How to Reduce Your Hot Flushes Naturally

Hot flushes are one of the most common symptoms of the menopause, and most of us will experience them at least once in our lives.

In some ways, they’re also one of the worst.

They don’t just disturb your sleep, disrupt your life and make you feel constantly on edge, wondering when the next hot flush is about to strike.

Hot flushes are also far too public.

You can’t exactly hide them when your cheeks are glowing, your carefully-applied make up is starting to slide off your face and your clothes are getting clammy and uncomfortable.

The summer months or trips abroad can be especially bad when you’re battling these hot flushes because you’re already feeling hot, so those internal temperature fluctuations only make things worse.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already looked for a solution to your hot flushes.

You’ve probably tired the usual tricks such as using a fan, drinking cold drinks and spraying your face with cool water. These probably do help slightly.

But you still suffer. You still battle hot flushes and you’re getting to the end of your tether with them.

So let me give you a hand. Here are the best natural ways you can reduce your hot flushes and start living your life again.

1. Learn to manage your stress

Hot flushes are worsened by any amount of stress you’re under, whether it’s long term stress, or even something that happens to trigger you.

Of course, stress is part of our everyday lives and in small doses, it can be healthy. It keeps us motivated, it stops life getting boring and in ancient times, it would have kept us alive.

But these days we’re often under massive amounts of chronic stress, without even realising.

This stress doesn’t just make you feel more anxious, worried or even upset, it also has a significant impact upon our hormones.

Any stressful event triggers the release of a cascade of stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine and diverts blood from your vital organs to your limbs (in case you need to flee).

These hormones disrupt the balance of sex hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone in your body, and magnifies any menopause symptoms you’re already suffering from.

So if you want to ease or eliminate your hot flushes, it’s important you do something about that stress. Here are some great ways to start.

Practice yoga

Yoga is a great way to stretch out your body after a long hard day, and helps to cam your mind and your hormones. It’s also suitable for anyone of any age, whether or not you’ve ever done any yoga before.

There are tons of great online resources you can choose from- simply head to YouTube and type in ‘beginners gentle yoga class’ or come along to one of our Heal Her Retreats and enjoy a class with my daughter, Nicole

Meditate

Meditation helps us to better handle what’s happening within our lives and find the strength to push on through, even if times are tough.

It’s also free, very calming and wonderful for our hormone balance, so why not download one of the meditation apps like Headspace or Calm, see what YouTube has to offer, or come to one of our Heal Her retreats.

Breathe!

Great breathing will help calm those stress hormones, flood your body with healing oxygen and help you feel centred. So learn belly breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing and your hot flushes will reduce too.

2. Get moving!

Exercise is a powerful way to reduce your hot flushes so it’s worth making the effort to get moving, even if you’ve hated all kind of physical exercise since your infant school days.

For best results, you need to get your heart rate up and get hot and sweaty. HIIT session usually do the trick. Aim for 3 x 30 minute sessions per week, and include  gentle walking or yoga and you’ll notice the results almost immediately.

3. Clean up your diet

As the old saying goes, we are what we eat. And never is it truer than during the years of the menopause.

If you fill your body with the highly processed, high-sugar, high-fat foods you’ll find on the supermarket shelves, you’ll continue to feel rubbish and battle those hot flushes.

Make better, more nutritious food choices and you’ll feel much better.

Eat real food cooked from scratch, ditch the processed rubbish (especially sugar) and start to read your food labels (you’ll be astonished at what they put into our food!)/p>

Also be sure to eat regularly, include protein with every meal and reduce your caffeine intake so you can regulate your blood sugar levels, keep hunger at bay, and heal your hot flushes.

4. Avoid xenoestrogens

Xenoestrogen are chemicals found in plastics which ‘pretend’ to be oestrogen when inside your body and disrupt your natural hormone balance.

This triggers those nasty menopause symptoms which we’re trying so hard to avoid.

The bad news is that these xenoestrogens are found almost everywhere including plastic bottles, food storage containers, baby bottles, cosmetics, chemicals for the home, pesticides, paper products and many more.

Here are my top tips on how to avoid them:

• Eat organic as much as possible and buy hormone-free meat and dairy.
• Don’t use plastic water bottles- invest in a funky stainless steel or glass one instead.
• Don’t use plastic food wrap or microwave your food in plastic. Go for glass or ceramics instead.
• Use natural beauty products (or make your own!)
• Use chemical-free eco-friendly household cleaners and unbleached paper products.

Have a look at this useful resource if you’d like to know more about xenoestrogens.

5. Be kinder to yourself

If you only follow one step on this list, please make it this one.

Because how you feel about yourself can make an enormous difference to your experience of the menopause. Of course, this time of transition can be difficult, but if you listen to those negative thoughts and feelings about yourself, your health will continue to spiral out of control.

Negative thoughts cause stress which, as we’ve talked about before, raise those cortisol levels and make your existing menopause symptoms even worse.

Start listening to how you’re really feeling at this time of transition, lean on others for support when you need to and start acknowledging your own needs.

You are important. You deserve this love.

So there are my top five tips on how to overcome your hot flushes naturally. They might not seem life-changing or difficult, but that’s why they’re so effective.

Without forking out too much money or going the HRT route, you can take control of your hot flushes and feel much better.

Need help with your hot flushes?

I’ll be holding an online workshop called Hormones in Harmony: Beat Your Hot Flushes on Monday 16th July at 8pm and I’d love it if you would join us!

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