What Causes Night Sweats And How Can They Be Treated?

Hot Flashes And Night Sweats —

Uncomfortable, Unpredictable — And Unnecessary

Hot flashes — a defining symptom of menopause — can seriously interrupt your life. A hot flash can occur without warning, creating unpleasant episodes especially if your face flushes, or if you routinely perspire through your clothes. As night sweats, they can wake you from a sound sleep, with your pajamas and sheets soaked through. When you have a hot flash, the temperature regulating area within your brain — in the hypothalamus — is deceived into trying to get rid of extra body heat. The hypothalamus sends cool-down signals telling your blood vessels to dilate, your heart rate to increase, and your sweat glands to open up wide.

The result is a sudden, intense rush of heat, often accompanied by drenching perspiration, dizziness, and even heart palpitations. You may also feel nauseated or weak, and have a crawling sensation on your skin.

Hot Flashes Are Indicators That Something Bigger Is Going On

When your body is trying to deal with a lot of demands the ability to balance hormones is overpowered. This resulting hormonal imbalance can send false messages to your hypothalamus. Often the first symptoms women notice as they approach the midlife transition in perimenopause is night sweats and hot flashes.   For a lot of women, hot flashes and night sweats continue right through menopause.

Some factors that can contribute to hot flashes:

• High levels of anxiety
• Some types of foods like alcohol, sugar, hot spices, and caffeine are known to bring on hot flashes in some women.
• Women with hot flashes and night sweats often report related symptoms of hormonal imbalance, such as insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, and headaches.

What Are Night Sweats?

Night sweats are a common symptom of menopause, they are similar to hot flashes except, that a night sweat occurs in your sleep and causes more sweating than a normal hot flash. When you wake up you often feel either too hot or too cold.

Night sweats, are known by the medical community as sleep hyperhidrosis, profuse sweating occurs due to an increase in body temperature. The temperature increase is not related to the external environment. Night sweats are often more severe than hot flashes – causing the sufferer’s bed sheets and clothing to become soaked with sweat. The cause of night sweats is an impairment of the body’s sympathetic nervous system and its temporary failure to effectively regulate internal temperatures. When you wake up you may feel too hot or too cold. the discomfort of sleeping in wet clothing and sheets and the general necessity to change both can greatly disrupt your sleep cycle. Night sweats may be related to a number of adverse health conditions such as hormone imbalances, chronic illness, certain medications,  or age-related conditions, such as andropause and menopause.

What Causes Night Sweats In Women?

One of the most recognizable symptoms of menopause and hormone imbalance is night sweats.

Much like hot flashes, low estrogen and its effect on the hypothalamus is often specifically what causes night sweats in women. The part of the brain that controls appetite, body temperature, sleep, and sex hormone is called the hypothalamus. Reduced natural estrogen levels fool the hypothalamus into believing that the body is too hot. Subsequently, a night sweat occurs in an effort to rid the body of this fictional excess heat.

The Solution

There is a fast and easy resolution to unpleasant and irritating night sweats in women. Natural hormone replacement therapy is an idyllic solution that ends the problem at its origin; not just disguising the issue. Bioidentical hormone therapy begins by measuring the existing levels of your hormones using a comprehensive blood and medical history. After receiving the test results, you are prescribed with the individualized solutions to get your body in equilibrium, this includes a suggested nutrition, supplement and fitness plan that help sustain hormone stability. Once your hormones are balanced and back to normal and the causes of night sweats are removed, the perimenopause and menopause symptoms, not only the night sweats, will stop.