Natural remedies for hot flushes are an alternative therapy that many women are looking into now. Hot flushes are terrible. There’s no way to sugar coat that fact. As the body of a person with XX chromosomes begins to age and release chemicals to shut down the reproductive system, a variety of symptoms occur. There’s everything from mood swings to sore muscles and joints. But the worst of them are hot flashes. 
Why? Because they’re not damaging enough to merit calling staying home from work, but they’re upsetting and distracting enough that you can’t get anything worthwhile accomplished. If they caused more physical pain, you could justify curling up in bed and refusing to do anything. If they were slightly less distracting you could just ignore them. But since they’re neither, you’re forced to sit around trying to do things while being completely unable.
This is why natural remedies for hot flushes are becoming more and more popular as time goes on. Not only do they help deal with hot flashes, but they’re also inexpensive. Natural remedies can generally be found in the home, or if not they can be found for low prices at the local pharmacy or grocery store.
What is a hot flush? 
A hot flash is a feeling of intense heat, not caused by external sources. Hot flashes can appear suddenly, or you may feel them coming on. You may experience:
- tingling in your fingers
- your heart beating faster than usual
- your skin feeling warm, suddenly
- your face getting red or flushed
- sweating, especially in the upper body
What causes hot flushes?
It’s not exactly clear what causes hot flashes. However, they’re most likely due to hormonal changes in the body. Some women barely notice hot flashes or consider them a minor annoyance. For others, the intensity may affect their quality of life in a rather negative way.
Defining The Term Natural
Before you can find natural remedies for hot flushes, the term “natural” has to be defined. In many ways, anything is natural. Everything on this planet was created by other things on this planet, after all. Sure, people often use the term “natural” to describe things that occur whole within nature, but even that’s not always a good definition. Arsenic is natural, but that doesn’t mean you want any of it inside of your body!
For the purposes of useful medical treatments, “natural” should be defined as anything that doesn’t use chemical processing to create. Many pharmaceutical medications are created by causing various chemical reactions in a laboratory setting. These can be incredibly beneficial for some people, but that doesn’t mean it’s beneficial for everyone. Not to mention, some pharmaceutical medications can have incredibly negative side effects for some people.
And of course, pharmaceutical medications can often be prohibitively expensive. Which means it hardly matters how well they work. If you can’t afford them, they can’t possibly work for you!
Natural Remedies For Hot Flushes
Now that the term “natural” has been defined, you’re no doubt curious what those natural remedies for hot flushes actually are. Well, wait no longer! However, it is not recommended that any one of these remedies will be effective on its own. Rather, you should try a combination of different remedies until you find the mix that works best for you. Everyone is different and your own body will tell you what makes it happy.
Vitamin E Rich Food And Supplements
Vitamin E is known to help reproductive health in many different situations. Hot flashes are a side effect of the reproductive system beginning to shut down. It’s a completely natural process, but that doesn’t make it any less obnoxious!
Vitamin E can increase a number of hormones that help keep the body regulated. By either taking supplements for Vitamin E, or eating foods that are rich in that particular vitamin, you may be able to help your body stabilize itself and stave off hot flashes.
Foods That Are Rich In Vitamin C
Vitamin C is something of a “swiss army” vitamin. That is to say, it’s often suggested as a cure for whatever problems you may have. This makes it questionable whether or not it’s useful for anything, given that people claim it’s useful for everything.
However, Vitamin C is well known as an aid to the immune system. This is because it helps steady blood flow, which in turn helps boost the number of blood cells your body produces. However, a nice side effect of this is that it helps regulate your body heat. Body heat is often generated by increased blood flow, and since Vitamin C helps stabilize that, it can help mitigate hot flashes.
Natural Progesterone Cream
Most women are actually estrogen dominant due to the amount of soy in foods. In most cases of menopause doctors actually prescribe more estrogen. I highly recommend using a cream to help balance menopausal hormone levels and to reduce hot flashes.
Sage Tea Can Help 
Sage is a herb that people take to help with digestion because it helps settle the stomach. It can also help with headaches because it helps trigger the brain chemicals that aid in relaxation and pleasure.
That combination can help mitigate the effects of hot flashes. You have to drink a cup of sage tea at least once a day so that your brain gets used to producing the chemicals. But once it is, you’ll find that your hot flashes may begin to happen less and less often.
Flaxseed Oil And Other Fatty Acids
Fatty acids have been known to help reduce symptoms of menopause, and hot flashes are no different. Flaxseeds themselves contain a type of plant lignan that simulates estrogen in certain bodily chemical reactions. Because menopause is caused by a lack of estrogen being produced by the body, this can help slow down or even stop the occurrence of hot flashes.
Other foods that have fatty acids are things such as fish and other seafood. There are other foods, as well, and you should do some research on what’s out there. You might be surprised by how much better you feel after a meal with plenty of fatty acids!
Evening Primrose Oil
A general tonic for women’s reproductive health, evening primrose has a cooling effect on the skin and regulates the production of estrogen. It can act as a sleep aid due to its high gamma linolenic acid count, and increased prostaglandin production.
Red Clover
A plant containing high amounts of phyto-estrogens known as isoflavones has been shown to help reduce the intensity and frequency of hot flashes.
Paced Breathing
Slow deep abdominal breathing for 15 minutes twice daily may reduce feelings of anxiety that can occur with hot flushes but does not reduce the hot flushes themselves.
Acupuncture Therapy 
Acupuncture may be helpful, without the side effects of medication. A small study published in 2011 found that women who had acupuncture had significantly fewer menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, than those who had sham treatments. Sham acupuncture is shallow needling that doesn’t stimulate a true acupuncture point.
Cleanse Your Body
By cleansing your body on a regular basis you can help balance your hormone levels. I recommend performing a colon cleanse and liver detox at least 1-2 times yearly, these cleanses will help promote optimal health.
Avoid Triggering Foods And Substances
Avoiding these foods and substances isn’t quite the same as having natural remedies for hot flashes, but it can certainly help mitigate the problem. There are some foods that can cause problems with the human body, making it heat up and become flush.
Alcohol, diet pills, spicy foods, caffeine, and fried foods can often cause the body to produce an excess of stomach acid. This acid can cause the body to heat up, as can any other food that causes your body to produce extra stomach acid. So if you know any foods or beverages that give you heartburn, avoid those as best you can!
Homeopathic Remedies?
Many people will suggest homeopathic remedies, but you should avoid those. They’re almost always worthless at best, offering little more than a drop of some substance in an entire vial of water. While people will often proclaim the benefits of homeopathic remedies, those benefits are always due to the placebo effect. There’s no scientific evidence that homeopathy works, and plenty of evidence that it doesn’t.
Ultimately, natural remedies for hot flashes aren’t difficult to find. You do have to pay attention and listen to your body, however. Otherwise, you might find yourself accidentally increasing the number of flashes you have!
