What REALLY helps beat the misery of the menopause?

What REALLY helps beat the misery of the menopause? Ditch yoga for hypnosis and don't just rely on HRT, new guidelines state

• Report by North American Menopause Society sorts fact from fiction
• Guidelines suggest exercise, yoga and herbal remedies are no good
• But researchers say hypnosis might combat some of the symptoms 

Trendy therapies such as yoga and acupuncture do not help women beat the misery of menopause, experts say.

Herbal supplements are also unlikely to do much good – but hypnosis might combat some of the symptoms.

New guidelines on how to ease embarrassing and energy-sapping hot flushes warn that many of the remedies tried by millions simply do not work.

For other therapies, there is not enough evidence to say whether they do help, so women would be better fast-tracking to treatments with proven benefit, the US experts say.

And despite the widely held belief that alcohol and spicy food can trigger hot flushes, there is no data to support this, they add.

Hot flushes – the most common and most distressing symptom of the menopause – can disturb sleep, drain energy and cause embarrassment.

A single flush can last from a few seconds to an hour. 

Hormone-replacement therapy is the main treatment, but is not suitable for all and many who could take it are put off by fears that it may trigger breast cancer.

Those who do start on it can suffer unpleasant side-effects, from headaches to heartburn, leading many women to search for alternatives.

However, with options ranging from Chinese herbal supplements and dietary advice to powerful anti-depressants and acupuncture, it is hard for them to know where to start.

Hypnosis is one of the few treatments backed by solid evidence that it works, the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) advises.

‘From 50 to 80 per cent of women approaching menopause try non-hormonal therapies for hot flushes. 

'Many don’t really work and sticking with them can just prolong the misery,’ it says. 

‘With little guidance on what does work, many women just experiment with products or suffer.’

NAMS asked a panel of experts to review medical literature on the topic. 

They found solid evidence of the effectiveness of hypnosis and cognitive behavioural therapy – including counselling, sleep advice and relaxation techniques. 

In one study, women who had hypnosis five times a week had a dramatic reduction in the number and severity of hot flushes.

The guidelines also recommend some prescription drugs, including the anti-depressant Seroxat and the epilepsy drug gabapentin. 

However, herbal supplements, including popular black cohosh tablets, evening primrose oil and ginseng, are unlikely to work, NAMS says.

Exercise, yoga, acupuncture and chiropractic also lack evidence that they give relief.

Dr Janet Carpenter, who led the panel, said: ‘Many women try one thing after another and it is months before they stumble on something that truly works. 

'This information will be critical in maximising the selection of the most effective therapies.’

Charles Kingsland, of the Hewitt Fertility Centre at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, said HRT was the most effective treatment, although the placebo effect – the mere belief that something will work – means other options appear helpful to start with.

‘What you have to be careful of are the things that may be harmful, not only to your health but to your pocket,’ he said.

‘In the menopause, general well-being is essential. Exercise the body and mind.

‘So many women in my menopause clinic have such low self-esteem, sometimes I think that’s often the worst thing. That’s where all the psychotherapy stuff comes in.’

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3245619/Hypnosis-helps-beat-misery-menopause-not-yoga.html#ixzz3mrAFUS1H

Menopause-related hot flashes treatment in Malaysia

Hypnosis is an effective treatment for menopause-related hot flashes and night sweats, new research finds.

The alternative therapy reduced hot flashes by as much as 74% in the study conducted by researchers at Baylor University’s Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory and funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Only hormone therapy, which many women can’t take or want to avoid, is more effective for treating the most common symptom of menopause, says researcher Gary R. Elkins, PhD.

“If you compare this treatment with off-label use of antidepressants or other non-hormonal therapies, it works as well or better,” he says.

Hot Flashes, Night Sweats

Hot flashes are a sudden rush of heat, followed by facial flushing and sweating, often followed by chills and clamminess. The progression is familiar to most women of a certain age.

Hot flashes and night sweats are the most common symptoms of menopause, affecting some 80% of women.

They are linked to declining estrogen levels, but it remains unclear just why the sudden lack of estrogen sends the body into thermal mayhem, and why some women are more affected than others.

Hormone therapy is a very effective treatment for menopause-related hot flashes, but concerns about risks have limited its use among women.

“There is certainly a need for non-pharmacologic treatments for hot flashes and night sweats,” says North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Executive Director Margery Gass, MD.

Hypnosis and Hot Flashes

In an earlier study, Elkins and his Baylor colleagues showed that hypnosis dramatically reduced hot flash and night sweat frequency in breast cancer patients with treatment-related symptoms.

In the newly published study, they set out to determine if the alternative treatment would do the same in women whose symptoms were related to menopause.

A total of 187 postmenopausal women who reported having at least seven hot flashes a day, or 50 a week, were recruited for the trial.

Half the women were given self-hypnosis training that consisted of five, 45-minute weekly sessions.

During the sessions they received suggestions for mental imagery designed to minimize the intensity of their hot flashes, such as images of a cool place. The women were also given a recording of the hypnotic induction, and they were asked to practice self-hypnosis at home daily.

The rest of the women had an equal number of sessions with a clinician, but hypnosis training was not given.

Instead, clinicians talked to the women about their symptoms and gave them encouragement about how to deal with them. These women were also asked to listen to a recording each day at home, but their recording simply had information about hot flashes.

The study participants kept "hot flash frequency" diaries, and they also wore small sensors on their bodies that recorded their hot flashes.

Hot Flashes Less Frequent and Intense

After 12 weeks:

• Women in the hypnosis group reported 74% fewer hot flashes on average, compared with 17% fewer among the other women.
• The skin sensors showed a 57% reduction in hot flashes among the hypnosis group, compared to a 10% reduction in the non-hypnosis group.
• The women treated with hypnosis were far less likely than the other women to report that their hot flashes interfered with their daily lives and sleep.

“Many women do not want to take hormone therapy or any drug for hot flashes,” Elkins says. “This study shows that an alternative, non-drug treatment can be highly effective.”

Elkins recommends that women who want to try the treatment seek out a qualified practitioner affiliated with either the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis or the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.

Gass says she would like to see Elkins’ findings duplicated, but she adds that hypnosis could prove to be a badly needed new treatment for hot flashes.

“This will certainly appeal to women who want to avoid drugs and who want a treatment that has few, if any, side effects,” she says.

The study, which was published this week in the journal Menopause, was funded by the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/menopause/news/20121025/hypnosis_halts_hot_flashes