Search results for yoga and hot flashes

Newsflash: Yoga and hot flashes

Posted by Liz on Feb 3, 2014 in hot flash, yoga | 0 comments

When it comes to alternative strategies for managing hot flashes, where do you turn? I’ve been writing about alternatives for five years now and the only thing I am fairly certain of is that what works for one woman doesn’t necessarily work for the next. Consider the management of menopausal symptoms similar to the management of any condition: the best treatment is always individualized.

Still, mind-body practices tend to rise to fore and evidence continues to accumulate supporting their value and usefulness. This is especially true of meditation, and of yoga.

The latest news on yoga comes from the online edition of Menopause journal and researchers are saying that integral yoga practice may help to reduce hot flash frequency among some women.

Integral yoga integrates the various branches of yoga and focuses on a whole body approach with the goal of transforming the entire being. Experts say that it is especially well suited to hot flashes because it emphasizes stress reduction and decreasing the likelihood of becoming overheated.

To evaluate its usefulness in a more scientific setting, researchers asked a small group of women in perimenopause who reported at least four hot flashes a day to participate in 10 weekly, 90-minutes integral yoga classes comprising breathing, centering medication, physical postures and deep relaxation, or health and wellness classes on different topics relevant to menopause and midlife women’s health or no interventions at all. All had the option to join classes at any time, and were required to fill out diaries about their flashes.

The findings? The researchers say that even after controlling for a potential placebo effect, both the yoga and health and wellness groups tended to follow a similar pattern and a similar significant decline in hot flash frequency. Women in these groups reported an estimated 66% (yoga) and 63% (health/wellness) decrease in the frequency of their hot flashes. And, while the effectiveness of yoga to lower hot flash frequency was not considerably different than that of the health/wellness education classes, the inclusion of the two behavioral interventions may perhaps capture naysayers’ attention; most studies only include on behavioral intervention and having two helps to temper bias.

We need more studies like this one to tease out the benefits of behavioral interventions. The good news is that the information is there for those who look deeply enough.

Life quality and yoga

Posted by Liz on Mar 3, 2014 in yoga | 0 comments

Perimenopausal? Menopausal? Are you having difficult sleeping, mood swings, lack of focus and diminished energy? How’s your sexual functioning?

Take one look at that list of woes and it’s no wonder that women sometime want to tear their hair out during menopause. However, there is evidence that attenuating symptoms can help improve quality of life and that certain interventions, including exercise, yoga and/or omega-3 supplements can help.

Medical experts continue to question the value of these interventions during the ‘pause, citing a lack of scientific evidence and conflicting study results. Some even go so far to refer to strategies other than hormone replacement or some other pharmaceutical intervention as ‘snake oil.’ Yet, data continue to evolve that thinking outside the HRT box may help some women and it is for this reason that I wanted to share some newly-published study findings with you.

This latest MsFLASH  (Menopausal Strategies: Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health) study examined 338 women who were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of studio and in home yoga, tri-weekly 40 t0 60 minutes moderate-level cardiovascular training sessions  or usual activity. The women were also given and asked to take a daily omega-3 or placebo capsule. Consequently, they were asked to score factors that impact quality of life during menopause, things like vasomotor symptoms, physical functioning, pyschosocial impact and sexual functioning.

The results?

Women who practiced yoga appeared to achieve small but still greater improvements in their overall quality of life (on the basis of the factor scores mentioned above) versus the other inventions. Moreover, it appeared that yoga reduced the extent to which women found their hot flashes bothersome or interfering with daily functioning. Apparently, neither exercise or omega-3s impacted these measures.

The reason for this potential improvement has to do with yoga’s theoretical impact on how balanced the sympathetic nervous system remains in the face of midlife stress and hormonal imbalances. Yoga may help maintain balance and how well or positively we perceive the world around us.

Despite the small, incremental benefit provided by yoga versus exercise or omega-3 supplementation alone, it’s important to emphasize that very few studies have focused on quality of life specifically as it relates to yoga. And, while previous studies have shown benefit, getting women to ‘go the distance’ during these studies has proven difficult.

Mind you, by no means do these study findings suggest that you should give up exercise or omega-3s and switch to yoga. Both of the former strategies have their own benefits. But you may want to consider your quality of life and actions to improve it during menopause and beyond. Yoga practice may be an important part of the puzzle.

MsFLASH and omega-3s

Posted by Liz on Sep 16, 2013 in herbal medicine, hot flash | 0 comments

In early August, I posted two pieces about MsFLASH –Menopause Strategies: Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health — a network of studies evaluating potentially promising treatments for common menopausal symptoms. Started by the National Institutes of Health, MsFLASH comprises five research centers in Boston, Oakland, Philadelphia, Seattle and Indianapolis who are exploring various interventions for hot flashes, night sweats, mood disorders and sexual issues.

One of these trials set out to evaluate the role of omega-3 fatty acids in menopause, more specifically, whether or not omega-3s would be useful for alleviating hot flashes in women who prefer alternative strategies. Although the benefits of omega-3s are widespread, researchers have not been able to prove that they work against hot flashes. Consequently, over three months, 346 women took either three omega-3 capsules or placebo daily in addition to yoga, aerobics or usual activity. The women reported having roughly 8 hot flashes a day at the start of the study.

Unfortunately, the verdict is still out. Taking omega-3s appeared to have little effect on hot flash frequency or bother; declines in both measures were similar among women whether they were taking the fish oil or placebo (an average 35% decline in both groups and in both variables). What’s more, taking daily fish oil supplements didn’t appear to help sleep or mood. Personally, I find the lack of effect on mood surprising since there are data showing a benefit on depression, especially when it comes to DHA. However, even the researchers acknowledge that the lack of effect here might be due to the degree of depressive or anxiety symptoms that the women in this study experienced.

Regardless, if you are taking fish oils and have seen an improvement in symptoms, I would love to hear from you. Do they help? The search for the magic bullet for hot flashes continues but in the meantime, the more we share, the more we collectively know.

Newsflash: Ethnic, flashing and menstruating. Three’s a charm?

Posted by Liz on Aug 26, 2013 in hot flash, nightsweats | 0 comments

Sounds too awful to be true. However, a study of an ethnically diverse group of women has shown that having regular periods, which, theoretically indicates that hormone levels are more on par than their menopausal sisters, may not be all that they are cracked up to be. In fact, among approximately 1,500 women (mean age 48.5), 54% reported having had either hot flashes (~33%) or night sweats (~46%) at some point and recently, anywhere from 17% (hot flashes) to 26% (night sweats). Moreover, it appeared that Black and Native American women were most vulnerable, while Asian women were the least. The numbers among white women were only slightly lower than their Native and Black peers.

What’s so interesting about these data is that typically, obesity has been associated with a self-reported increase in vasomotor symptoms among menopausal women. However, in this group of women, the researchers deliberately adjusted their findings for BMI and age, and they did not find that association. In fact, when they looked at Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women, who had, on average, the highest BMI of all the ethnic groups studies, only 45% reported ever having a hot flash or night sweat, compared to 58% of white women (who had some of the lowest BMIs amongst the group).

Why it matters…

Many women operate under the assumption that it won’t happen to them. Cancer won’t happen. Losing a spouse won’t happen. Having a hot flash or night sweat while still menstruating won’t happen. I refer to that as the ‘teenage mindset,’ since we all know that teenagers are among the most prone to the ‘won’t happen to me’ syndrome. And yet, the data suggest otherwise; even before menopause starts, a hot flash can occur. And it can be bothersome; of the entire group of women who said that they had had some sort of vasomotor event in the prior two weeks, anywhere from 38% (Asian women) to 80% (Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Native Americans) said it was at least moderately bothersome. White and Black women fell in the middle.

I cannot emphasize it enough; early action is the best action. Don’t wait until you are in the throes of menopause; start now to boost your preventive strategies, whether they entail isoflavones, hypnosis, yoga or acupuncture. I am all for curtailing the worst wherever possible; shouldn’t you be?!

Fit to be tied: MsFLASH and exercise

Posted by Liz on Aug 9, 2013 in physical fitness | 0 comments

Exercise. Does it or doesn’t it? That is, does exercise improve menopausal symptoms? Some studies have shown that it does; and others, like the one I am about to share, shows that it does not.

I am fit to be tied, literally.

Not angry or annoyed but rather, regardless if exercise can improve vasomotor symptoms or not, there is absolutely no doubt that it helps maintain weight, improves overall wellbeing, promotes healthy bones, and may even result in better sleep in midlife. On Wednesday’s post, I shared information about a series of studies called MsFLASH, studies geared towards identifying strategies to alleviate menopausal symptoms and overall health. Today, I ran across one of these trials, published online in Menopause, the goal of which was to clarify the impact of three times weekly aerobic training in women who were in late perimenopause or full menopause reporting frequent and bothersome hot flashes and night sweats.

Exercise/aerobic training can mean a lot 0f things. This time, women who were randomized to 12 weeks of exercise participated in trainer supervised conditioning comprising a treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike for 40 t0 60 minutes each session, with the goal of reaching up to 60% of target heart rate for the first month and up to 70% thereafter (this, along with workload and perceived exertion was measured throughout each session). Likewise, the women had energy expenditure goals relative to their body weight. The other group of women were asked to maintain their usual activity levels but at the end of the study, were offered a one month gym membership or yoga sessions.

While the verdict wasn’t so great for reduction of the frequency and bother of daily hot flashes (both study groups reported declines in hot flash frequency by roughly 2.5% and bother only changed minimally), adhering to training sessions appeared to favourably move the needle for sleep quality and quantity and yielded small improvements in depressive symptoms. Another interesting finding was that race appeared to play a role. Data have shown that African American women actually experience more severe hot flashes than their white peers. And, in this study, while exercise had some impact, albeit minimal, on hot flashes and night sweats, this impact was only seen among white women.

Still unanswered are whether or not small bouts of exercise can positively impact vasomotor symptoms or if individual differences (such as the one that race provides) also play a role. While these questions are being pondered, I’ll leave you where I started: exercise and menopause? Fit to be tied. Don’t give up the activity; it may not help your flashes but it yield a whole lot of benefits beyond cooling the heat that ails.