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Eliminating coffee and alcohol helped my hot flashes for some reason. Soy made them worse! DIM probably would have helped if I'd known about it, because I've taken it after menopause and it has helped with weight and energy. Progesterone made me feel sick, like flu. I guess it's all just different for different women.
So you're saying iodine, manganese, and zinc although my multivitamin gives me 100% of the daily allowance? But NO soy isoflavons? And how do I know if it's the "genistein" variety? The bottle I bought (40 mg. tablets, and what dosage should I be taking?) doesn't specify.
Everybody is different. Progesterone cream seems to work for some women. I tried progesterone cream and it was great for 3-4 months but then raised my cortisol so incredibly high that it upset my entire balance and made my estrogen go through the roof. It was horrible, and it took 3 years to start to feel better from that.
After that experience, I looked around for other options. At some point I had read that supposedly there is no word in the Japanese language that means "hot flash". I don't know if that's true or not, but I decided to look into finding out what they ate that might help. Soy was the obvious first choice, although it seemed that they really didn't eat all that much soy to begin with. But, for me, soy made the hot flashes and night sweats worse. That's when I learned what a goitrogen was, and that clued me into a possible connection with the thyroid.
The next obvious (to me) thing was seaweed. Seaweed is high in iodine and well as other trace minerals. Iodine is essential for thyroid function, but the RDA is only 150 mcg, just enough to avoid developing a goiter. I decided to try taking kelp capsules, 360 mcg each. The kelp helped enough that I could see that there indeed was a connection (at least in my body). I think I started with one capsule and eventually got up to 3 capsules a day (taken in morning). The iodine from the kelp completely cleared up the painful breasts that I had been experiencing for a number of years prior, the hot flashes were just about gone, and the night sweats were minimal. At this point I don't take kelp anymore but instead munch on a seaweed snack everyday, and that seems to be just as good for me, and yummy too.
As I researched more into iodine I found that other nutrients were needed in tandem. Two of them, tyrosine and selenium, are needed by the thyroid to make hormones. Meat has tyrosine in it, so that was covered by my diet. I decided to supplement with 200 mcg selenium.
Other ones, like zinc and manganese, I was already taking, and I noticed that if I stopped taking them for a while I would start feeling "flashy", if you know what I mean. So that's when I realized that they were somehow necessary too. As soon as I started taking them again, the flashy feelings disappeared and I slept better too.
The other things I listed are anti-oxidants (vits. A, C, E) and stress vitamins (B's) to help the body in utilizing the iodine and also with supporting the adrenals which are more stressed in menopause.
Last edited by noodlecat; 06-16-2015 at 10:20 AM..
Save your money, OP. Whether you do anything or not, the worst of it will pass for most women in 1.5 - 2.5 years. It's a matter of getting through that, keeping yourself as comfortable as you can during that time.
Selling women herbs, soy, vitamins, and hormones is a huge business. I probably spent several hundred, all told, on herbs and such, none of which worked in the slightest. I felt the best when I ate a good diet and drank enough water. If I had to do it all over, I would've spent more on lean protein, produce, and fruit.
It's not a "disease"! It can't be "cured." This is a natural part of the aging process.
Save your money, OP. Whether you do anything or not, the worst of it will pass for most women in 1.5 - 2.5 years. It's a matter of getting through that, keeping yourself as comfortable as you can during that time.
Selling women herbs, soy, vitamins, and hormones is a huge business. I probably spent several hundred, all told, on herbs and such, none of which worked in the slightest. I felt the best when I ate a good diet and drank enough water. If I had to do it all over, I would've spent more on lean protein, produce, and fruit.
It's not a "disease"! It can't be "cured." This is a natural part of the aging process.
No, it's not a disease but it is very uncomfortable for many women. A headache isn't a disease either but most people will take aspirin or some other pain killer. Diet can be huge, as you and I both have said, but for some women that is not enough, apparently. If something is missing, then the missing supplement, whether in herbal form or pill form, cream form, or whatever, could help them. Like everything else, this should be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Save your money, OP. Whether you do anything or not, the worst of it will pass for most women in 1.5 - 2.5 years. It's a matter of getting through that, keeping yourself as comfortable as you can during that time.
Selling women herbs, soy, vitamins, and hormones is a huge business. I probably spent several hundred, all told, on herbs and such, none of which worked in the slightest. I felt the best when I ate a good diet and drank enough water. If I had to do it all over, I would've spent more on lean protein, produce, and fruit.
It's not a "disease"! It can't be "cured." This is a natural part of the aging process.
Agree that it's "natural" and "normal," and many women never experience even one hot flash or at least aren't bothered much by them. However, they can be debilitating for some, and it looks like I may be in that unlucky minority.
That said, I'm with you about keeping it simple... I'd like to TRY a basic soy isoflavon supplement, but am still waiting for advice on how much and when to take.
Okay, so 80 mg. reduced the incidence from about 24 a day to about 8 a day. I boosted the dosage to 120 mg. thinking that would take care of the rest, and I'm now having MORE hot flashes. The heck???
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Originally Posted by in_newengland
Anything stimulating like caffeine, alcohol, spicy foods, made mine worse.
Progesterone cream (I think it was from Dr. Lee and made from sweet yam) definitely helped.
I second this. I'd suggest reading Dr. Lee's books as well as the others that out there on the subject of natural progesterone. The premise is that perimenopausal women have too much estrogen in comparison to progesterone. Much more complicated, but natural progesterone helped me.
I started natural progesterone based on the recommendation of my homeopathic ob/gyn. I'd never heard of it before. Anyway, it works amazingly well for me. As does regular exercise, getting enough sleep, and keeping my stress under control. Easier said than done, but when I make the effort I feel so much better.
Soy did not help me at all. I actually felt worse.
Does that require a prescription, I assume? Because my primary isn't at all inclined to prescribe anything having to do with menopause -- or even to discuss it with me! Insists I see a gynecologist, and I prefer to just avoid ALL doctors...
My money's on black cohosh, if I can ever figure out which of the two million kinds to take...
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