The Ageless and Awesome Podcast

Feeling Like You're on Fire? Tackling Hot Flashes of Perimenopause

• Susie Garden • Episode 230

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Navigating the sweltering waves of perimenopause can feel like a battle against an invisible enemy. My journey with hot flashes was nothing short of a rollercoaster, but it's a ride many of us are on, and I'm here to share the survival tactics that made all the difference. In our latest episode, we strip back the layers on hormonal fluctuations, particularly how a drop in oestrogen levels throws our internal thermostat out of whack, and provide a guide to recognising and managing the patterns of hot flash occurrences. You'll learn how to identify common triggers – like that morning cup of coffee or evening glass of wine – and get practical advice on how to handle this fiery symptom with finesse.

Then, we feast on knowledge as we turn to the power of nutrition in soothing the menopausal inferno. Discover why your kitchen pantry might just be your secret weapon, to bolster your health and wellbeing during this time. I don't stop at diet though. This episode also covers the essential allies like key supplements that might just be the reinforcements you need  plus the calming forces of exercise and stress management, offering a holistic arsenal for anyone looking to combat menopause symptoms and emerge triumphantly. Tune in for an episode that's brimming with insight and tailored for those ready to take control of their menopausal journey.

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Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Awesome podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and aging, so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset and outrageous confidence. Hit, subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's Ageless and Awesome podcast.

Speaker 1:

This week, I'm actually focusing on something that I haven't talked about for a little while, which is hot flashes Hot flashes, or hot flashes as we call them in Australia and these are pesky, annoying and can actually be really, really distressing in perimenopause and menopause, so I wanted to talk about it. This is something that I have personally experienced and, man, they can be, as I said, distressing sometimes. I definitely had over the time that I've had them. Occasionally I've even just wanted to cry. I think I have even cried with them, which is, you know, I laugh, but it's not nice at all, and it really kind of irks me that hot flashes can be just so lightly dismissed by other people, whether they're a partner, whether they're a healthcare practitioner and I see this a lot that women get told oh, they're just normal, they're just a part of perimenopause, you'll be fine, and I think, a lot of the time, people that are saying this are people that have not actually experienced them. Because if you experience them, particularly if you're getting a lot, like some women are literally getting them every waking hour at least once or twice, and that's really hard to maintain concentration. It's hard to feel comfortable if you're in a pool of sweat, and I've definitely had that happen and so I wanted to talk about that today, about why we get them, when will they stop and what can you do about it from a natural medicine perspective. So let's get into it.

Speaker 1:

So, as you are probably aware, the hot flashes actually are because of the hormonal fluctuations that happen in perimenopause, so you will definitely get. If you're someone that is prone to them, you will definitely get them in perimenopause. Now, again, as I say, some women don't get them. I think the stats are about 80% of women will get them, but then there's also degrees of which that you have them, in terms of the duration, the frequency, the intensity and whether they stop after menopause, which I'll get into in a second, but essentially it's the surging, or actually the drop from the surge, of estrogen that's probably the main cause of hot flashes during menopause, because estrogen plays a pretty crucial role in regulating body temperature Obviously many, many other functions that it has, but who knew that it also helps regulate your body temperature.

Speaker 1:

So when we get that decline in estrogen, we get that tendency to have hot flashes because of this lack of estrogen can disrupt our internal thermostat. Because we do have this internal thermostat so that when you go out, say on a cold day, your body will regulate your temperature. We know this. We know that if we walk out on a hot day we will start to sweat. We know that if we are in a cold situation, our hands and feet and your ears, maybe the tip of your nose, will be the first kind of places to get cold because your body starts shunting all of your blood into your internal organs. Because they're a priority right. We want to keep the blood warm. We want to keep the body warm because we only have a fairly narrow temperature range at which the body functions really well. So having our thermostat internally is really important, but with this disruption in hormones and progesterone also has a role, but estrogen is considered to have the the more major role.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this. You get this inability of the body to really adjust temperature properly, and so when we get any sort of trigger, now sometimes you can get a hot flush and there's no particular trigger, which is kind of annoying. It just happens. If you've had hot flushes for a little while, you may have started to notice patterns. You may notice that they're happening during the night, for example, or you might notice you'll wake up in the morning and there's a hot flush, or you'll get out of the shower and there's a hot flush. You have a cup of coffee, there's a hot flush. So you know, you start to notice patterns and that's helpful. Actually, that would probably be my first hot tip is start to really note down how many hot flushes are you having in a day and if you've known them over a few days, you might start to notice these patterns and that maybe patterns related to certain foods that you're eating or activities that you're doing or when your stress levels get a little higher. So many things can trigger it and that, if you kind of can get a sense of that or patterns, and that can really help with managing it.

Speaker 1:

You don't feel so out of control, because I know, for me personally, one of the things that really annoyed me about hot flushes was that feeling of just being completely out of control with your body and feeling and I think that's probably why I cried a few times is you just get this sense of oh, you know, it's just this. I'm trying not to swear, obviously, but you know it's just this sense of oh, for goodness sake, what, what now? You know what is happening now that I just have no control over. It's just very frustrating sometimes and actually quite distressing. So some of the things that can trigger them, as I mentioned stress. I think that's probably one of the most common things that that does trigger hot flushes.

Speaker 1:

Caffeine is pretty well known, unfortunately. Alcohol definitely. The thing is with alcohol, even without the context of perimenopause or menopause. You know, in your teens, 20s, 30s, when you're not really impacted by this, alcohol will actually cause hot flushes anyway to anyone. So but when you're particularly susceptible, that's why alcohol can be even worse. And the same with things with alcohol, with sleep, for example. Alcohol, we know, prevents deep sleep and REM sleep. So if you have alcohol on top of the sleep disruption which can happen in perimenopause and menopause. Sorry everybody, but alcohol can be a real problem. In perimenopause you may need to think about what can I do to reduce my alcohol but still feel like I can't. I can participate fully in social kind of events, so it's something to think about. But anyway, I digress.

Speaker 1:

Other things which we know can trigger hot flushes are spicy foods, hot environments even though I have seen some work that being saunas can actually help with hot flushes, that's relatively new research, but that might be something to consider. Smoking, unfortunately can. There are certain medications that can exacerbate those hot flushes. So if you are on medications and experiencing hot flushes of perimenopause or menopause, it might be worth having a discussion with your healthcare practitioner about are there alternatives that may not be as likely to trigger it.

Speaker 1:

Also, just tight clothing, clothing that traps heat close to the body, can exacerbate hot flashes and make them feel more uncomfortable, and it can also just add, I think, to that distress if you're wearing clothing that you can't easily de-layer. I know I've had that experience in the past where I have been wearing like jeans and a jumper and nothing underneath the jumper. Because I live in Queensland, when it's winter Often you don't need anything else in cold days. But yeah, if you get a hot flash on a cold day, you need to be able to de-layer, and wearing tight or heavier clothing can add to that feeling of distress if you're in a position where you literally just can't de-lay and you just have to sit there in this sauna of clothing because of that hot flash on a cold day. So yeah, in terms of when do hot flashes stop?

Speaker 1:

For the majority of women, once they hit menopause, so that 12 months after the last menstrual period, often the hot flashes because it essentially means when you get to that point is that your estrogen is no longer surging so it's low, but it's not having that dramatic fall and that can mean that hot flashes can actually either disappear or become much less intense or less frequent. Small percentage of women, unfortunately, will continue to experience hot flashes, and so knowing and having a good management plan for them can really help for you to feel like you're taking back control of your body, for you to feel less uncomfortable and feel like they're not actually just taking over your life. So what can you do to help? I've already mentioned a couple of things, but let's talk about diet specifically. As you know, I am a nutritionist as well as a naturopath and I am really really big on food as medicine is pretty much the majority of the work that I do these days. I still do work with some herbs, but I really love food as medicine and I am consistently kind of blown away by how powerful it is, and some of the specific foods that can really help with hot flashes are things like flaxseeds. So some of these foods I'm going to mention are phytoestrogens, so plant-based estrogens. These phytoestrogens can mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. Now, they're not going to replace the estrogen in your body, but they can support. So foods like flaxseeds are fabulous, so I have ground flaxseed every morning in my breakfast and I really think that makes a difference to me.

Speaker 1:

Soy products are also a little controversial. If you're going for soy products, I really highly recommend you go for organic, non-gmo soy. So things like tofu, soy, milk, edamame, tempeh they're all great sources of soy, and the great thing about soy is it is a complete protein. So it is. But many plant-based proteins are not what we call complete protein, so they don't contain all nine essential amino acids, whereas soy does. So that's a really good, particularly if you're plant-based or wanting to eat more. Plant-based soy is a great protein source for you, as well as helping to support the reduction or less intensity of hot flashes.

Speaker 1:

Whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, oats barley contain complex carbohydrates and that helps to stabilize your blood sugar levels. And I've spoken I think it might have even been last week or the week before I spoke about insulin resistance and blood sugar levels, and again, that's a lot of the work that I do with food is managing that, because when we get into that perimenopausal time, we, through some of the metabolic changes that go on in the body. We tend to be more towards an insulin resistant type of metabolism and when you have some insulin resistance, that makes it more likely that you're going to store fat around the midsection. We know if your blood sorry, if your waist measurement is above 100 centimetres, if you're a man or a woman, your likelihood of having a degree of insulin resistance is pretty much 100%. So getting the waist measurement down is a priority in the work that I do with my clients. And so, yeah, these kind of complex carbs can help stabilize your blood sugar levels and that helps to stabilize hot flashes, because sometimes that fluctuation in blood sugar can actually trigger a hot flush.

Speaker 1:

Fruits and veggies I'm always going to say fruits and veggies and eating the rainbow eating a variety of fruits and veggies ensures you're getting a really good variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, all of those beautiful beneficial plant chemicals and plant nutrients that we all need, and this supports overall health. But and it will also help with reducing the frequency of hot flashes. Cold water fish so fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines these are all really rich in omega three fatty acids, as is flaxseed or you could add flaxseed oil into that hemp seed oil. If you're looking for more plant based options, these are anti-inflammatory and incorporating these sort of fish or these those are the plant-based omega threes into your diet can help reduce inflammation in the body and that potentially will decrease the severity of hot flashes. And also nuts and seeds, like particularly almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, are excellent sources of healthy fats, fiber and nutrition generally. Lots of nice little minerals in there. And we're talking raw, but you can roast them or toast them yourself. You are beautiful, just dry. Frying up some almonds with some balsamic vinegar is delicious and you can snack on that. You can chop them up, make it into a granola and that can really help stabilize your blood sugar as well and that can help with your hot flashes.

Speaker 1:

Of course, there are going to be things that you just need to work for yourself. Some things that I've mentioned you might find are not helpful to you specifically. So that's why I love working with personalized nutrition, because I'm getting the exact foods for the individual that has been scientifically evaluated for the individual based on blood biochemistry. So whenever I'm giving these sort of suggestions, they are very much general suggestions and not medical advice, not health advice and not taking into account your specific circumstances. So always just keep that in mind If you try some of this ago. Well, it's not working for me, yeah, it's. These are not for you specifically, they're just generally. We know these things will help. Also, avoiding spicy foods. Now, I love chilli, I love spicy foods. I haven't found a need to give them up and you know, again, some people will find that that's always gonna trigger them off into a hot flush.

Speaker 1:

Caffeine oh my gosh Caffeine. You know, often even just getting rid of caffeine or drastically reducing to half to one shot a day can be quite helpful when it comes to reducing hot flashes. There are some herbal medicines that can help, like black co-hosh is one. Evening primrose oil can also be quite helpful. Those sorts of herbs and evening primrose oil is an omega-6 oil. You can get them pretty easily. Just a little bit of caution with the black co-hosh. If you're taking other medications, you do need to talk to your pharmacist about that, whether that's appropriate, so that there are some interactions there with that particular one.

Speaker 1:

Also, magnesium magnesium's got some pretty good data actually to support a reduction in hot flashes. In fact some of the research shows it can be more than 50% of women will see a reduction in their symptoms of hot flushing. So and I mean gosh, I mean I've spoken, I think, a lot about magnesium, but I put almost all of my clients on a magnesium of some form. Now it does need to be the right form. For my peri-ladies, I love magnesium glycinate. That is very helpful to take at night because you're not only getting the benefit of the magnesium, but when that magnesium is broken down in the body biochemically, you're getting magnesium and you're also getting glycine, and glycine is really calming to the nervous system and helps with sleep. So magnesium glycinate is the one that I really recommend for my peri-ladies.

Speaker 1:

And also stress management. I mentioned before that stress can really trigger off your perimenopause symptoms and hot flashes, and so having a good stress management strategy in place already, so you're not just putting it in place when you have the stressful event, but if you're training your nervous system to be self-regulated, that will help you a lot. And finally, exercise I mean getting into your body is so grounding. So many of my clients love exercise for mental health and I love it myself for mental health. I've had an injury this past week and I haven't been able to go to a reformer and oh man, I miss it so much. So I'm gonna try and go today and hopefully I've got a bit of a pelvis injury and hopefully that will be okay. It's just from a long-term doing yoga in the 90s, where they didn't have a good knowledge of the body then like they do now, and so any who long story. So I hope this has been helpful.

Speaker 1:

I would love to know your experiences. Please feel free to message me at Susie Garden Wellness on Instagram or directly through the podcast, if you're on Spotify. I hope you have a lovely rest of the week. I'll be back on Thursday with Q&A. Thanks so much for joining me today on the Ageless and Awesome podcast. If you liked today's episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify, so that you can get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you like free stuff and who doesn't? Then head over to SusieGardencom and grab my eight essential age-defying secrets every woman over 40 should know right now. Or if you'd like to continue the discussion, head over to Instagram and DM me at SusieGarden Wellness. I'd love to connect with you.

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Susie Garden

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