Common Triggers For Hot Flashes

One of the most noticeable effects of menopause is the hot flash. The sudden drop in estrogen causes the hypothalamus - the part of the brain that serves as the body’s thermostat - to read your body’s temperature as “too hot” and trigger all your body’s temperature control mechanisms. Your skin flushes to bring blood to the surface where it can cool down faster; you begin to sweat, your heart beats faster. During a hot flash, you practically radiate heat as your body tries to cool down its core.

Different people are triggered differently, and sometimes hot flashes happen for seemingly no reason, but here are several common triggers.

Hot Sensations

Sudden changes in temperature are a common trigger for hot flashes, particularly when the body senses a sudden rise in temperature. This can be from eating spicy foods, drinking hot beverages, or even entering a warm room. Hot baths are a particularly intense trigger. The sudden change in temperature ‘jostles’ your internal thermostat and sends it haywire.

Staying somewhere warm for an extended amount of time can also be a hot flash trigger. In order to avoid this, keep your home slightly cool and seek shaded, breezy spots whenever you can outdoors.

Your Temperamental Stomach

Your stomach is one of the largest internal organs and a source of a great deal of heat, so when you eat a lot of food or consume something very spicy, your body may trigger a hot flash in order to cool that area down.

Stimulating the stomach with caffeine or alcohol can also excite it enough to cause a hot flash. It is best to eat in modest amounts when you feel at risk of hot flashes. Try not to over-spice your food, and use caffeine and alcohol with care.

You Can’t Breathe

Adequately ventilated skin is very important for the body’s temperature regulation. Anytime that you are not well-ventilated, such as if you’re wearing too many layers of clothing, wrapped in a blanket, in a stuffy room, etc., you are at risk of causing a hot flash.

Emotional Moments

Things that happen to you emotionally can trigger hot flashes as well. This is, of course, not a particularly easy trigger to control, but you can try to manage it by making sure that when you’re around stressful persons, you have isolated yourself from your other hot flash triggers to reduce the risk.

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