Hot Flashes: What is the Big Deal?

Only a person that has not experienced hot flashes would say, “Hot Flashes, what is the big deal?”

The big deal about hot flashes is that they are extremely uncomfortable, irritating, and never seem to come at an opportune time. When many people think about hot flashes, what comes to mind is simply someone complaining that they are hotter than the people around them. However, hot flashes are more than just feeling warm. Hot flushes, night sweats, and the chills that follow are all a part of hot flashes and all of those hot flash symptoms are not pleasant to endure.

Hot flashes most commonly strike women as they are about to enter menopause, but menopausal women are not the only victims of sweats, hot flashes, and chills. Women being treated for breast cancer, pregnant and postpartum women, and even men can suffer from hot flashes.

Hot flashes are caused when the hormone estrogen is out of balance in your body. When a woman is about to start menopause her production of estrogen decreases. This is why she begins to suffer from hot flashes. Her body is unable to regulate its temperature and grows hot and then cold at a rapid pace. For a woman, menopause can cause hot flashes for a few months or several years.

Women that are being treated for breast cancer have also reported feeling hot flashes when they are on the drug, tamoxifen. About 60% of the women that take this drug report that they experience hot flashes. Many women that do not take the drug, but seek a cure for cancer through chemotherapy also experience hot flashes. This is because chemotherapy can shut down a woman’s ovaries leading to hot flashes.

When a woman is pregnant, there are so many different hormones raging in her body, that hot flashes are not uncommon. It is also extremely common for a woman to have hot flashes and night sweats after giving birth. The body goes through many hormonal changes in such a short period after giving birth, that it is an optimal time for hot flashes to occur.

Men can also suffer from hot flashes. Although it is rare, it has been reported that men taking drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer can experience the same type of hot flashes as menopausal women.

No matter if you are a menopausal woman, a man or woman being treated for breast cancer, or recently pregnant, hot flashes bring about many questions. When it comes to hot flashes what:

* Kind of treatment for hot flashes can you seek? * Kind of herbal remedy for hot flashes is available? * Amount of time will it take to control hot flashes?

There are medical solutions to hot flashes, but they are far from perfect. Most doctors agree that the side effects that go along with medications used to treat hot flashes outweigh the good these drugs do. There are some great herbal remedies, such as Hot Flash Freedom, and it starts to work wthin days after you start taking it.

When it comes to hot flashes, what the big deal is that you don’t have to suffer from them anymore!