What are the psychological causes?

In general, stress by activating the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic nervous system or “fight or flight” system) can lead to hot flashes. These can then be assigned to specific situations with a detailed anamnesis and detect a psychological cause for the hot flushes. Stress can generally be perceived as negative or positive.

Situations that are perceived as positive can also trigger a feeling of heat through the so-called Eu-stress (sexual arousal, falling in love). Rarely a hot flash can also occur as a hallucinatory sensation, e.g. during a delusional experience. The psychological causes also include the disease of the withdrawal syndrome. Here, hot flushes occur together with other withdrawal-specific symptoms.

The diagnosis

If the age, sex and other circumstances are appropriate for menopause, people with hot flashes usually do not need to worry. An appointment with a gynaecologist is only advisable if the symptoms are unusually severe or if they require further information and/or medical support.If menopause can be ruled out as the most common cause due to age (too young to old), sex (male) or other reasons, a doctor’s appointment should always be arranged. The attending physician will first conduct a detailed interview, check the blood count and determine the concentration of various hormones in the blood, and then possibly take further diagnostic steps to rule out a serious disease.

The Therapy

The therapy of hot flushes consists primarily of becoming aware of and changing one’s lifestyle: alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, hot spices as well as overheated rooms and excessively warm clothing can both intensify and trigger hot flushes and should be avoided if possible. The effect of plant extracts, so-called Phytotherapeutika, against hot flushes is scientifically not proven, nevertheless there are some patients and/or female patients the very good results with vegetable preparations obtained. Red clover, lady’s mantle or Cimicifuga (grape silver candle) are said to contain many so-called phytoestrogens.

These are natural substances that are very similar to the female sex hormone estrogen and can slightly replace it in case of estrogen deficiency. If herbal preparations or a change in lifestyle do not help sufficiently and if the suffering of the affected person is high, synthetic estrogen therapy is a possibility. However, this should be used with caution, as it can cause serious side effects in some cases.

Intensive consultation and advice from a gynecologist is essential before starting such a therapy. Similar to the above-mentioned plant extracts, no scientific efficacy can be confirmed for homeopathic medicines. In some cases, however, the medicines used in homeopathy contain almost identical active ingredients as proven phytotherapeutic agents and achieve similarly good treatment results.

Grape silver candle is also used in classical homeopathy for hot flashes. In this case as Cimifuga racemosa with the potency D12. In each case 3 globules are taken as needed.

Also Acidum Formicicum (formic acid, D4-D12, 5 globules/2x daily), Trogoncephalus Lachesis (bushman snake secretion, D12, 3 globules/3x daily) or for example Sanguinaria (Canadian blood root, D12, 3 globules as needed) can be used. The homeopathic remedy of choice for hot flashes during menopause is cimicifuga rootstock, better known as lady’s mantle. It has an estrogen-like effect and thus acts via a substitution (i.e. like a replacement hormone).

In addition to being administered as globules, it can also be taken as tea or ground powder. In higher doses it is also available in tablet form. The herbal remedies red clover and grape silver candle have a similar effect.

Depending on the other cause of the hot flushes, organ-specific homeopathic therapy should be sought. With the second most frequent cause of hot flushes, hyperthyroidism, the sole treatment with homeopathy is life-threatening. It can only be used supportively.

Arsenicum album and iodatum can be considered here, followed by potassium nitricum or phosphoricum. For the other causes of hot flushes it is difficult to give general homeopathic recommendations. These should be tailored to the entire complexity of the individual patient and his or her complaints by a naturopath. Since all herbal remedies are not recommended according to evidence-based medicine, but rather according to empirical medicine, it is important to discuss the use of herbal remedies with your family doctor, as otherwise there may be life-threatening interactions with other medicines.