Hot women: Menopause and hot flashes

Many women in the West have hot flashes while women in the East don't. Why?

Genetics?

I don't think so...

Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) has been the ideal treatment for menopause in the east for thousands of years.

It has some wisdom to share.

Americans consume 80% of the world's pharmaceuticals. Yet women in the U.S. experience severe symptoms of menopause compared to those in the East.

Hey! We can't let all our Asian sisters have the goods here!

First, lets admit they've got something that works. TCM makes sense of it by using theories tested by time.

Take for example how western medicine looks at menopause:

Researchers have studied the physiology of hot flashes for more than 30 years but still don't know exactly how or why they occur. Scientist Robert R. Freedman and his colleagues at Detroit's Wayne State University School of Medicine have measured skin temperature, blood flow, heart rate and sweating in menopausal women before, during and after hot flashes. They've found that women who experience hot flashes have a much lower tolerance for small increases in the body's core temperature.

Scientist can take tests and analyze but if they don't know how or why hot flashes occur it'll be a big problem in finding a solution.

Conventional doctors in Japan, Korea, China, and other Asian cultures prescribe herbal medicines to combat menopause when pharmaceuticals are so readily available.

Why?

Well, TCM treats the human body as an energetic whole. Therein lies the crucial difference. Western medicine is divisive, often looking at one part of the body without seeing its relation to the whole. It focuses on symptom management. Its allopathic medicine's weak spot. Making it second best to prevent and treat chronic disease like menopause.

Oriental Medicine puts together all the diverse signs and symptoms of ill health to form a basic pattern of disharmony. It seeks to treat the cause and not only the symptom. It doesn't get technical with neurochemical lab results, but rather it understands the significance of a red tongue, dry hair and bad moods. The symptoms are not regarded as problems in themselves to be eliminated, but as warning signs, pointers to deeper, more general causes of the condition.

Take another look at what western scientists say about menopause:

"The decline in estrogen during menopause may somehow affect norepinephrine levels. Brain norepinephrine levels may be higher in women who have hot flashes than in those who don't. In animal experiments, increased brain norepinephrine narrows the thermoneutral zone. Conversely, the antihypertensive drug clonidine, which lowers norepinephrine, widens the zone in women with hot flashes. Estrogen and certain antidepressants also widen the zone, though scientists don't understand the exact mechanisms."

Scientist are not sure of how the whole picture fits but they may have other pharmaceuticals with which they can experiment on you!

But why risk it with more meds and their side effect soggy solutions?

In clinic, this woman finally found relief from nightsweats after years of hormone replacement therapy that were so bad she actually used those ice sheets you stick in coolers on her body!!!

Hot flashes are damn miserable for many women in the west with many of their doctors advising them this:

"Since hot flashes are triggered by increases in core body temperature, try to stay cool—literally. Drink cold drinks, use air conditioners (especially at night), carry a fan and dress in layers that you can shed. The best medical treatment is estrogen, though many women can't or don't want to take it. A good alternative is deep, controlled breathing: inhale and exhale slowly, allowing your abdomen to expand and contract, at a rate of six or seven full breaths per minute. You can often stop a hot flash with a few deep breaths.

Schatz and Robb-Nicholson are the editor and editor in chief of the Harvard Women's Health Watch. For more info on hot flashes, go to www.health.harvard.edu/menopause_hot_flashes.htm."

That is not cool - 'take a deep breath'!!

Harvard Hotair...

Well...taking a deep breath I agree is helpful but there is more you can do.

Ancient Eastern wisdom will help women in the west.

In our culture, many women, instead of believing in their capacity to remain strong, attractive, and vital throughout their lives, instead have come to expect their bodies and minds will deteriorate with age. Thus, society creates a pattern of thoughts, stigmas and fears - all the while pharmaceutical companies make lots of money.

I think menopause sounds great. No more visits from aunt flow.

Menopause, while itself a sign of aging, actually slows down the aging process by preventing the unnecessary loss of blood. Thus, the menopause allows a woman the possibility for another 20 to 30 years of relative good health with much slower decline as opposed to the case if menstruation continued.

Menopausal women need not believe that they are doomed. Premenopausal women need not dread the menopausal years.

It is up to women in the West to act upon that determination and get some good TCM herbal medicines.