Hot Flashes Causes

Just visualize a scene wherein a sudden stream of severe heat moves across your body. In some seconds after its influx, this vague experience makes you to sweat. During this time, you will agree that your body is set ablaze. As a logical reaction, you will immediately start looking for a chilled place no matter wherever you are, irrespective of whether it is the coldest or hottest day. However, after some minutes or hours, this feeling of heat wave goes away as quickly as it had arrived, but only in some cases. So, if you have really passed through this scenario, let me tell you that you are undergoing a condition of hot flashes indicating your entry in the menopause phase.

Obviously, to understand this symptom of menopause, you should know about the hot flashes causes. In this article, in just 10 minutes, you will be able to recognize the hot flashes causes.
 

The Most Common Cause (Hormonal)

The common factor behind hot flashes is hormonal in nature. In menopausal women, the fluctuating levels, rather the declining levels of estrogen in the body, can result in hot flashes. Kindly note the word ‘can’ by which I mean that it is not necessary to have hot flashes. It might occur heavily, mildly, or it might happen that it may never come to you. This reduced level of estrogen proportionately affects the hypothalamus, the zone of the brain whose function is to manage appetite, certain hormone levels, sleep, and the overall body temperature. Below is the step-wise medical illustration of this process leading to hot flushes.
• Declined amount of estrogen that is common in menopause
• Reduction in circulating endorphin and cathecol estrogens
• Increase in the release of serotonin and norepinepheine
• Dropping of thermoregularory set point
• Fine changes in the body temperature
• Activation of heat loss mechanisms
• Generation of hot flashes
The above process indicates that the lowered levels of estrogen confuse the hypothalamus that incorrectly concludes – ‘The body is overheating.’ How this confusion arises is yet not known completely, but this is referred to as ‘thermostat’ in which the hypothalamus reads the condition as ‘very hot’. Due to this, an array of reactions is triggered, which results in hot flashes.

The first reaction is that the brain responds by propagating an alert message to the heart, blood vessels, and nervous system as - "Get free from the heat!" The nervous system sends this message via its chemical messenger called epinephrine and other related compounds such as norepinephrine, prostaglandin, and serotonin. The message is reached in no time and with this, the heart propels faster, the blood vessels widen to circulate more blood to emit the heat, and the sweat glands generate sweat for some cooling.

This heat-releasing mechanism is actually the process through which your body maintains its temperature in the summer. However, in menopause, this process is invoked due to reduction in estrogen that confuses your brain to send a wrong message. With this, sometimes, the skin temperature increases by even six degrees Centigrade when hot flashes begin to appear on your skin. The body cools down unexpectedly and you are left uncomfortable irrespective of whether you are in a board meeting or are having a good sleep. Besides this normal cause of hot flashes, it is possible that some other medical conditions might lead to hot flashes.

More Causes

If you are suffering from certain chronical diseases or are taking some medications, you can have hot flashes due to them too. So, sometimes, hot flashes might not be due to hormonal changes. Due to this, if you think that it’s not yet time for menopause or the hot flashes are just not expected, consult a doctor so that you know about the possible hot flashes causes. Diseases causing hot flashes are:
• Panic disorder
• Infection
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Hyperhidrosis
• Thyroid disease
• Obesity

Medications causing hot flashes are

• Raloxifene (osteoporosis drug)
• Tamoxifen (cancer drug)
• Gonadotropin analogues (leuprolide, goserelin, and nafarelin)