Hot flashes are pretty much a fact of life after menopause. So far, the only reliable treatment is hormone therapy, but health concerns about the possibility that hormone replacement can increase the chance of certain cancers and heart disorders makes some women hesitant to go this route. As a result, many choose to either just live with their hot flashes or make lifestyle changes to avoid them, such as limiting caffeine and spicy food, and even keeping fans and ice water on hand.
The thing about medical science though, is that it never stops looking for new information, even about problems that are as old as time, and that search usually starts at the source. With hot flashes, it’s always been clear that the natural process of menopause and the fact that the body stops producing certain hormones is what causes them. Now the question is: what are the processes that happen when those hormones stop being produced, and how do they lead to hot flashes?
That’s what recent research from the University of Pittsburgh is trying to answer, and they’ve uncovered an interesting connection between female hormone levels and the human heart, by way of the nervous system.
Researchers attached heart monitors to women who had completed menopause, as well as some who were in perimenopause – the period leading up to menopause when hormone production begins to diminish.
To explain the findings, it’s important to point out that the human heart rate varies naturally. The data from the heart monitors used in the study though showed that during hot flashes, the variation diminishes significantly.
Since heart rate is controlled by the nervous system, this data would seem to point to the idea that something is happening within this system related to hormones, causing the natural processes to change once the hormones stop being produced.
Specifically, the researchers believe that hot flashes result from a disorder or defect in the parasympathetic nervous system, which control the body’s basic functions during resting states.
In the future, this information could potentially lead to new approaches in treating hot flashes. For now, it draws an interesting parallel between the fact that heart disease is more common in women who have experienced menopause, and could perhaps explain why hormone replacement therapy has been shown to increase heart problems in women, as well.
For now, women suffering with hot flashes can take comfort in the fact that they are temporary, and most women eventually stop experiencing them over time.
