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Humidity and hot flushes
I am currently going through the menopause and experiencing quite bad hot sweats. We have made plans to travel in the Far East over Christmas and while I am looking forward to the holiday, I am not looking forward to more heat and humidity. Is there anything I can take with me or anything I can do to help?
Scottish scientists have recently joined forces with Bioforce, one of the country’s leading makers of herbal medicine to investigate how sage can help hot flushes- a symptom that 80% of all menopausal women in the West will suffer.
Sage has an antihidrotic (anti-sweating) action and the theory is that it prevents the release of a neurotransmitter which would otherwise trigger a flush reaction. Hot flushes, which can last up to five minutes, raise the body temperature by 3 degrees centigrade. The blood vessels dilate for rapid heat loss and after the flush, the temperature drops by 0.5 degrees C. These swings in body temperature have now been shown to coincide with the release of dopamine in the brain. You could take conventional drugs to counter this but according to the researchers, these usually have side-effects too, making sage a better option.
Italian research at the end of the 1980s showed how sage, combined with alfalfa could significantly reduce the number of hot flushes menopausal women were suffering. At the end of three months, those women given a supplement containing 120mg of sage and 60mg of alfalfa reported an 85% decrease in the number of flushes they were suffering. The reason scientists think it was the sage, not the alfalfa, that was responsible is that you would need much higher doses of the latter to have such a dramatic effect. Of course, it is possible the two herbs were working synergistically to enhance the effects of each other in the body - which is a question the Scottish scientists must now consider.
*For more information about herbal treatments for the menopause, read Menopause Naturally by the UK medical herbalist, Kitty Campion, who describes HRT as “the biggest medical bungle of the 20th century.” Published in paperback by Newleaf, it costs £8.99. Bioforce’s Sage herbal tincture costs £6.99 for 50ml. To get the right dosage, (the equivalent of 120mg a day) take 20 drops in water or juice, three times a day. For stockists, call 01294-277344.