anything to help with hot flashes besides hrt?

[progranulindefect]

my mom died of an estrogen sensitive breast cancer, so i don't want to take hrt. i cannot get a good night's sleep. it's been years now. has anyone found anything to help with night sweats/hot flashes at night besides hrt? i tried drinking almond milk with a tablespoon of coconut oil before bed, and it did not help at all. i also can rise into the diabetic range of blood sugar if i don't eat low carb, so my glucose metabolism is messed up (both parents diabetic, i was diagnosed prediabetic. with diet/exercise/metformin my A1c is 5.4).

[Stavia]

Progran, there are a couple things that may help.
1. Black cohosh is used a lot in Europe but possible side effects have never been studied. It does modestly reduce hot flushes
2. Medication such as SSRIs and venlafaxime also reduce flashes by about 30%. They are thought to work by stabilising the nerves that control the blood vessels.

[Robin2038]

Good afternoon
I second Stavia's suggestion of black cohash snd add that a brand called "Remifemin" works amazing for me and many friends. I felt it within a couple of days; others say it kicks in within a week or two. It says "contains the black cohash extract used in clinical studies" and my OB/GYN says she recommends it.
I went from kicking the covers off my bed and sweating in air conditioning to my normal self that is often cold!

[Julie G]

You've already gotten some good suggestions, Pro. I would also encourage you to consider continuing with the coconut oil even though you're not seeing immediate benefit. Dr. Roberta Brinton (USC) has found evidence that hot flashes are a signal of cerebral hypometabolism. That's an ongoing issue for E4 carriers exacerbated at menopause. It also looks to be a player in FTD. Coconut oil will help crete ketones that can serve as an alternate fuel for your brain. I think some of our members use it several times a day to keep ketone levels steadier.

[progranulindefect]

http://www.agingbraincare.org/uploads/p ... l_size.pdf

venlafaxime is a level 1 anticholinergic. i know i am very sensitive to anticholinergics because before i knew about their detrimental effects, i took a half a tablet of benadryl (15mg?) 3 days a week to help me sleep through hot flashes. it did help me sleep, but by the end of the week i could not string a sentence together and kept slurring words. benadryl is a level 3 anticholinergic, along with a lot of other meds used for hot flashes.

i strongly recommend that anyone with concerns about hypo metabolism in the brain double check all their meds, including OTC meds, with the list of anticholinergic meds i linked to. once i had a little diarrhea and amazingly I had a great night's sleep after taking it. I checked the anticholinergic meds list and, guess what, that anit-diarrhea med (Lomotil) was on it.

[Stavia]

Good observation. Some people are more sensitive to anticholinergic effects.
Benadryl is also very sedating in itself independent of its anticholinergic effects, so it might not have been the latter causing the issue.

[progranulindefect]

it wasn't the sedating effect. i felt rested. i just couldn't talk- it affected that part of my brain. i would think anyone interested in brain health would stay away from anticholinergics in the same way everyone knows to stay away from cigarettes.

[Stavia]

wow scary. Must have felt awful.

[progranulindefect]

it felt like that episode in grey's anatomy where they accidentally injure the language center (broca's area?). when the girl is waking up, she glances at her family with a smile, happy that she has come through the operation ok. then when she tries to talk, only sound, no words, come out. i was no where near that bad, but the similarity is that everything else felt ok. i wasn't sleepy and i didn't have a headache. the words just were all jumbled together and mispronounced. that is why i will never take an anticholinergic again.

[RichardS]

progranulindefect-

I think anybody who experiences transient expressive aphasia, which may be what you are describing, in the absence of obvious causes (e.g. being drunk, altered consciousness) should see a neurologist. I would not blame a medication like anticholinergics whose cognitive effects are fairly isolated to slowed psychomotor speed and impaired short-term memory and mostly in the presence of sedation. Medications don't specifically affect that area of the brain (Broca's area).