Can acupuncture cut hot flushes by half?

Hot flushes are temporary but recurring feeling of warmth that spreads over the body which often begins in the head and neck region and can be very troublesome. Hot flushes often occur during sleep, producing perspiration known as night sweats. As a result, hot flushes can have a big impact on your quality of life.

Hot flushes are one of the most common symptoms women have when they go through the menopause. About 3 out of 4 women going through the menopause (75%) will have hot flushes.  If you’ve had one, there’s no mistaking it: the sudden, intense, hot feeling on your face and upper body, perhaps preceded or accompanied by a rapid heartbeat and sweating, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, headache, weakness, or a feeling of suffocation.

Researches recruited 209 women who experienced at least four hot flushes or night sweats every day.  All the patients received up to 20 acupuncture treatments within 6 months.  Nearly half the women saw a 47% reduction in hot flushes or night sweats, while almost 12% reported that their symptoms had stopped almost completely although 4% actually saw an increase in their problems.

What is interesting is that most of the women how saw their hot flushes and night sweats decrease started seeing improvements after three sessions.

Research

http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2016/Acupuncture_Reduces_Hot_Flashes_for_Half_of_Women,_Study_Finds.htm

 

Related Posts

  • So massage is safe for pregnant women, but is it effective?

    Last week we established that massage is safe for pregnant women.  A scientific review of studies of pregnancy in massage fond that pregnant women who received massage had

    • decreased depression
    • decreased anxiety
    • decreased leg and back pain
    In addition pregnant women who received massage had reduced
    • reduced cortisol levels
    • reduced excessive fetal activity
    • lower rate of prematurity (a baby being born before its 37 weeks old)
    For pregnant women who received massage during labour they
    • experienced less pain
    • required less medication
    • had shorter labours (on average 3 hours shorter)
    The study concluded massage is effective for pregnant women. Reference Field T. Pregnancy and labor massage. Expert review of obstetrics & gynecology. 2010;5(2):177-181. doi:10.1586/eog.10.12.

  • The Impact of Sitting All Day – Part 4

    In part 1, I looked at the impact of sitting on your muscles,  and in part 2 generally explored the impact  on the rest of your body.  In part 3 I focused on the impact of sitting on your circulatory system including your heart.  In this article I will explore the impact of sedentary behaviour (sitting) and the link to cancer.

    So how common is cancer? According to Cancer Research UK
    • Every two minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer.
    • 1 in 2 people in the UK born after 1960 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime.
    • Breast, lung, prostate and bowel cancers together account for over half of all new cancers each year.
    • Overall cancer incidence rates in Great Britain have increased by more than a third since the mid-1970s, with almost this entire rise occurring before the late 1990s.
    And here is the good news is more people survive cancer than die from it now.
    • 46% of men and 54% of women cancer patients diagnosed in 2010-2011 in England and Wales are predicted to survive 10 or more years.
    • Cancer survival in the UK has doubled in the last 40 years.
    The Link Between Cancer & Inactivity Last year in a meta-analysis, Daniela Schmid and Michael F. Leitzmann of the University of Regensburg in Germany analyzed 43 observational studies, amounting to more than 4 million people’s answers to questions about their sitting behavior and cancer incidences. The researchers examined close to 70,000 cancer cases and found that sitting is associated with a 24% increased risk of colon cancer, a 32% increased risk of endometrial cancer, and a 21% increased risk of lung cancer. D Schmid & MF Leitzmann, 2014, Sedentary behaviour insreases the risk of certain cancers, Journal of National Institute of Cancer, Volume 106, No 7. see http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/106/7/dju206.full The really bad news is that your can't exercise away the harmful effects, "Adjustment for physical activity did not affect the positive association between sedentary behavior and cancer" write Schmid & Leitzmann.  Even participants who achieved the daily recommended levels of physical activity were at the same risk as those who spent their day sitting. One theory as to why this is the case, is that regular movement boosts natural antioxidants that kill cell-damaging and potentially cancer-causing free radicals, another theory is that the excess insulin encourages cell growth. The pancreas produces insulin, a hormone that carries glucose to cells for energy.  But cells in idle muscles don't respond as readily to insulin, so the pancreas produces more and more. A 2011 study by Stephens et al found a decline in insulin response after just one day of prolonged sitting. Stephens et al, 2001, Effects of 1 day of inactivity on insulin action in healthy men and women: interaction with energy intake, Metabolism Volume 60, No 7 pages 941 - 949. see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002604951000315X  

  • Natural ways to reduce anxiety – Part 3

    What I want to share with you know is probably the simplest and easiest method of reducing anxiety, you can do it anywhere and it costs nothing.  Its called breathing.  Yes I know we do it all the time.  But when you get anxious we begin to breathe rapidly and shallowly from our upper chest.  This breathing breath from your upper chest is why you get tight neck muscles as they can get overused as they help to move the top rib we breathing. What I am talking about is breathing deeply or calm breathing.

    Calming Breath
    1. Take a long, slow breath in through your nose, first filling your lower lungs - put your hand on your belly and you should feel it move out as your breath in.  Then breath into your upper lungs.
    2. Hold your breath to the count of "three."
    3. Exhale slowly through pursed lips, while you relax the muscles in your face, jaw, shoulders, and stomach.
    Calm breathing you can stimulate the body's parasympathetic response. This is the body's equally powerful and opposite system to the flight or fight response and is often called the relaxation response.    When you trigger the body's relaxing response, your
    • heart rate slows
    • blood pressure decreases
    • muscle tension decreases
    • growing sense of ease in body, calmness in mind
    So you stop anxiety in its tracks!.  I recommend you practice this calm breathing for several times a day (up to 10 times) for several weeks until it becomes natural.