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What causes a hot flush?

One of the most common symptoms of the menopause, hot flushes are not caused by a lack of oestrogen, but by a sudden drop in oestrogen level. This is why flushes usually stop once the level of oestrogen stabilises.

This can not only become a problem during the day, especially if you are working, but can cause sleep problems at night with constant waking up because of flushes of heat.

Where do you get the flushes?

women can have hot flushes on the neck and face, upper arms, torso or the entire body. hot flushes may last a few seconds or a few minutes and they can be strong or mild.

Increased blood flow to the area raises the skin temperature and this creates a flush - red, blotchy skin. Sweating is the body's way of trying to cool down.

Here are some very useful tips:

What you wear
Wear layers so you can manage your temperature.
Wear natural fabrics that breathe.
Carry spare layers with you.
Carry a packet of moist tissues to freshen up after a flush.

relaxation

Stress is known to be a potent trigger for a hot flush, so find ways to relax as much as possible.

Try to relax when youre actually having a flush this will help. Take deep breaths and feel your face and shoulders relax.

Yoga, meditation, reiki, tai chi whatever helps you to relax.

Listening to relaxation music can have a profound affect, especially if it has been written especially for this purpose, see end of the article for website details.

Menopausal stress can be improved dramatically by balancing blood sugar levels, allowing the body to circulate the hormones more efficiently. Refined foods such as chocolates and biscuits quickly release their sugar into the blood, so avoid eating too many (this is repeated in the foods to avoid section).

Exercise

Exercise is good. While short bursts of exercise can trigger a hot flush, regular exercise will help to reduce the overall number of attacks.

Walking, swimming, taking exercise classes whichever is your choice, no matter how tired you are feeling, a bit of exercise will most certainly help.

Drink small quantities of water whenever you feel a flush coming on.

Stress also is known to be a potent trigger, so find ways to relax as much as possible.

Foods to reduce hot flushes

The two main dietary sources of help with symptoms such as hot flushes are soya foods and linseeds (also called flaxseeds). The optimum intake to reduce hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms, is around a 100gram serving of tofu, soya yoghurt or a large glass of soya milk at least five times a week. A tablespoon of ground linseeds sprinkled onto cereal or into yoghurt daily can be effective after about six weeks.

Make sure you also eat wholegrains such as rye bread or crackers, porridge oats and wholemeal bread.

Oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, tuna and salmon are also beneficial.

Fibre is another important element. It is present in fresh fruit and vegetables.

Foods to avoid

Red meat dramatically reduces the amount of oestrogen produced, causing hot flushes and can increase the risk of osteoporosis by causing calcium loss.

Refined foods such as chocolates and biscuits quickly release sugar into the blood, so best to avoid too many! Menopausal stress can be improved dramatically by balancing blood sugar levels, allowing the body to circulate the hormones more efficiently.

Moderation

Remember though that there is nothing wrong with having a relaxing meal with a friend that involves wine, coffee or spicy foods. The key is moderation.

Eating little and often

Its important to eat little and often as blood sugar levels can drop if there are long waits between meals, causing hot flushes.

Carrying nuts, seeds or dried fruits can help make sure you dont get caught hungry.

The importance of water

I would recommend reading Your Bodys Many Cries for Water by Dr. F. Batmanghelidj. He explains how dehydration is so common nowadays and how drinking more water can help in so many ways.

Drinking two litres of water a day is definitely beneficial to your general health. During the menopause, with constant fluid loss from hot flushes and night sweats, it is very important to make sure you are replenishing your system.

I would recommend starting to drink a small amount of water as soon as you feel a hot flush starting, this will help reduce the flush.

Remember also that tea and coffee are diuretics and flush nutrients out of the body, so if you do drink these beverages then remember to always replenish your system with more water.

Vitamins Vitamin C will help with hot flushes and also helps to build up collagen, which is what gives your skin elasticity.

Vitamin E has been studied for many years for its ability to help reduce hot flushes. It is also beneficial for vaginal dryness and is a protective antioxidant that keeps skin healthy and supple.

The B Vitamins are renowned for their ability to relieve stress and support the adrenals. B vitamins also help to alleviate symptoms of anxiety, low energy levels and poor concentration that are often associated with the menopause.

Herbs

European, Asian and Native American herbal traditions have a long history of easing menopausal symptoms. Take 5-10 drops in water twice a day.

Sage is a good herbal remedy for easing night sweats and hot flushes.

Don Quai has proved to be most effective for relieving symptoms of the menopause, in particular hot flushes as well as vaginal dryness.

Black Cohosh is a popular Native American herb that is very effective for restoring hormone balance. Agnus Castus is a great hormone balancer. It works best taken first thing in the morning, every morning. It stimulates the pituitary gland which is in charge of producing and setting hormone levels.

Homeopathic remedies

Hormonal imbalances respond very well to homeopathic treatment.

A remedy or remedies will be chosen by your homeopath from a variety of natural sources. Pulsatilla, Sepia, Sulpher or Lachesis are a few of the many effective remedies.

The choice of remedy is highly individual and requires expert help, so it's not advisable to try and choose your own remedies in a shop, for your menopausal problems. I have experienced quite a few women trying out various remedies from the chemist and ending up getting very confused.

Testimonials

When I was first in touch with Daphne I was a mess. I felt continually tired, had lank greasy hair and my energy was at rock bottom. My GP had prescribed HRT but it didnt agree with me at all. Within a few months of seeing Daphne my life had turned around. A big plus for me was that I had suffered from urinary incontinence for years and her homeopathic medicine completely stopped that, as well as fixing my menopausal symptoms. B.W.

"I came to see Daphne after starting my menopause. At the time I was having a lot of problems and the advice and remedies that I was given helped me enormously. It was a great relief to have someone with whom I could talk things over". J.R.

"I had tried everything, from HRT to various herbs and potions from my local health shop and nothing helped. I found Daphne's website and e-mailed her my menopausal symptoms. We have spoken on the phone several times and although I have never met Daphne I feel that we are friends. She is a very good listener and helped to calm my fears and anxieties and the homeopathic remedies she sent certainly made a big difference. I would heartily recommend her services". C.H.

Daphne Nancholas, who is based in Cornwall, has 11 years experience in helping women through the Menopause via telephone and e-mail.

Her website: http://www.menopausesupport.co.uk offers a Menopause E book What Every Woman Needs to Know, testimonials and lots of helpful information. She and her partner Graham Smith have produced a relaxation CD to help with stress. You can hear sound samples and purchase a CD or downloads at: http://www.calmtime.co.uk

// posted by 91850 @ 6:17 PM 0 comments

Find out the nitty gritty on prepaid cell phones and 911 service. Find out what prepaid cell phone companies are required to do and why.

Everybody is familiar with 9-1-1 service, which allows you to easily contact emergency services from your home phone. But what about your cell? Emergencies can happen when you're away from home. And even while you're at home, more households are moving towards a single-line solution, replacing their landline phones with mobile.

The FCC requires all cellular carriers to put through all 9-1-1 calls, even when the phone does not have an active service contract. Individuals who have medical conditions may do well to carry an emergency cell phone, even if they do not use a cell phone on a regular basis. It is also an ideal solution for the elderly, who may be at risk while out and about. Keeping an emergency cell phone in the car's glove compartment, along with a portable charger, can help avert a disaster in case of a breakdown or accident in a remote area.

The so-called E911 (enhanced 911) service, mandated by the FCC, also requires carriers to implement a system that tells emergency dispatchers the location of the caller. This has been a part of landline emergency services for several years, and when you call 9-1-1 from your home phone, the dispatcher automatically knows your callback number and your fixed location. But on a mobile phone, there are some technological challenges. Fortunately, the cell phone companies stepped up to the plate and came up with a solution. In Phase I of the FCC mandate, carriers had to create a system that would tell dispatchers the cell phone number of the caller, as well as the location of the cell tower, which would provide at least an approximate geographic location. More sophisticated location detection technology uses GPS-enabled cell phones to determine the location of the caller in an emergency.

Phase II, scheduled to be fully implemented by the end of 2005, goes a step further by providing Automatic Location Identification (ALI), with precise latitude and longitude of the caller, to the emergency dispatcher. This capability has been incorporated into many newer cell phones, but there are still older cell phones still in use. If you plan to use your cell phone as an emergency backup, make sure you have a newer "location-sensitive" phone that is equipped to handle this service.

There is no charge for calling 9-1-1 from a cell phone; the E911 infrastructure is paid for with a small surcharge on normal cell phone services.

Tom Spelling is a contributing editor to http://www.prepaidreviews.com/ which reviews prepaid cell phone plan providers and rates them according to service factors and customer feedback. The site offers reviews on Verizon prepaid wireless, Cingular GoPhone and more.

// posted by 91850 @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

Despite their importance to a wide range of athletic and sporting activities, the hip flexors are the most neglected major muscle group in strength training. It is very rare to find training programs that include hip flexor exercises. By contrast there is usually a great deal of emphasis on exercises for the leg extensors.

There are some obvious reasons for this comparative neglect. The principal muscles involved in hip flexion are the psoas and the iliacus, collectively known as the iliopsoas. Because they are relatively deep-seated rather than surface muscles they may have been overlooked by bodybuilders who have traditionally been the major innovators in strength training. Secondly, there are no obvious ways to adequately exercise them with free weights. Finally, these muscles do not have the obvious functional importance of their extensor counterparts. Yet, as antagonists, both hip and knee flexors perform a vital role in controlling the rate of descent and ascent in leg extension exercises such as the squat.

There is no corresponding problem of underdevelopment with the muscles responsible for knee joint flexion, the hamstring group. Because they cross two joints they are active in both leg extension and leg flexion. They act to flex the knee joint and also to extend the hip joint. Therefore they tend to be strengthened by complex leg extension exercises. Also hamstrings can be developed and strengthened through the use of the leg curl apparatus.

Strong hip flexors provide an advantage in a wide range of sports and athletic activities. In sprinting high knee lift is associated with increased stride length and therefore considerable attention is given to exercising the hip flexors. However, they are usually not exercised against resistance and consequently there is unlikely to be any appreciable strength increase.

Hip flexor strength is directly relevant to a range of activities in football. kicking a ball is a complex coordinated action involving simultaneous knee extension and hip flexion, so developing a more powerful kick requires exercises applicable to these muscle groups. Strong hip flexors can also be very advantageous in the tackle situation in american football and both rugby union and rugby league where a player is attempting to take further steps forward with an opposing player clinging to his legs.

In addition those players in american football and rugby who have massively developed quadriceps and gluteus muscles are often unable to generate rapid knee lift and hence tend to shuffle around the field. Having stronger flexors would significantly improve their mobility.

It is commonly asserted that marked strength disparity between hip extensors and hip flexors may be a contributing factor in hamstring injuries in footballers. It is interesting to speculate on whether hip extensor/flexor imbalance might also be associated with the relatively high incidence of groin injuries.

Other sports where increased iliopsoas strength would appear to offer benefits include cycling, rowing and mountain climbing, in particular when scaling rock faces.

The problem in developing hip flexor strength has been the lack of appropriate exercises. Two that have traditionally been used for this muscle group are incline sit-ups and hanging leg raises, but in both cases the resistance is basically provided by the exerciser's own body weight. As a consequence these exercises can make only a very limited contribution to actually strengthening the flexors.

Until now the only weighted resistance equipment employed for this purpose has been the multi-hip type machine. When using this multi-function apparatus for hip flexion the exerciser pushes with the lower thigh against a padded roller which swings in an arc. One difficulty with this apparatus is that the position of the hip joint is not fixed and thus it is difficult to maintain correct form when using heavy weights or lifting the thigh above the horizontal.

With the release of the MyoQuip HipneeFlex there is now a machine specifically designed to develop and strengthen the leg flexors. It exercises both hip and knee flexors simultaneously from full extension to full flexion. Because the biomechanical efficiency of these joints decreases in moving from extension to flexion, the mechanism is configured to provide decreasing resistance throughout the exercise movement and thus appropriate loading to both sets of flexors.

The absence until now of effective techniques for developing the hip flexors means that we do not really know what benefits would flow from their full development. However, given that in elite sport comparatively minor performance improvements can translate into contest supremacy, it is an area that offers great potential.

// posted by 91850 @ 1:24 AM 0 comments