The room is too hot, then too cold, covers on, and then covers off. Top it off with early morning waking between the hours of 4 am and 6 am. How are you supposed to get any rest and feel energetic?

Add in the embarrassment and frustration of hot flashes during the day when you are in an important conversation or work situation. If this describes you, then you are among the 90% of menopausal women who experience hot flashes and endure the annoyance and disruption of life that menopausal symptoms can cause.

A lot of women believe that their only options are to either tough it out or go on hormone replacement therapy. In my opinion, neither of these are great options but the good news is that there are more effective alternative treatments available.

Hormone Replacement Therapy…

The Women’s Health Initiative completed a very large and well-known study looking at hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in women.

It was found that HRT could not be used by all women because of the number of potentially serious side effects that many women may experience, such as an increased risk of stroke, blood clots, heart attack, and breast cancer.

The Natural Options…

Thankfully there are several natural treatments for menopause that do not have harmful side effects and are highly effective. They have been clinically proven to provide relief of physical and emotional symptoms such as:

• sleep disturbances

• hot flashes

• depressive mood

• irritability

• physical and emotional exhaustion

Herbs are one of the most effective menopausal treatments. However, the level of success is determined by the quality and quantity of the herbs used, as well as tailoring the herbs used to the specific symptoms.

That is why consultation with a properly trained naturopathic doctor is the key to ensuring optimal results.

For example, I commonly use an herbal extract of rhubarb, which has been used in clinical studies of menopausal women. The results have shown significant improvement in symptoms of menopause within just 28 days when compared to placebo.

Further, in just 12 weeks, daily hot flashes were reduced by 75%. The best part is that there are no side effects or increased risk for serious conditions.

Non-herbal, but easy and affordable changes you can make include:

1. Eliminating the use of coffee and alcohol

2. Increasing exercise as both of these can lead to a drastic decrease in the frequency and severity of hot flashes.

3. Bone health can be protected with good nutrition and nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D.

4. I assess all my patients’ nutrition to ensure that they are eating the proper foods while going through menopause.

Put an end to your sleepless nights and hot flashes. Get started in feeling better faster by checking out my website and requesting my free weekly health tips and reading more detailed information on the many more scientific testing methods and treatments we offer. www.aspiremedicine.ca