Best Natural Relief From Hot Flashes

Whenever women start getting hot flashes, the go-to recommendation from people who’ve never had them is just to start hormone therapy. Don’t get me wrong, hormone therapy can be highly effective at managing severe changes relating to menopause or any other hormonal imbalance, but it shouldn’t be the go-to, long-term option for everyone.

If you are in premenopause or menopause, going through cancer treatment that causes hot flashes as a side effect, or just a hot sleeper who deals with a lot of hot flashes at night and can’t seem to make it 8 hours without waking up, there are some great natural sources of relief out there.

My Top Recommendations

I’ve tried a lot of remedies to get rid of my hot flashes in natural ways, and here’s what has worked for me:

1. Eight Sleep: The majority of the time, I can’t get through a whole night without waking up at least twice, feeling far too hot, and I don’t get any relief from taking the covers off because the mattress has absorbed all that heat, and it’s just radiating back. But now, with Eight Sleep, that’s no longer a problem. 
2. Clothing: Looser-fitting clothing has been shown to help with circulation, your body’s thermogenesis, and the reduction of hot flash severity. 
3. Cold Showers: Cold showers or at least cool showers as opposed to hot showers can keep your body well-regulated and reduce the severity of hot flashes.
4. Cold Drinks: Having cold drinks of an icy variety can be very useful when hot flashes start.
5. Exercise: Exercise increases your body’s ability to regulate temperature and can jump-start your sweat response, helping you to cool down during hot flashes.
6. Eating Habits: Changing your habits to include more fruits and vegetables, and in particular more soy, can be very useful.
7. Black Cohosh: Black cohosh is a relatively safe natural remedy that is used in the form of supplements to help with menopause symptoms.
8. Vitamin E: Whether through diet or supplements, increasing vitamin E can help reduce the severity of hot flashes, particularly for cancer-related treatment symptoms.
9. Anxiety Control: Progressive relaxation, yoga, and other forms of anxiety control can diminish the hot flashes that arise from your fight-or-flight mechanism.
10. CBT/Mindfulness: CBT and mindfulness exercises can help you diminish your stress and anxiety, particularly related to hot flashes.

#1: Eight Sleep

Eight Sleep offers unique “pods” which adjust temperature and elevation, and provide calming music in the background. Each of these three stages changes based on:

1. Your environment
2. Your biometrics
3. Your sleep stage

Studies have found that members get up to 25% more deep sleep when using the Eight Sleep pod. The design is intended to work with your existing bed and mattress in the form of:

1. A mattress cover
2. A hub nearby

This cover and hub provide a fully immersive cooling system for each side that adapts in real time to keep you sleeping soundly. So, if you are dealing with hot flashes in the middle of the night, Eight Sleep pods will naturally decrease the temperature, bring the temperature of your bed back down to combat your higher body temperature, and help keep you asleep.

Many clients report that they wake up several times during the night because of things like hot flashes, but this has reduced the need to get up in the middle of the night because hot flashes don’t result in uncomfortable body temperatures exacerbated by a hot mattress that absorbs and reflects the heat. Instead, the pod triggers a cooling mechanism to bring the temperature of the bed and your body back down so you stay asleep. 

#2: Change Your Clothing Habits

I changed my clothing habits both during the day and at night. I always thought my grandmother was weird for sleeping naked, but that probably has more to do with the fact that she would answer the door still very much naked if you pulled her out of bed.

However, I realized that Grandma was on to something.

No clothing at all can help you stay much cooler when you go to sleep, but barring that, loose-fitting, breathable cotton works just as well.

During the day, I did away with heavier, more constricting layers. I used to turn to the heavier wool products, thicker synthetics, and very tight-fitting office clothing, but now I have realized I can look just as professional while wearing lightweight, cotton clothing. This is much more breathable and helps me move through those hot flashes with greater ease. 

Similarly, I started changing my habits so that I didn’t just have one outfit I was wearing, but rather layers, owing to the fact that I would likely need to take layers on or off throughout the day. What used to be my dressing habit for the bumper seasons, spring and fall, when you could never really trust the weather, has become my dressing habit year-round.

#3: Cold Showers

I don’t mean to imply that cold showers are a cure; however, I used to prefer scalding hot showers, the hotter the better. I didn’t even know why there was an adjustable temperature handle in a shower when all I would do was crank it up. But I found that this left my resting body temperature much hotter, so not only would I be acutely uncomfortable when I got out of the shower, but I would remain much hotter for the duration of my morning, and this could be exacerbated by hot flashes.

So to keep that body temperature down, I started taking colder showers intentionally to bring my body temperature down for the rest of the morning instead of up.

#4: Cold Drinks

This one was important because I would always start my morning with hot tea, scalding hot tea equally as hot as my showers. But throughout the day, I would continue to drink hot tea, and this would make my hot flashes feel so much worse.

Now I invested in a Hydro Flask so that I can fill it with ice and bring it with me to work or wherever I am going. I barely put water in the Hydro Flask so that when the time comes and the start of a hot flash presents its ugly head, I can sip a cold drink to bring my internal temperature down and at this point, adding a little bit of water to what is still effectively an entire flask of ice means drinking significantly cold water that almost adds a chill, a welcome chill to be sure. 

#5: Exercise

Exercise is a natural way to manage your body temperature, your hormones, and your stress. You’ve probably heard the phrase “You should exercise more” attached to just about everything, but in this case, it’s true.

Exercise makes it easier for your body to control your core temperature and to efficiently dissipate heat. The more you exercise, the more you can stimulate blood flow to your skin and your brain, managing hot flashes.

Studies have found that exercise can encourage a more efficient sweat response, and this means you are more likely to sweat at the onset of a hot flash and therefore cool yourself down naturally.

Not all exercise is helpful in this regard, but things like yoga and aerobic exercises like running, swimming, or even cycling are the most helpful. 

#6: Eating Habits

Changing your eating habits might be worth trying. 

Yes, one of the first things you’ll be told is to figure out what your triggers are, like alcohol or spicy food, and avoid them, but many studies have found that eating a low-fat, vegan diet can reduce the severity of hot flashes compared to people who are not on the same diet.

To that end, you don’t have to immediately grow out your armpit hair and stop showering (cold showers, people, remember?). Instead, try to experiment with small dietary changes, particularly by adding soy protein in the form of soybeans and soy-based vegan alternatives now and again.

I, for example, actually enjoy the soy-based vegan meatballs, so I use those in a lot of potato dishes and with spaghetti, but I don’t like vegan, soy-based cheese alternatives. Find what works for you. 

If that doesn’t speak to you, you can change your eating habits to include more fruits and vegetables so that you are hydrated and you are eating cooler foods like salads with berries and cucumbers or watermelons sprinkled with pine nuts and feta cheese. Who doesn’t want that as an afternoon snack, right? 

#7: Try Black Cohosh

Black Cohosh, sometimes called black snake root, is part of the Buttercup family and has been used throughout Native American medicine for things like menstruation. Today, it is a dietary supplement to help with symptoms of menopause, particularly hot flashes.

Several studies have been used to determine the safety and efficacy, and today it is considered safe, though it won’t work as effectively for hot flashes that are caused by cancer medication. 

#8: Vitamin E

Increasing your dose of vitamin E can be very helpful if your hot flashes are related to things like breast cancer treatment. Vitamin E has been shown to treat menopausal symptoms like hot flashes very effectively. 

The nice thing about vitamin E is that you can monitor your intake from your food sources or take a supplement in whatever form is most comfortable. Be advised that a lot of face products like anti-aging creams that might be used during the same time frame as menopause often include retinol and vitamin E, which can cause skin irritation if you are exposed to a lot of sunlight. 

#9: Control Your Anxiety

And if you add to that things like progressive muscle relaxation or meditation, you actually can reduce some of the hot flashes you experience if they are triggered by anxiety.

Science shows that anxiety triggers your fight or flight response and that response naturally elevates your body temperature. That can trigger what feels like a heat wave, this instant flash of heat that seems to start in your gut and spread throughout your body.

So working to reduce your stress can reduce the severity and frequency of your hot flashes.

#10: CBT/Mindfulness Training

Cognitive behavioral therapy or mindfulness training can be a useful way to manage your hot flashes. It will not diminish the frequency of hot flashes like some of the other natural remedies listed above, but using methods to control your breathing and change your focus can diminish the stress associated with those experiences. 

Summing Up

Overall, there are a lot of ways that you can find natural remedies to control hot flashes. I would start with Eight Sleep as a modification to how you sleep. No matter what you think of the price tag or the investment, consider how much of your life is spent sleeping, and to that end, how much is spent poorly sleeping. It will always be worth it in the end.

Consider changing up your clothing, your shower routine, your eating habits, and your exercise. Add things like black cohosh and vitamin E. Keep cold drinks at hand. Learn to control your anxiety and opt for CBT or mindfulness training to help you sit with discomfort.