How Do I Relieve Hot Flashes and Nausea?

Hot flashes and nausea can have a variety of causes, so relieving them involves a variety of treatments from using herbal products to prescribed medication or various types of mental conditioning and environmental changes. One of the most common causes of hot flashes and nausea is the onset of menopause in women, which is often treated with estrogen replacement therapy. Both breast cancer and prostate cancer treatments in women and men can also cause hot flashes and nausea, however, as well as drugs like antidepressants and steroids and unusual activity in the hypothalamus region of the brain. Medications like megestrol and clonidine, which is used to treat high blood pressure, are also effective treatments particularly in cancer patients who cannot take hormones like estrogen due to their chance of causing a re-occurrence of growth in tumors. Changing environmental conditions such as introducing fans or wearing lighter clothing, as well as methods like self-hypnosis and relaxation training can reduce hot flashes and nausea symptoms .

Since one of the main reasons for hot flashes and nausea is a hormonal imbalance in the body, it is most frequently seen in women entering menopause and people experiencing problems with the hypothalamus region of the brain that regulates hormone production. Estrogen replacement therapy or hormone replacement therapy in general attempts to counteract these processes, but such treatments can have side effects of their own and are not widely popular choices if other options are available. Hormones like progesterone or natural plant-based hormone treatments are sometimes considered to be good substitutes for these approaches.

Prescribed medications that have shown a strong ability for relieving hot flashes include antidepressant drugs as well as anticonvulsants. These include the antidepressant drugs of venlafaxine, paroxetine, and fluoxetine, and the anticonvulsants of gapapentin and clonidine. While these medications are known to be effective, they are not considered to be as powerful as hormone treatments.

Natural herbal treatments for both hot flashes and nausea range from vitamin E supplements to red clover and black cohosh, which contains hormone-like compounds known as phytoestrogens. Most of the dozens of herbal approaches have not shown success in clinical trials when compared against placebos, however. Despite the limitations of herbal approaches, various types of tea preparations have demonstrated some ability at nausea relief, like peppermint tea, or ginger tea for hot flashes, and each choice is considered to be a supplement to an overall range of treatments instead of one to be relied upon alone.

There are several environmentally- and psychologically-oriented approaches to relieve hot flashes and nausea. One is the use of acupuncture, which is believed to relieve both symptoms simultaneously. Another approach includes incorporating exercise into the daily routine which can raise natural endorphine levels that normally drop during a hot flash. Mental conditioning such as meditation and biofeedback have also been shown to alleviate symptoms.