She’s hot. She’s cool…

Posted by Liz on Feb 1, 2010 in herbal medicine, hot flash | 0 comments

St. John’s Wort can cool down those hot flashes?! Yes, you may want to pay attention as a new study appearing in the February issue of Menopause, may help to cool those hot flashes.

If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you may recall that I wrote previously about St. John’s Wort and its potential role for improving quality of life, sleep disturbances and hot flashes. The latest bit of information suggests that daily use of St. John’s Wort extract among menopausal women resulted in significant declines in the number of daily hot flashes by as much as 50% through eight weeks of treatment compared to women taking only placebo. Daily St. John’s Wort also reduced both the length of time that flashes lasted as well as their severity. At the start of the study, women were experiencing moderate to severe hot flashes at least once daily. Importantly, women taking placebo also experienced declines in hot flash frequency, although not to the same extent as those taking St. John’s Wort.

What you should know…

St. John’s Wort, while generally considered safe, should be used cautiously. As I wrote last year, experts recommend against taking St. John’s Wort at the same time as alcohol, narcotics, amphetamines, tyrosine supplements, flu medicines and foods containing tyramine (e.g. yeast, aged cheese, eggplant, soy sauce). St. John’s Wort can also interact with prescription antidepressants, oral contraceptives and certain medications that thin the blood. More information about St. John’s Wort, its side effects and risks can be found here.

As with any herbal preparation, it’s critical to speak to a healthcare practitioner before embarking on therapy.

For more information on this study, as well as some comments by the researchers, check out Reuters Health’s coverage of the same study.