A placebo-controlled study on hot flashes using hesperidin with extra vitamin C found that hot flashes were eliminated in 53 percent of women participants and were reduced in 34 percent of them. My patients take 500 mg morning and night. You need that much to reduce hot flashes. The amount found in bioflavonoid formulas is simply not enough.
Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) Many women with hot flashes have successfully used products containing black cohosh root (Cimicifugae racemosae) to cool them down. You may have decided not to take this herb because of its reputed estrogenic effect. If you have had estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, or are at high risk for breast cancer, you may be leery of taking anything that increases estrogen. An estrogenic effect can also increase your risk of endometrial and ovarian cancers. However, it appears that black cohosh doesn’t affect estrogen levels in any negative way.
Remifemin® is a popular menopause supplement made from standardized amounts of black cohosh. But it wasn’t the first black cohosh supplement used for menopausal symptoms. Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, developed in 1875 for "female complaints" contained black cohosh, among other herbs. This herb appears to reduce hot flashes by suppressing the secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH). Black cohosh alone works well for many women, but if it doesn’t, there are other single nutrients you can try, or a combination formula to see what works best for you.
Red Clover Isoflavones. The most effective isoflavone supplement I've found is a product from Australia called Promensil® made from red clover. This supplement was shown in a study to reduce hot flashes by 56 percent. However, the study also pointed out that women who took the placebo had a 40 percent reduction in their symptoms. Personally, I prefer supplements containing the whole plant with all of its co-factors, rather than a portion of it, such as either soy or red clover isoflavones. But the makers of Promensil have studies to back up the product, so it's worth a try.
Sage (Salvia officinalis) is a simple plant that’s been overshadowed by more highly processed hot-flash formulas. It has been used since ancient times to stop hot flashes because it works so well. Many herbalists know sage as the Hot Flush Herb for its ability to reduce all kinds of excessive perspiration.
Sage has long been licensed in Germany as a tea to treat night sweats and is used extensively in England for this purpose. Almost all of the health practitioners surveyed in England found that sage tea or sage tincture helped hot flashes and night sweats. One Scottish survey showed that women taking sage had 85 percent fewer hot flashes after three months.
You can drink a few cups of the tea a day or take the herb as a supplement.
Steep a teabag of sage tea — or one teaspoon of the dried herb — for five to 10 minutes. Drink three cups a day in between meals and increase this amount if you like to four or five per day. You may need less. Herbalist Susun Weed found that just one serving can cool down some women within two hours and last for a day or more. Some herbalists find that sage works best to cool down hot flashes when it's served cool or cold. Experiment to see whether a few cups of warm or cold sage tea work best for you.
If you'd rather take a supplement, sage is included in Women’s Preferred Hot Flash Formula, a formula I developed many years ago. This supplement also contains hesperidin. An Italian study gave 30 women with hot flashes, insomnia, night sweats, headaches, and palpitations an extract of sage and alfalfa. Hot flashes and night sweats disappeared in 20 of them, and the other 10 had a reduction of their symptoms. This study used 120 mg of sage a day, the same amount found in the Hot Flash Formula. You can order this product from my website, www.womenshealthletter.com, or call 800 728-2288.