. You may have heard about soy isoflavones which are one of the main types of phytoestrogens now readily available either on their own or as part of a multi-nutrient formula. You’ll typically find these alongside vitamin B6 and B2 which are clinically proven to help support hormone balance and alleviate tiredness and fatigue often associated with disturbed sleep. Studies also indicate that omega-3 krill oil could be another helpful nutrient for hormone support during the menopause years to help soften the intensity of hot flushes.
