Inferno, part 2 or "How I survive those lovely flashes of heat!"
February 9, 2013
"If science ever finds a cure for menopause, our biggest problem will then be Global Cooling!" taken from a Menopause Joke website ( I know! They really do exist!)
Okay, so back to the lovely discussion of Hot Flashes, or as we call in it my house "how to we save on heating oil."
I very briefly discussed HRT in the last blog. This is a really hot button topic, even today, and any menopausal woman MUST have a conversation with her Ob/Gyn to be completely informed on the subject. I can tell you that after talking with my Gyno Guru, I opted NOT to take advantage of the HRT program and instead try to treat and quell the annoying symptoms with common sense and old fashion nursing treatments.
And there are a lot of these to cul from.
A quick Google of cvs.com with the phrase menopause symptom relief and in a millisecond of cybertime I got a list of 12 products available at my local CVS. The trade names are: Estroven, I-Cool, I-Cool with D (this one helps with the flashes AND gives you the added bonus of vitamin to build strong bones and bodies!); Midnight For Menopause ( this one sounds like a bad Woody Allan Movie) Black Cohash ( I fear if I buy this one the DEA will come after me with semiautomatics drawn), Rainbow Lite Black Cohash Menopause relief. ( This one is just too twisted. Doesn't it sound like a kids' lightup toy stuffed with illegal drugs?) CVS PMS tabs ( too many consonents for me) Daily Menopause Multivitamins, Perimenopause Tabs, Remifemin and my personal favorite: Hot Flash Emergency Cooling Relief for Her!
Honest to God, this is what the tag for this little item says:Absorbs quickly. Hormone free. Instant relief. Clinically proven. Stops hot flashes in seconds. Relief is here! Hot-flash Emergency Relief is a specially formulated cooling gel designed to stop a hot flash from becoming a full blown flush in under a minute! When used properly, HER Cooling Gel sends an immediate message to the brain that cooling has taken place - and the flash stops. HER was created by a woman, for women, to quickly and effectively relieve hot flash symptoms. HER's unique patent pending, all natural formula is hormone free, absorbs quickly and offers instant cooling relief from the physical effects of hot flashes. Discreet and portable. You'll never want to be without it! I suffered from menopausal hot flashes for years; herbal supplements and hormone replacement therapy didn't help. My desire was to create a topical gel to cool me off and I did it with Hot-flash Emergency Relief! I am happy to offer this product to everyone who suffers from hot flashes, even men and women having chemotherapy treatments. HER works wonders and is gentle enough to use as often as needed. So, try it and live a cooler life! Made in USA.
The first two ingredients are ( surprise!) Water and Isopropyl Alcohol. If I remember correctly from Nursing 101, water cools when applied to the skin, and Alcohol evaporates, causing a cooling response topically. Do you really need to shell out hard earned cash for this? Wouldn't it be easier and less expensive to take a shower when you're having a flash. I'm just saying....
So, BLACK COHASH. Honestly, when I first heard about this one I really thought it was some kind of barely legalized marijuana or hashish.A couple of women at work are on it and are having fairly good results controlling their hot flashes. What it is is an herb. It is a member of the buttercup family - honest to God! Its actions, or how it works is in suppressing luteinizing hormone, as an anti-inflammatory, and it mimetics - or mimics-estrogen. Remember Estrogen? That lovely little hormone you are now in the process of not producing anymore? Well the BC can almost fool your body into thinking it isn't loosing any, thereby helping to squash the symptoms. As much good as this may do, it can actually really do bad. The adverse reactions and precautions listed for its use include: hypertension ( high blood pressure); if a woman has hypertension and is on medication for it, BC can potentate the meds causing wicked HYPOTENSION; increased bleeding, headaches and stomach upset. It can't be used during pregnancy so if you're using it and going thru menopause, safe birth control is a must and it shouldn't be given to children. Ever.
Black Cohash has a cumulative effect which means it can take from 4-8 weeks to build up in your system to where you will start to see positive results. Again, before EVER taking it, talk to your Ob/Gyn Guru.
Most of the over-the-counter stuff listed above has what are called Phyto-estrogens, meaning they are plant derived, not real honest-to-goodness natural people estrogen. What they all claim to do is help your body fool itself into thinking it's got estrogen on board, thereby alleviating some of the symptoms, but mostly the flashes.There is a real an decided caveat emptor associated with all of these products. I can't say this enough - talk to your doc before you take ANYTHING. Especially if you have underlying co-morbidities like high blood pressure or a history of blood clots.
In doing a literature search for hot flash treatment I have come across a few other things listed. One is the use of Birth Control pills. Using an estrogen/progesterone BCP before full blow menopause can reduce or stop hot flashes by evening out fluctuating hormones. The cautions for this are: dont use if you are older than 35 and smoke; have diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, or even a family history of these conditions.
One sear states that using an ANTIDEPRESSANT medication can reduce the number and severity of flashes by improving serotonin levels int he brain, which help regulate body temp. As with anything, the major side effect is dependence.
It seems to me that if women ran the world, especially the medical community, that there would be more diverse, widespread, and specific treatments for hot flashes that didn't include anything that would have a potentially harmful effect if used.
Again, I'm just saying...
"If science ever finds a cure for menopause, our biggest problem will then be Global Cooling!" taken from a Menopause Joke website ( I know! They really do exist!)
Okay, so back to the lovely discussion of Hot Flashes, or as we call in it my house "how to we save on heating oil."
I very briefly discussed HRT in the last blog. This is a really hot button topic, even today, and any menopausal woman MUST have a conversation with her Ob/Gyn to be completely informed on the subject. I can tell you that after talking with my Gyno Guru, I opted NOT to take advantage of the HRT program and instead try to treat and quell the annoying symptoms with common sense and old fashion nursing treatments.
And there are a lot of these to cul from.
A quick Google of cvs.com with the phrase menopause symptom relief and in a millisecond of cybertime I got a list of 12 products available at my local CVS. The trade names are: Estroven, I-Cool, I-Cool with D (this one helps with the flashes AND gives you the added bonus of vitamin to build strong bones and bodies!); Midnight For Menopause ( this one sounds like a bad Woody Allan Movie) Black Cohash ( I fear if I buy this one the DEA will come after me with semiautomatics drawn), Rainbow Lite Black Cohash Menopause relief. ( This one is just too twisted. Doesn't it sound like a kids' lightup toy stuffed with illegal drugs?) CVS PMS tabs ( too many consonents for me) Daily Menopause Multivitamins, Perimenopause Tabs, Remifemin and my personal favorite: Hot Flash Emergency Cooling Relief for Her!
Honest to God, this is what the tag for this little item says:Absorbs quickly. Hormone free. Instant relief. Clinically proven. Stops hot flashes in seconds. Relief is here! Hot-flash Emergency Relief is a specially formulated cooling gel designed to stop a hot flash from becoming a full blown flush in under a minute! When used properly, HER Cooling Gel sends an immediate message to the brain that cooling has taken place - and the flash stops. HER was created by a woman, for women, to quickly and effectively relieve hot flash symptoms. HER's unique patent pending, all natural formula is hormone free, absorbs quickly and offers instant cooling relief from the physical effects of hot flashes. Discreet and portable. You'll never want to be without it! I suffered from menopausal hot flashes for years; herbal supplements and hormone replacement therapy didn't help. My desire was to create a topical gel to cool me off and I did it with Hot-flash Emergency Relief! I am happy to offer this product to everyone who suffers from hot flashes, even men and women having chemotherapy treatments. HER works wonders and is gentle enough to use as often as needed. So, try it and live a cooler life! Made in USA.
The first two ingredients are ( surprise!) Water and Isopropyl Alcohol. If I remember correctly from Nursing 101, water cools when applied to the skin, and Alcohol evaporates, causing a cooling response topically. Do you really need to shell out hard earned cash for this? Wouldn't it be easier and less expensive to take a shower when you're having a flash. I'm just saying....
So, BLACK COHASH. Honestly, when I first heard about this one I really thought it was some kind of barely legalized marijuana or hashish.A couple of women at work are on it and are having fairly good results controlling their hot flashes. What it is is an herb. It is a member of the buttercup family - honest to God! Its actions, or how it works is in suppressing luteinizing hormone, as an anti-inflammatory, and it mimetics - or mimics-estrogen. Remember Estrogen? That lovely little hormone you are now in the process of not producing anymore? Well the BC can almost fool your body into thinking it isn't loosing any, thereby helping to squash the symptoms. As much good as this may do, it can actually really do bad. The adverse reactions and precautions listed for its use include: hypertension ( high blood pressure); if a woman has hypertension and is on medication for it, BC can potentate the meds causing wicked HYPOTENSION; increased bleeding, headaches and stomach upset. It can't be used during pregnancy so if you're using it and going thru menopause, safe birth control is a must and it shouldn't be given to children. Ever.
Black Cohash has a cumulative effect which means it can take from 4-8 weeks to build up in your system to where you will start to see positive results. Again, before EVER taking it, talk to your Ob/Gyn Guru.
Most of the over-the-counter stuff listed above has what are called Phyto-estrogens, meaning they are plant derived, not real honest-to-goodness natural people estrogen. What they all claim to do is help your body fool itself into thinking it's got estrogen on board, thereby alleviating some of the symptoms, but mostly the flashes.There is a real an decided caveat emptor associated with all of these products. I can't say this enough - talk to your doc before you take ANYTHING. Especially if you have underlying co-morbidities like high blood pressure or a history of blood clots.
In doing a literature search for hot flash treatment I have come across a few other things listed. One is the use of Birth Control pills. Using an estrogen/progesterone BCP before full blow menopause can reduce or stop hot flashes by evening out fluctuating hormones. The cautions for this are: dont use if you are older than 35 and smoke; have diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, or even a family history of these conditions.
One sear states that using an ANTIDEPRESSANT medication can reduce the number and severity of flashes by improving serotonin levels int he brain, which help regulate body temp. As with anything, the major side effect is dependence.
It seems to me that if women ran the world, especially the medical community, that there would be more diverse, widespread, and specific treatments for hot flashes that didn't include anything that would have a potentially harmful effect if used.
Again, I'm just saying...
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