What causes hot flushes?
Although not all women suffer from hot flushes, about 70% of women do, so it’s a major factor in most women’s perimenopausal journey.
They tend to happen at the most inconvenient times, and are embarrassing, uncomfortable and downright annoying.
A hot flush (or flash, if you are American) is defined as:
The sudden feeling of warmth in the upper body, which is usually most intense over the face, neck and chest. Your skin might redden, as if you're blushing.
Mayo Clinic
They can last anywhere from a few seconds to up to 30 minutes, although the most common duration seems to be 2-3 minutes.
They can feel like a slight warming of the face, or be a full out feeling like your blood is boiling and you begin sweating profusely.
Some people may even experience a slight tingling or ‘aura’ before a hot flush arrives.
Vasomotor Symptoms
In the clinical arena, hot flushes are known as vasomotor symptoms. Vasomotor refers to the constriction or dilation of blood vessels.
As our oestrogen drops there are alterations in the hypothalamus nerves that control temperature regulation and this then results in vasomotor symptoms.
Your body believes it is too hot, so makes rapid adjustments to ensure your temperature reduces. Your blood vessels dilate sending heat to your skin which makes you sweat and cool down.
Unfortunately studies have not yet revealed the exact mechanism for this so more studies are required before we get any definitive answers.
Triggers
There are some things that will trigger a hot flush and if you can avoid them you may well experience less hot flushes.
Alcohol and spicey foods are well known triggers for hot flushes. Keeping a diary of your hot flushes and what you were drinking or eating directly before your hot flush may give you some guidance.
Additionally stress can trigger a hot flush. If you are required to do something that you find stressful, or that you are worried about, you may find yourself suffering from a hot flush right in the middle of it!
A good thing to do in these situations is to go inward and ask yourself how you are really feeling about the situation. Is it fear, panic or anxiety you are really feeling? Your body is indicating it’s not feeling comfortable, so finding out what the cause is can go some way in understanding and preventing future hot flush scenarios.
Here are some other things you can do to reduce the number and intensity of hot flushes.
Reduce your protein
Did you know that protein is thermogenic? In other words, it is heat generating. A diet that is high in protein can stress your liver, kidneys, gut and thyroid and you may find yourself sweating a lot as your body tries to cool down.
Having said that we all need a bit of protein in our diet, so it’s best to have a little bit but not too much. And, if you can, avoid a protein rich meal close to bed time as this will heat you up.
Finish eating and drinking earlier
If you are eating and drinking close to bedtime, it’s likely you’ll experience more nightsweats, so the trick is to ensure you finish eating and drinking by around 7.00 pm.
This gives your body the chance to digest your food and to rest and recover overnight in preparation for the day ahead.
Drink lots of water
Our body is made up mostly of water. Our blood and kidneys are 81% water, and our brain and muscles are about 75% water. Our liver is around 71% water and our bones around 22%. So if we are drinking lots of coffee, tea and alcohol, our body is not getting enough water to cool us down through perspiration. Increasing your water intake will mean your body can regulate it’s temperature by redistributing heat from active tissues to the skin and perspiring.
Avoid ultra processed foods
Ultra processed foods increase insulin which is released to transport the sugars and starches to various organs. Your hypothalamus, thyroid and adrenals then have to respond to the blood sugar levels which can cause hot flushes.
How is your iron?
If iron is low, hot flushes can increase and so can insomnia. Eating lots of deep green vegetabless and a little bit of red meat will help to increase your iron, as well as reducing your hot flushes and helping you sleep.
Eat for your thyroid
Your thyroid helps to set your metabolism and regulate your body temperature. If we don’t have enough iodine rich foods in our diet, hot flushes can become worse. Iodine rich foods include:
fish
seafood
raisins
dairy
a small amount of red meat and eggs
lots of green vegetables
iodised salt
Gut health matters
As we move into menopause, our gut health changes due to the loss of oestrogen. Our gut lining thins and makes it harder to maintain a healthy gut microbiome. This can create inflammation in the gut and the bowel, which increases body heat, which then leads to hot flushes and night sweats.
Eating lots of wholegrains (e.g. brown rice), cruciferous vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, bok choy, brussels sprouts), allium vegetables (onions, leek, garlic) and fish will help your gut to function at it’s best.
Get your sleep
Interestingly all our organs are affected by our circadian rhythm, so if we are not sleeping it can throw everything out of kilter, including our hormones, which can then lead to hot flushes.
Making sure you have good sleep hygiene is imperative to a good nights sleep. This includes a quiet wind down period at night, reduced lighting, no blue light from screens and finishing eating and drinking at least two hours before bed.
Resetting your circadian rhythm is also important. If you are having trouble sleeping and suffering from hot flushes or night sweats, try getting out in daylight without sunglasses, for at least 15-20 minutes every morning to reset your circadian rhythm.
Our body is a complex system
As you can see, hot flushes aren’t just caused by one thing. They can be caused by a multitude of things that combine to mean your body is feeling overheated so it sends a signal to cool down.
Our mental attitude towards hot flushes can also aggravate things. If you worry about having a hot flush at an inopportune time, that worry would probably lead to exactly that, because your body is feeling stressed.
Hot Flush versus Power Surge
Our whole view of menopause affects our experience of it, so instead of saying you are having a hot flush, try saying “I’m having a Power Surge” and see how you feel. This is much more empowering and indicates to others you are so full of power it’s overflowing. It’s quite a different feeling when compared to having an uncontrollable hot flush.
Trial and error
As every single woman is unique and individual, you may find some of these suggestions work really well for you, and others may not have any effect. It’s a case of trying them to see what works and what doesn’t, and then trying different combinations.
I hope, though, that this post has shed some light on what causes hot flushes and has given you some good suggestions to help you work through them.
If you need more support, please don’t hesitate to get in touch so that we can discuss other ways I could potentially help you.
In the meantime, may all your nights be cool and calm, and your power surges reduce in intensity and frequency.
Kàren