You can never have enough remedies for those hot flashes!
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic took a good look at flaxseed in a recent study.
A quick look at the study participants:
- Twenty-one post-menopausal women
- None using hormone therapy
- All of them experiencing fourteen or more hot flashes per week
The study participants were asked to take four tablespoons of crushed flaxseed daily. They could eat it pretty much any way they wanted to. Some sprinkled it on yogurt or cereal. Some mixed it into juice or water. I’ve never tasted flaxseed myself, so I’m not sure what kind of flavor it has, or what it mixes well with.
After six weeks of eating four tablespoons of crushed flaxseed every day, the number of hot flashes each woman experienced dropped by around fifty percent. That’s going from fourteen hot flashes to seven. Still one hot flash per day, on average, but that’s better than two! The severity of the hot flashes also went down by about half. So maybe they were just “warm flashes” by the end of the study? (Ha ha.)
The study authors suggest starting small if you want to try flaxseed as a remedy for hot flashes. Start with two tablespoons of crushed flaxseed per day and work up to four if you need to. All that extra fiber can cause abdominal discomfort!
Other possible natural remedies for hot flashes include:
- Dong quai
- Black cohosh
- Evening primrose oil
- Vitamin B
- Vitamin E
You may find that a combination of natural remedies works best for you. There are lots of supplements available that claim to relieve hot flashes. Studies have shown that flaxseed, dong quai, and black cohosh are among the best.
Is flaxseed oil just as good? I’m not sure. Using flaxseed oil might help lessen the chance of the abdominal discomfort, but maybe there’s something in the fiber itself that is beneficial.