Top 5 Natural Remedies for Hot Flashes

Dietary changes work for hot flashes. It is a simple matter of imbalance. I quit eating sugar. I lowered my salt intake and watched my fat intake. I got rid of hot flashes. I just plain don't have them anymore. Many years now. Balance your diet. Also watch for food intolerances or allergies.

Your mom is a lucky one. I tried a sample tube about 1.5 inches long, of Premarin and my throat swelled up around my thyroid and it remained that way for a year. Whenever I ate or drank that area was sore. Be careful with that pregnant mare urine. Blessings, Charity

Avoid Vitamin B Complex if you have hot flashes

I started taking Vitamin B Complex -- one 500mg pill a day -- about 2 weeks ago and I noticed after a few days my hot flashes had gone from already bad to completely unmanageable with sweat pouring down my face and back. It took me another week to realize it must be the Vitamin B Complex tablet, as it is the only thing that has changed in my diet.

So, I stopped taking it and, within two days, my hot flashes were back to normal. Incredibly annoying, but minus the floods of sweat.

I would caution anyone to avoid Vitamin B Complex if you are trying vitamins for hot flash reduction, as they seem to cause them.

As for natural remedies, nothing works, and I've tried everything -- apple cider vinegar, black cohosh, parsley, various vitamins, cutting out all caffeine and sugar, exercising more, losing weight and on and on. It's now two years, and my hot flashes are worse than they were before I started. I now have an appointment with my doctor and will be going on Premarin. My mother has been taking Premarin for 35 years and has not had one problem with them. I intend to be the same, as these so-called 'natural remedies' are useless to me.

This is going to be really obvious, but when hot flashes start, drink a tall glass of ice water or other iced beverage. It's not really a cure, only a temporary fix but it does help a lot. Of course, an hour or two later you'll need more ice water but it's helpful until whatever other remedy you're using kicks in, and works pretty fast.

I seem to have cure my hot flashes and night sweats quite accidentally. I had to start taking antihistamines for something else and I noticed that I was not having hot flashes anymore. I stopped taking the antihistamines and the hot flashes started up again. I was curious so I googled hotflashes and antihistamines and sure enough Zyrtec has done a study showing that women reported fewer hot flashes when they took antihistamines. Well I didn't want to take antihistamines for a long period of time so I did some more googling and I found several website that say hot flashes are caused by too much histamine in your body. Apparently your body creates a chemical called DAO which manages histamine production but DAO production goes down when your estrogen starts to fluctuate.

The sites said that you can increase DAO production with consuming beets, olive oil, pea shoots, and increasing your vitamin C intake. I now eat a beet every day and cook with olive oil. I also moisturize my hands and feet with olive oil. I also have to avoid my histamine triggers which are alcohol, chocolate and picked or fermented foods. I feel cool and comfortable now. I hope this helps someone else.

Olive Leaf for Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

I had been suffering from hot flashes and night sweats for over a year when I had to start taking antihistamines for another problem. After I started taking the antihistamines I noticed my hot flashes and night sweats had stopped. Just for fun, I googled antihistamines and hot flashes and saw that a lot of women are taking antihistamines for their hot flashes. Zyterc actually did a study and it showed reduce hot flashes while taking their pills. Well, I liked not having hot flashes anymore but I didn't want to have to keep taking antihistamines so I did a little more online research and found a website that talked about histamine intolerance. I started to remove some of the foods I know cause my face to heat up and turn red, wine, chocolate, anything fermented. I also started cooking with olive oil as they suggested. I also started eating beets once a day. Beets are supposed to help your body produce something called DAO which supposedly gets rid of excess histamine. I also started taking olive leaf capsules. OMG, not only do these capsules take away my hot flashes, my seasonal allergies are non existent this spring. Amazing!

Thanks for the information. I have had hot flashes for the last 14 years I am going to try this. I will be happy to see the results

I used ACV 2 T in tea temp water with 1/4 tsp baking soda and within 48 hrs hot flashes disappeared. Be careful with ingestion of baking soda as you do not want to lower your alkalinity too drastically. Only use for 3 weeks at a time then give your body a break.

I started getting hot flashes about two years ago, coinciding with my menopause. I came on to Earth Clinic and read about Blackstrap Molasses. After taking it for 1 day I have never had a hot flash again! Miracle cure. I take it by adding it to my porridge every morning and all I am adding is a tip of a teaspoon dipped into the Blackstrap Molasses, mixed into the hot porridge, stirred and eaten with fruit and yoghurt. It has also stopped my hair falling out too.

I started having hot flashes and night sweats about a year ago. I did a lot of internet research and the following treatments helped really reduce the frequency and intensity of them:

I gave up coffee, spicy foods, wine, and chocolate (mostly) I started meditating and I take a 400 IU of vitamin E 3 or 4 times a week. Sometimes I will eat some delicious spicy Indian food, but I do it knowing the consequences.

For hot flashes, Pregnenolone 50 mg & DHEA 25 mg

Vitamin E works for me. I'm 51 and started having hot flashes almost 2 years ago. At first ACV worked...about 9 months, it was a beautiful thing....then it stopped. I tried loads of other treatments including GNC's packets (didn't work at all), iodine (worked for 3 weeks and then stopped), soy (kinda worked but not totally) and others that didn't work...then I found Vitamin E through this site. I started with 1000 mg using liquid. I put it in my water bottle and sipped it all day. From a different post a reader said she started having hot flashes again while on Vitamin E and reduced her dosage and that seemed to work. I did this also. After 3 or 4 weeks the hot flashes were starting again so I reduced to a 400 mg gel tablet once a day. It works! I still get an occasional hot flash but nothing like I used to.

One other thing I did was to start drinking filtered water. I spent 2 weeks in Mexico this past winter and my hot flashes went away. At the time I was using a soy powder for hot flashes. When I came home I continued with the soy powder but the hot flashes came back with a vengeance. My kids think I'm nuts to filter our "safe" water but they don't have hot flashes...the filtered water may be psychological, I don't know for sure but it works for me. I would chant magic spells if I thought it would keep the hot flashes away.

About how many shots of lemon do you do in a day for your hot flashes?

I would like to let people know what I have found, I have tried everything, could not tolerate Apple Cider Vinegar, so I started eating lemons and taking shots of bottle lemon juice. I also drink lemon water and take shots during the day, this is day and night 5. Not one hot flash, after 6 months of misery.

Soy is also full of plant estrogens, which is probably why it works. But too much estrogen is bad for you. Please be careful.

Vitamin E is almost always made from soy. Soy makes me depressed. So make sure you are not allergic to vit E or soy before taking.

Soy is also full of plant estrogens, which is probably why it works. Too much estrogen is bad for you. Please be careful.

Inositol has greatly relieved my hot flashes! I am 52, and I started having perimenopausal hot flashes about a year ago. Mine are related to estrogen dominance and falling progesterone levels, so any estrogenic substances (i.e. black cohosh, flax seed, etc.) only made things worse.

I used a DIM supplement, which is made from cruciferous vegetables and helps convert estradiol to estriol, very successfully for a year and this kept the flashes and being too hot at night at bay. Then the flashes came back. Mine are not as severe as many people's are, but they were only happening at night and really interfering with my sleep.

I started using a popular brand of an over the counter progesterone cream, along with Vitex (chasteberry) which helps the body favor the production of progesterone over estrogen to help boost my levels. This also helps some, but as far as the cream, I really don't like using hormones at all, even in a low dose. And the flashes weren't gone, they were still happening far too much in frequency and intensity at night.

I began giving my mother some inositol because it is relaxing to many people and helps them sleep. I took some myself one night (1000 mg.) to see if it would perhaps help me sleep through the hot flashes. Well, it had the reverse effect on me and kept me alert and awake for half the night, but I had zero hot flashes! I decided to mete out my dose throughout the day, and yesterday I took 1500 mg. altogether spread out over three 500 mg. doses. I took the last 500 mg. before bed, this smaller amount doesn't keep me awake, esp. if I take it with magnesium. I deliberately did not use the progesterone cream last night and did not have a single flash!

Ladies, I think inositol is definitely worth trying, you can find it at your local vitamin store and it is very inexpensive! I've seen very little research on it for hot flashes, but it works well for me.

Lastly, I eat a pretty low carb diet, favoring seafood. I take antioxidants, high doses of DHA, I drink a gallon of water per day, limit my coffee to two cups per day, and avoid sugars and grains. My diet is mostly Paleo, I guess, although I do eat a small amount of organic/raw dairy. The B vitamin complex I take, however, did not include any inositol, as many of them don't. Inositol is formed by the body from glucose, and I don't eat too many foods that favor glucose production, so I possibly had a deficiency. I also recommend taking the supplement cholin along with the inositol as these two work well together. I hope this works for some of you. Bear in mind that no one supplement works the same for everyone, but at the low price - inositol is definitely worth trying!

I started with hot flashes really bad. I had told myself I'm not going to take hormone therapy. What happen I try multy prenatal vitamins. It helped, hot flashes were gone. In about one year later they came back with full force, I had never been one to drip sweat. Well, this was so bad that I could feel the sweating water running. It was awful specially at night. I give up and went to see a doctor put me on hormone meds. Started the meds and gained 20 pounds during this time. It did help but did not completely so I finished taking the med and stop no more. Then mom told me she was watching the tv show it was about hot flashes they said to take chia seed 1-2 tablespoon full a day. I was all for it. The first day I took it, I only had a few hot flashes. The 2 day none, completely gone. Oh I'm in heaven.

And ever since I've been taking it worked for me and 3 off my friends.

I wonder if this has something to do with your lymphatic system flowing from the rhythm of the horse. A rebounder might help in this case too. 15 mins of jumping a day will get your whole system moving and is very good for your body.

Side effects of taking magnesium is lower blood pressure. I too was using magnesium but transdermal and found my head to swim. I later found out it was due to low blood pressure so I rectified the problem by eating natural salt on my food, licorice and applying rosemary essential oil to my wrists or ankles. Low blood pressure can make you feel really tired and light headed and can be dangerous but doctors won't do anything for it.

I use 2 capsules of 250 mgs Dong Quai at night and if needed, 1 in the morning. I get noticeable relief with this herb.

hi - the dizziness with the inclusion of mag may have more to do with dehydration... sweating profusely and adding mag without increasing water consumption ....250mg sounds way too low...mag is literaly a lifesaver at optimal levels, but pay attention to your water/fluid consumption ... also mag is not the cure for hot flashes but it sure does help!!! Best of luck!

Thanks for the explanation, Rahat, however a little more scientific than my simplistic understanding of the body's chemical make up, but thank you nonetheless. I do hope you find the correlation between the thyroid (T3, T4) and ovaries. I was a little apprehensive to post because I didn't see any other testimonies for iodine/thyroid and hot flashes, but it worked for me and if it helps just one other woman who might be suffering as much as I was, it was worth the post.

Also, as a side note and confirmation to your explanation, I have a menstrual cycle again after not having one for 7 months and an increased libido as well.

This is very interesting & I am very thankful to you Elizabeth for sharing your experience which infact is generating many more questions in my mind to look answers for. I think I can explain the hidden connection between thyroid and hot flashes to some extent. The exact cause of hot flashes isn't known, but it's most likely related to changes in reproductive hormones (estrogen and progesterone produced by ovaries) and in your body's thermostat (hypothalamus), which becomes more sensitive to slight changes in body temperature. The hypothalamic/pituitary/thyroid axis (HPT axis for short, aka thyroid homeostasis) is part of the endocrine system responsible for body's metabolism and production of heat. Although there is no apparent direct connection between thyroid and ovaries except the complex feed back mechanism of HPT, but reproductive problems are known to occur with thyroid issues, such as infertility which is very commonly observed in patients with thyroid problems. Similarly, many poly cystic ovarian disease (PCOD) patients are also known to have autoimmune thyroiditis indicating some underlying connection between thyroid and ovaries. Thyroid responsitivity by the ovaries could be explained by the presence of thyroid hormone receptors in human oocytes.

In 1993, a study by Wakim and et all , for the first time confirmed the presence of T3 and T4 in human follicular fluid and the presence of T3 binding sites in human granulosa cells and suggest a role for thyroid hormone in the regulation of human GCs. Later on, the receptors of both TH and TSH were also discovered to be increased in the receptive endometrium, suggesting that they are important for implantation. Research in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2007 evaluated the ovarian surface epithelial cells for hormone receptors, including those for thyroid hormone. The ovaries from women who had had a hysterectomy were used. Researchers found that the ovarian surface is a target for T3 thyroid hormone and that T3 hormone increased the action of estrogen receptors. Could this possibly help explain the link between hyperthyroidism and ovarian cancer? But if thyroid hormone levels are low, this could have huge implications for the level of estrogens, as well as the functioning of reproductive system and libido. In 2003, Cramer et al. showed that serum TSH levels were a significant predictor of failure of IVF, as TSH levels were significantly higher among women who produced oocytes that failed to be fertilized.

In short, since Iodine is needed to produce T3 & T4 or in other word for the optimum functionality of thyroid, perhaps this explains how iodine intake possibly stimulated your ovaries to produce estrogen and to helped thyroid better control the body temperature through the HPT axis.

Good for you! I suffered for the last 5 years, sometimes really bad like a few times an hour and sometimes just a few times a day. They were terrible! I found that cutting down on sugar helped alot. It seems I am through the worst part now, at least I hope so! Hot flashes are miserable!

I have been meaning to post this for a while now. It's only right that I tell you about my results as I remember how miserable I was 6 months ago. About 1 year ago I started getting really severe hot flashes. I was a walking ember. No kidding, I would have one at least every hour if not more. I had to take a couple of showers a day. At night I would wake every hour drenched in sweat. I had 2 fans on me and still I woke up soaked. This went on for 5 months.

I tried all kinds of remedies like Vitamin E (which did a lot of very good things for my body, but nothing for the hot flashes), black cohosh, Chinese herbs, ACV and countless others. Nothing worked. I was so miserable and sleep deprived and at my wits end. It was unbearable. I was so close to resorting to hormones. Then one day I was cooking and accidently cut my finger so I went into the medicine cabinet and found my iodine. As I was applying it to my finger, I started to remember what iodine does...supports the thyroid which regulates hormones. So I painted a 6"x6" square over my stomach and it disappeared within 3 hours. I painted my arm which disappear pretty quickly as well and then that night I drank 5 drops of liquid kelp (ingestible iodine).

I only had 1 mild hot flash that night and slept through the night for the first time in 5 months. The next morning, I painted again and continued to drink the liquid kelp at night. I have not had one hot flash since and that's been about 6 months ago. I ordered Lugol's and I take it 3x's a week. Ladies, please don't discount a sluggish thyroid if you are having severe hot flashes. Try iodine before resorting to synthetic hormones. Iodine has been a lifesaver for me.

Hot flashes help: I'm 83, and have had hot sweats from spring till fall each year "forever." At a yard sale, I paid $l.00 for a wonderful chenille bath robe - brand new. I had it in my closet for sometime without thinking about it. But one early morning when I was staggering out of bed in misery with my sweats, I suddenly put that robe on. I can't tell you how comfortable it was. I crawled back into bed, with it on like a blanket. It soaked up the sweaty misery like a miracle! I've used it for several years. Some people never get over hot sweats apparently. It is so thick that you pull it inside out and you have dry surface again! To me, it's a miracle.

What type of magnesium do you take? I can't seem to get rid of my hot flashes.