Do Natural Hot Flashes Remedies Really Work?

Hot flashes and night sweats are bothersome to debilitating, and can dominate a woman's life throughout perimenopause and postmenopause. They are one of the most common menopause related complaints, affecting 80-85% of American women who transition through menopause. An easy solution in the past has been hormone replacement therapy, which very effectively reduces hot flashes and sweats by 94%, according to researchers. However, over the past couple years researchers have found more and more risks associated with hrt. As a result both the women seeking relief from menopause related complaints and their doctors are unwilling to put themselves at risk, even for relief of life disrupting menopause complaints. With no effective alternatives available through the medical profession, women are left on their own to figure out what to do to get relief.

Turning to the internet, today's quick source for information (and misinformation) women usually try one remedy, then another, based on snippets of information or testimonials used to advertise different products. Typically one will try the most familiar herb or remedy that you happen to come across. We tend to attribute value and safety to something we are familiar with, even if that is not the case. Unable to spend the time and focus required to investigate and identify what is the best product available, we tend to go with the flow.

But what are the facts when it comes to natural hot flash remedies?

There are many natural hot flash remedies available on the market. To try and make sense of them all, I'll divide them into two groups-phytoestrogens and non-phytoestrogens. I will only discuss phytoestrogens here, since they tend to relieve menopause related complaints, particularly hot flashes more effectively than non-phytoestrogens. So let me begin by explaining what phytoestrogens are. Phytoestrogen means literally "plant"-"estrogen". But before going any further with plant estrogens, lets look at human estrogen. Our human body manufactures three estrogens, three variations on a theme if you will. The molecules look very similar, with slight variations. However, these variations are significant enough to change the effects of each of these estrogens somewhat.

Plants too, make molecules that look like human estrogen, but which are not the same as what is made in the human body. Considering all of the different plants found in nature, it makes sense that plants would not all manufacture the same "plant estrogen" or phytoestrogen. And in fact that is the case. There are many different estrogen like molecules found in nature, created by many different plants. We call edible medicinal plants herbs. And so we look to different herbs as sources for these phytoestrogens which have beneficial or medicinal qualities with regard to menopause complaints.

These many different phytoestrogens, each being unique, have different effects in our human body. Generally speaking, phytoestrogens are much weaker than human estrogens in their estrogenic activity. One researcher has ventured that most phytoestrogens have about 1/1000th the estrogenic effect of human estrogens. Because each of these plant estrogens is unique, each can have its own unique side effects. But generally, not being as potent as human estrogen, the side effects are usually less as well.

Which herbs really work for relieving hot flashes and night sweats

Let's go directly to some of the research on the ability of specific herbs to reduce hot flashes. Isoflavones are found primarily in beans, including soy beans. They have weak estrogenic activity in humans. Women receiving 60 mg of isoflavones daily for 12 weeks saw their hot flushes reduced 57% and night sweats reduced 43%. Another study way was reported in the Maturitas: Journal of Climacteric and Postmenopause. The study investigated the benefits of soy for relief of hot flashes in a group of fifty-eight women with an average age of fifty-four. In six weeks the women reported a 40% reduction in all menopause related complaints, including hot flushes and night sweats.

Red clover is an herb that is commonly used by women seeking relief of hot flashes. While red clover has demonstrated benefit with regard to maintaining bone density, at least one study reported at the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine found no benefit for relief of hot flashes. In the study women complaining of hot flashes were given either hormone replacement therapy, red clover, black cohosh or a placebo. To participate the 89 women had to have reported thirty-five or more hot flashes and night sweats each week. Those receiving the hormone replacement therapy reported the greatest benefit, with 94% reduction of flushes and sweats. Surprisingly for the researchers, the next greatest benefit was shown by the placebo, with 63% reduction. This was followed by a 57% reduction in complaints for red clover, and trailing in last place was black cohosh which according to the women, reduced their hot flushes and sweats by just 34%.

These results were not very promising, since red clover and black cohosh are two of the most commonly used herbal products in the United States for relief of hot flushes and night sweats. Fortunately there is another contender which has been shown in separate research to significantly relieve hot flashes and night sweats. It is Siberian rhubarb root extract, which while only recently available in the United States, has been used by European women for some time. A study published in the journal Menopause compared the benefits of this rhubarb root extract with ultra-low dose hormone replacement therapy. Researchers found that this extract (called ERr 731 by the researchers) reduced hot flashes and night sweats in perimenopausal women by 72%. Better yet, Siberian rhubarb root extract was reported to relief virtually all menopause related complaints including insomnia, anxiety and irritability, vaginal dryness, aches and pains, urinary incontinence and more.