9 hot tips to beat hot flushes
How to help menopause hot flushes?
This is probably one of the greatest challenges when you journey into perimenopause and sudden sweating during the day and night starts taking you unawares.
Hot Flushes can at times be stressful and disorientating, often disconcerting! Some of us may need to plan ahead for dealing with unexpected hot flushes.
9 simple things you can do to relieve hot flushes
Refreshing spritz
Spritz your face and neck with a homemade cooling water spray with added refreshing cucumber and mint. Recycle a small travel bottle. Keep your hot flush spritzer in the fridge for extra coolness.
Iced water feels so good
Keep iced water to hand. Half fill a bottle with water and rest it, on its side, in the freezer overnight. When frozen, top up with water. The water should now stay cool for a few hours and provide welcome, cooling relief when you feel a hot flush descending. Keeping the bottle in the fridge will mean you can call on its restorative, cooling properties for longer!
Roll your tongue!
If you’re one of the people who can roll their tongue, roll it upwards, making a tube shape. Slowly breathe in and out through this tube. Your mouth will feel cooler, and this discrete little trick will have the effect of making you feel a little cooler.
Use visualisation
Use visualisation: think of something that will make you feel cooler, for example, a walk on a windy beach, getting caught in the rain or being naked in an igloo. Imagine the textures, sounds and cooling effect that this imagined scene would have on your body. Alternatively, imagine your body has a temperature control and as the hot flush kicks in, the thermostat shoots up, you know it’ll peak. Then imagine the thermostat going down, like the mercury in a thermometer.
...And breath
Take a time-out when you feel a hot flush coming on. Use controlled breathing to take control of the situation. This practical approach has helped us:
Breath in slowly and deeply for a count of 4, pushing your tummy out, as you breathe in
Hold this breath for a count of 4.
Breathe out for a count of 8, pulling your stomach in, as you exhale*. Essentially the breathing out should take twice as long as the breathing in.
Repeat for up to 5 minutes (or for as long as it takes for you to feel the hot flush reducing).
*Instinctively, we pull our stomachs in when we breathe, but with controlled breathing, you do the opposite. Takes a little getting used to if you haven’t done it before but persevere.
Love your cold-water tap
The cold-water tap is your friend. Put your wrists under a running tap or plunge your hands and wrists into a sink filled with cold water. Try doing this alongside controlled breathing for an even cooler effect.
Plan to fan
Wherever possible plan to have access to an electric fan, a USB plug in fan, put your face in front of it when you feel the heat rising! It works for us.
Be on trend with a folding fan
Use a Spanish folding fan, available from Amazon and other retailers, for as little as £1. Fanning is a universal method of cooling. Some say that it makes you hotter as you use more energy fanning yourself, but the consensus is that those Spanish senoras carry them for a good reason, fanning a sweaty forehead will cool you down. We say, just fan!
Emergency first aid for a hot flush
Carry a small hot flush ‘Survival Kit’ bag to deal with the inconveniences of your menopause mayhem.