The Smart Examiner

Many women suffer from hot flushes when they start the menopause. Their upper bodies, arms and faces feel hot, their skin turns red and they sweat, usually for about four minutes.

Hot flushes are caused by a down-setting of the temperature-regulating part of the brain. When you have an infection and your temperature rises above 100 degrees, you sweat to cool off. At the time of the menopause, you still sweat when your temperature rises, but at lower than normal temperatures, such as when you go from 97 to 98 degrees.

Your body temperature rises and falls in a set pattern each day. Your body temperature is usually lowest at 3 in the morning, at around 96 degrees. It is highest in the early evening at at around 99 degrees. During the course of day and night, your body temperature rises and falls and with every rise, a post menopausal woman may suffer a hot flush. Sixty-five to 85 percent of women suffer from hot flushes which persists for five years in 60 percent and for more than 15 years for 10 percent.

A hormone called norepinephrine causes a woman’s brain to think that her body is overheating, even if it isn’t. She then flips open the blood vessels in her skin, giving her the feeling of a rush of heat, and she starts to sweat. Clonidine, a blood pressure medicine, lowers norepinephrine and blocks hot flushes in some susceptible women. We still do not have any good drugs to effectively lower norepinephrine levels in the brain, but here at least is a lead for future researchers.

What should a woman take for hot flushes after the start of the menopause now that large studies show that taking estrogen and progesterone increases risk for breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes? Several reports show that hot flushes possibly may be prevented by eating plenty of whole grains and soybeans or by taking a male-like estrogen called tibolone, which can be prescribed for women who cannot take estrogen. However, tibolone is not available in North America, even though it has been available in many other countries for the last five to ten years. Various remedies such as dong quai are advertised, but no large, long term studies have been conducted on any of these alternatives.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

Free weekly newsletter on fitness, health and nutrition

Have you ever learned something new and then within hours or days find that, that information was exactly the information you needed. Do you ever wonder how you come across such information on such timely basis? Some people call this the holistic universe; perhaps that is a good term. As we learn more about quantum computing it would make sense that the mind may in fact work through time, space and dimension.

Currently if you talk about such things, some may say; you’re nuts! And maybe you are, maybe we all are, however either way I know that I am not alone in such circumstances. Indeed, if you were still reading this, then this is also something that happens to you. Scientists cannot explain why this works or how it works; some say it is a matter of false memory, and that even if you didn’t have the information, you would still have the potential eventuality of the circumstance or events. This is a good point, however in my estimation it does not account for the rapid and often occurrence that such events take place.

So, while science is busy trying to disprove something we all know and feel; wouldn’t it make sense or should I say would make more sense to prove how it works, why it works and work on duplicating it. It seems that taking that tact would serve mankind better and help us to better understand how our brain works beyond the confines of the human skull. I hope you will consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/