Night Sweats – Menopause – Hot Flashes – Sleeping hot

Archive for the ‘Menopause’ Category

Menopause  night sweats  can be frustrating. According to surveys conducted by medical researchers, some women experience them for several years before the onset of menopause and about 50% will experience them during or after menopause. Doctors can perform tests to determine if menopause is causing a woman’s symptoms, but often it is diagnosed according to a woman’s symptoms.

There are several terms that doctors and researchers use to describe the years leading up to and following menopause. A woman is considered to be pre-menopausal if her periods are still regular; peri-menopausal if some periods have been missed or are becoming irregular; and post-menopausal when she has not had a period for more than one full year. There is no way to predict beforehand when the onset of menopause will begin. The average age for menopause or the year when 12 sequential periods are missed, is 51. Women who smoke typically experience menopause two years earlier than the average. Certain medical conditions and treatments may lead to an even earlier menopause.

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There is really little evidence suggesting that menopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy are at an increased cardiovascular disease risk.

Though the consequences of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on CVD are favourable, these depend on the girl’s age and medical background.

There’s a trend that HRT is cardioprotective in younger women. In older ladies, there’s a trend to an increase in CVD risk, though this impact is not statistically significant.

Generally, HRT is safe for many younger women (i.e. women going through the or in the first postmenopausal period) for the relief of menopausal symptoms.

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After menopause, women are at increased risk for the bone-weakening condition known as osteoporosis. And women who are diabetic have an even greater chance of developing the disorder. But now comes analysis from Egyptian scientists that implies flaxseed oil could be a natural method to guard bone health.

The new study, recently published within the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, concludes that flaxseed oil encompasses a beneficial effect on bone mineral density and reduces markers related to osteoporosis. Bottom line: supplementing the diet with flaxseed oil may markedly cut back the danger of osteoporosis and be of explicit benefit to post-menopausal and diabetic women.

Scientist Mer Harvi and colleagues at the National Research Center in Cairo, Egypt, investigated the impact of diabetes on bone health. Then in laboratory studies they evaluated how flaxseed oil added to the diet could delay the onset of osteoporosis.

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The night sweats  cause and treatment all deal with the natural occurrence in a woman’s life called menopause . I will disclose brief information on all natural treatments as well as additional remedies to help you get through this period of time.

Why Night Sweats Occur

Night sweats occur because of hormone imbalances in the woman’s body which boosts the metabolism. Another reason night sweats can happen are dysfunctions in the adrenaline glands. What the adrenal glands will do is frequently thrust out extra energy that the body no longer needs as a result of your unbalanced hormones, causing you to sweat at any given time.

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Testosterone is an often overlooked hormone in the grand scheme of menopause but the truth is, it helps with hot flashes, night sweats , bone loss, energy, self-esteem, sexual desire, and orgasm response. For many women, this important hormone decreases with age however for some, it actually increases leading to increased facial hair, acne, and an increased risk for heart disease.

As testosterone levels increase, your insulin sensitivity decreases increasing your risk for blood sugar problems like diabetes. A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that menopausal women with the highest levels are three times more likely to develop coronary heart disease and have greater risk for metabolic syndrome.

So what can you do?

First, get your levels of free and total testosterone checked. Next get your levels of fasting glucose and fasting insulin tested. This can give you important insight into your risk level.

If your glucose and/or insulin is elevated, examine your diet by cutting out sugar, simple carbs, coffee drinks, soda, and other high sugar/high carb sweets. Consider blood sugar balancers such as cinnamon (the spice) or chromium (the supplement).

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Is Prempro, the hormone drug known to increase the risk of breast cancer, a public hazard?

If a judge in Pinellas County determines that it is, hundreds of thousands of documents now under seal in lawsuits against the drug’s manufacturer nationwide could be released for the public to inspect.

The key to the confidential company records has ended up in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Anthony Rondolino’s hands because of a clerical misstep and a unique Florida statute.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Monday, though attorneys were negotiating a possible resolution late Thursday.

More than 9,000 women have sued Pfizer’s Wyeth unit, the maker of Prempro and Premarin, claiming its bestselling hormone drugs caused breast cancer and stroke. The vast majority of those lawsuits have been consolidated in federal courts in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

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Almost all women get at least some hot flushes and night sweats  around the menopause; they’re a by-product of the "make more oestrogen" chemical messages that our brains send out when they detect falling levels of this hormone.

Our ovaries may work intermittently for some time, so the sweats often come and go, until the brain realises that the ovaries have finally stopped working for good – this can take several years.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can suppress menopausal symptoms until it’s all over. Current recommendations are to take HRT for short-term relief of menopausal symptoms. But some unlucky women do continue to have symptoms into their 60s, or even longer.

I’d recommend seeing your GP to check nothing else is going on, as there are dozens of other causes of night sweats , including an overactive thyroid, chronic infections, some drugs (for example, antidepressants) and some rare forms of cancer.

If your sweats are still due to the menopause, you could consider taking HRT even now, provided your GP thinks that it’s suitable for you, although the risks of stroke and heart attack do increase slightly as you get older.

For many businesses, 2009 has been a painful year. Not so for BodyLogicMD. The nation’s largest and fastest growing network of expert physicians specializing exclusively in medically supervised bioidentical hormones has grown the number of physicians in its network since November 2008 – from 21 to 36 physicians – and is in progress to add more physician-owned centers, including one in Puerto Rico, by the end of this year.

In the past year, BodyLogicMD has opened 13 new bioidentical hormone specialty practices around the country, currently spanning coverage in 36 cities and 18 states.

“2009 has been a year of unprecedented growth for BodyLogicMD,” said Patrick Savage, founder and president of BodyLogicMD, Inc. “We’re adding an average of 1,000 new patients each month and are opening new offices and adding doctors to existing locations as quickly as possible to meet the tremendous demand. It’s very exciting to be a part of the explosive growth in this area of preventive medicine.”

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BENEFITS OF COOL-JAMS PERFECT TEMPERATURE REGULATING SLEEPWEAR

Night Sweats are less frequent by actively regulating temperature Reduces overheating by absorbing excess heat Keeps you cooler by pulling the excess heat away from the body Releases heat when needed to keep you warm, plus dries quickly so the body is never chilled. Minimizes perspiration by pushing moisture to the outside of fabric and balancing temperature You’ll always have a great night’s sleep because the body will never be too hot or too cold…always just perfect!

HOW DOES OUR PERFECT SLEEPWEAR TECNOLOGY WORK?

Cool-jams temperature regulating technology is a high-performance material originally developed by our Cool-jams product development team. It provides the technology of athletic wicking apparel with the softness of the finest sleepwear fabric. The fabric responds to changes in the body temperature while sleeping. Unlike traditional sleepwear fabric that traps heat, Cool-jams wicking fabric actually absorbs the excess body heat when the body becomes too warm, and releases it back when needed. At the same time any moisture is pulled away from the body, so that the wearer stays cooler and dryer while sleeping. The result: reduced overheating, sweating and chilling so the body is never too hot or not too cold….always just perfect!

HOW DO OUR COOL-JAMS PAJAMAS HELP YOU SLEEP BETTER?

It is common for people to experience restlessness as they cycle between feeling too hot and too cold throughout the night…they toss and turn as their bodies search for the optimal sleeping temperature. The heat-absorbing fibers continually absorb and release excess body heat to keep your personal microclimate in the optimum range for restful sleep. By eliminating temperature swings throughout the night, you are less likely to wake up from chills or overheating. The result is a deeper, more restful sleep.

Pfizer yesterday questioned the verdicts.

"The company believes that neither the awards of punitive damages nor the liability verdicts were supported by the evidence or the law," spokesman Chris Loder said. The company plans to challenge both decisions.

"The company stands by its belief that its subsidiaries acted responsibly," Loder said.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers say the verdicts are further proof that their cases are strong.

The verdicts show that "when jurors hear how Wyeth put huge profits over the safety of patients, they will react with a strong message of outrage," Esther Berezofsky, one of Barton’s lawyers, said in a statement.

Tom Kline, cocounsel for plaintiffs in about 40 other Prempro cases, said the punitive awards "showed that juries clearly believed that Wyeth hid the risks of breast cancer from doctors and patients, making the defense of these claims harder down the road."

There have been larger verdicts in pharmaceutical cases involving individual plaintiffs – a Texas jury awarded one plaintiff $253 million, later reduced to $26 million by an appeals court, in litigation against Merck & Co. Inc. over the arthritis drug Vioxx. But yesterday’s jury award in Philadelphia nonetheless was significant, another Center City plaintiffs’ lawyer said.

Pfizer Inc. has been hit with more than $100 million in two punitive-damage awards – one decided and the other unsealed yesterday – from Philadelphia juries.

Both cases involve Prempro, a hormone-replacement drug made by Wyeth, which recently was acquired by Pfizer. Plaintiffs said the drug was linked to their breast cancer.

The total includes $28 million awarded yesterday to Donna Kendall of Decatur, Ill.

In the second case, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Sandra Moss yesterday unsealed a verdict reached earlier this year that awarded $75 million in punitive damages to another Illinois resident, Connie Barton, over her Prempro-linked breast cancer.

"Those are large punitive verdicts, make no mistake about it," said Howard M. Erichson, a Fordham University law professor who has studied pharmaceutical litigation.

About 1,500 of 10,000 similar cases are pending in Philadelphia, a common jurisdiction for large liability cases, attorneys say.

The juries are sending a message that they are angry about the corporate conduct in the cases, Erichson said. The $75 million likely will be reduced because it far exceeds the $3.5 million Barton received in compensatory damages, he added.

"This is a pretty good-sized punitive-damage award," said Sol Weiss, whose firm, Anapol Schwartz, tries pharmaceutical lawsuits in jurisdictions around the country. "The jury believed that the [drugmakers] were not straight with what they knew about the cancer risks."

New York-based Pfizer and lawyers for the plaintiffs even disagreed over how to count wins and losses in hormone-replacement therapy cases to date.

While plaintiffs’ lawyers point to recent verdicts in their favor, Pfizer argues that judges have set aside some decisions and plaintiffs have dropped some cases, turning the legal tide in the company’s favor.

More than six million women have taken hormone-replacement medicines to treat menopause symptoms including hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. Until 1995, many patients combined Premarin, Wyeth’s estrogen-based drug, with progestin-laden Provera, made by Pharmacia & Upjohn, a company also acquired by Pfizer.

Wyeth, which had not reserved funds to cover losses in the litigation, combined the two hormones in Prempro. The drugs are still on the market. Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, completed the $68 billion purchase of Wyeth on Oct. 15. Pfizer reported net income of $8.1 billion last year on sales of $48.3 billion.

Pfizer shares closed yesterday up 17 cents, or a bit less than 1 percent, at $18.53.

Annual sales of Wyeth’s hormone-replacement drugs topped $2 billion before the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, suggested that women using the medicines had a higher breast-cancer risk.

Wyeth faced its first punitive award over Prempro in January 2007, when a Philadelphia jury granted damages to Mary Daniel, an Arkansas woman who said the drug had caused her breast cancer. A judge threw out the award seven months later. The case is on appeal, and the amount of punitive damages remains under seal.

In October 2007, jurors in state court in Reno, Nev., awarded a total of $99 million in punitive damages to three women who blamed the drug for their breast cancers. That figure later was reduced to $35 million and is being appealed.

A federal jury in Arkansas awarded Donna Scroggin $27 million in bad-conduct damages against Wyeth and Upjohn over her Prempro claims. An appeals court threw out the award this year and ordered a new trial on the punitive-damage issue.

Clinicians are accustomed to treating patients who have medical illnesses; however, managing the symptoms associated with menopause—a natural, biologic process—is quite different. Hormone therapy (HT) using estrogen either with or without progesterone remains the most effective, and most studied, treatment.¹ But many patients and clinicians have reservations about using HT because of the controversy surrounding it. All clinicians, regardless of their specialty, may encounter patients who have questions about the use of hormones. In family medicine practices, women may inquire about hot flashes and night sweats ; in orthopedics practices, the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis; and, in gynecology practices, dyspareunia and vaginal atrophy. Clinicians should be able to respond with accurate, upto- date information on the recommendations for HT as well as its known risks and benefits.

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Menopause – it’s an unavoidable part of aging as a woman, and brings with it a host of uncomfortable symptoms that negatively impact quality of life. Hot flashes, poor sleep, mood swings, weight gain, night sweats and lethargy are just some of the life-altering symptoms of menopause and perimenopause. What’s worse, menopause signs and symptoms can show up a full ten years before actual menopause occurs (perimenopause), and can last for another five years during menopause before a woman finds relief from the prison of hot flashes, night sweats and mood swings. Unfortunately, even after menopause symptoms subside many women find themselves still feeling lethargic and prone to weight gain.

Though much attention has been given to hormone replacement therapy as a solution to menopause symptoms, a number of studies have shown that adding hormones to the body can cause other health problems and risks. For women who want to find fast, natural relief for their menopause symptoms, the Anti-Aging Institute of California has an answer: Don’t Pause. Don’t Pause is a completely natural menopause treatment that helps women get rid of their worst menopause and perimenopause symptoms including night sweats, hot flashes and mood swings. In addition to natural ingredients that eliminate the worst menopause symptoms, Don’t Pause contains other natural supplements that increase energy, vitality and promote weight loss to combat other common issues that women experience as they age.

The secret to combating menopause signs is the high concentration of pomegranate extract in the Don’t Pause supplement. Pomegranate extract has been clinically proven to reduce the occurrence and severity of menopause and perimenopause symptoms. Pomegranate extract has also been shown to inhibit the development of a type of naturally occurring estrogen that increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer. Other key ingredients in the Don’t Pause natural menopause treatment include black cohosh, which safely and effectively reduces hot flashes and night sweats, and green tea extract, which is full of important cancer-fighting and metabolism-boosting catechins as well as the super antioxidant EGCG. Selenium, Phytoestrogens and Chromium Picolinate round out the list of active natural ingredients in Don’t Pause, all of which fight menopause symptoms, reduce cancer risk, and fight other age-related illnesses such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease decrease muscle mass and elevated glucose levels. Don’t Pause is an investment in health that gives a woman back her life and vitality.