Japanese Cure for Hot Flashes

Heard about this on the local TV news and it sounds very promising:

Help for hot flashes
Study investigates ancient Japanese herbal remedy

Herbs--Japanese hot flash remedy
Japanese women have been using an herbal remedy, keishi bukuryo gan, above, for nearly 2,000 years to treat hot flashes. University researchers are testing its effectiveness in American women.

Call them power surges or "your inner child playing with matches," menopausal hot flashes can be debilitating, or at best, a nuisance. Conventional medicine often prescribes hormone therapy to help women cope, but it puts them at risk for cancer, heart disease, dementia, and blood clots.

When Greg Plotnikoff, associate professor of medicine at the University's Center for Spirituality and Healing, was a visiting professor at Keio University in Tokyo, he learned that for the past nearly 2,000 years Japanese women have been controlling their hot flashes with keishi bukuryo gan--a concoction of four herbs, along with a kind of mushroom, drunk as a tea.

Keishi bukuryo gan is an approved and tightly regulated prescription medication in Japan and covered under the national health plan. Unlike hormone replacement therapy, the Japanese medication seems to have few side effects.

Plotnikoff is the lead researcher on a double-blind FDA-approved study to see how keishi bukuryo gan can work in American women.

More at link:

http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/Help_for_hot_flashes.html




Cher

I know that it doesn't help all women, but my sisters and I have no trouble from hot flashes when we take Black Cohosh capsules.
Some studies show that they don't help, but as soon as we stop taking them we start getting flashes again..... take the herb once more and within a few days they are gone again.

:shrug:

I'm very happy with its effect in the past couple of years!

DemEx

I read how black cohosh works and that made me think favorably of it but since that time, I've wondered. I can't put my fingers right on it at the moment but there was a study that said that if a woman did get cancer and was taking black cohosh, the cancer spread five times more rapidly. The study was very limited and they stressed it was initial finding. I tried to find it this a.m. for you but I'm running out of time. Here are a few links that might be of interest, though:

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/BlackCohosh.asp

and

http://www.breastcancer.org/bey_cope_meno_hotFlash.html




Cher

http://www.breastcancer.org/research_alternative_cohosh.html
Conclusion: These results suggest that black cohosh supplements might not affect your risk of developing breast cancer. But if breast cancer does develop, black cohosh may make it more aggressive and likely to spread to other organs or tissues.

Remember that this is an early small study, done on mice. It's very hard to take information from animal studies and apply it to people. Still, based on these conclusions, researchers may consider it potentially unsafe for women with breast cancer to even try black cohosh.

DemEx

I was getting upwards of 30 hot flashes a day and all through the night too. I tried every herbal remedy possible. The only one that helped even a bit was an obscure recipe for Sage tea. It tasted somewhat like old shoe leather but I drank gallons of it.

I couldn't function from lack of sleep. I lost my job, not entirely due to my health issues, but I'm sure it contributed to the decision. I refused the mare's pee but I found a doctor who knew how to prescribe bio-identical hormones that are synthesized from plants to be exactly like human hormones and I'm feeling human again. I have an occasional flash in the morning and I can live with that.

Bio-identicals aren't usually prescribed because being made out of plants, big pharmas can't patent them and make their obscene profits. Therefore most doctors aren't aware of them because they are educated on medications through the pharma's propaganda.

NPR reported on bio-identical hormones and compounding pharmacies the other day. The report was very interesting and raised my awareness of what these types of pharmacies do. One was built in a shopping area near me about three years ago and I never really understood what they did.

Here's the link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5024417

While the headline to this article says it expresses concerns, the story seemed to me to be more about how people need pharmaceuticals that are tailored to their body's requirements.

Demexpat, that's the report I was talking about. Glad you could find it.

Arikara, congratulations on finding relief.

You know what really works great? Fans! Yeah, fans stationed all over the place: at the computer, beside the bed, etc. They provide instant relief.




Cher

because shortly after the hot flash was over I would become freezing cold. I was constantly stripping layers off, fanning and spritzing with a water bottle then piling the layers back on.

I have read about these bio-identical hormones in several good books on Women's health.

Black Cohosh really works like a magic pill for us, although, mind you, we had to take it for a good while before we felt relief. (a month or two)

I only use it a couple of times a week anymore, so will phase it out completely this year.

DemEx

I guess it had a chance to work if it was going to. I kept taking it because I figured what if it was helping after all... then if I stopped and things got worse than they were. I had reached the limits of my endurance and couldn't have handled any worse. I tried soy too.

The good thing with this bio-identical estrogen is that I can even regulate it myself. I've gone for nearly an entire month without having to take it at all, and often I get by with only half the daily dose.

4 oz. daily of chocolate soy milk. Mmm.

but I noticed little from it myself.

DemEx

I'm way past that stage of menopause. I drink Chocolate Silk because I like it. :)

I found a site that sells the compound mentioned in my original post and I ordered it. Most of the sites I looked at required an order through a "health professional." That could be as simple as having your pharmacist obtain it. In situations like that, I have a girlfriend who is a pharmacist order for me.

I also am curious what the herbs and mushrooms are....:-)

:hi:

DemEx

Cinnamon Bark (Cinnamomi Cortex) 1000 mg
Peach Kernel (Persicae Semen) 1000 mg
Hoelen (Hoelen) 1000 mg
Peony Root (Paeoniae Radix) 1000 mg
Moutan Bark (Moutan Cortex) 1000 mg

I'm going to research these when I have more time. Will post back.




Cher

I've been taking Evening Primrose Oil supplements for a while now to help with these sorts of symptoms.

It seems to have helped. I'm not waking up with night sweats as much as I used to.

Ah, the joys of womanhood......

:hi:
Shine

This stuff works.

And unlike many herbal concoctions, it started working right away. Within four days I noticed a distinct difference.

One is supposed to take three pills three times a day. For awhile, I noticed there was no room for error. If I missed taking the pills, even if only for a short time, the flashes would return. But if I took the pills, no problem.

I just ordered 9 bottles. I could only find one place on the 'Net where I could order this without a "health provider" doing it for me. I have a friend who is a pharmacist and she usually handles items of this nature for me. With this supplier, though, I could just order for myself and not have to bother my friend.

Anyone who wants the link, just PM me.




Cher

I've only had hot flashes once in my life. I had some spiritual reconnection work done that was supposed to be profound. For a week or two after it, I had intense hot flashes. I've never had them before or since.

(I'm going to bookmark this for possible future use. :))

Dang!

It was before I could provide the link that was requested. If I didn't get back to you, write again!

Sorry about that.




Cher