What Causes Hot Flashes?
Posted 12/23/2012
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This report is really interesting as it perhaps answers what has always been a baffling question. Why do women get hot flashes before, during and after menopause? (Point of interest: men with prostate cancer who are taking hormones as treatment get them, too.). While it surely is interesting to know what may be causing the hot flashes, it also will make it more likely that an effective treatment or even cure can be found. Without knowing the cause of the problem, it is impossible to find the right fix. If that really can happen, all of our make shift attempts to diminish or relieve hot flashes will vanish.
This study , as reported here in Health Day, appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is, sadly, a rat study. Not only is it a rat study, but the similarity is that the rats' tail skin got hotter during their little rat hot flashes. Always a bit distressing to be reminded how closely our DNA mimics that of little rodents. Here is a quote and then a link:
THURSDAY, Dec. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists are getting warmer in their attempts to zero in on what causes hot flashes, intense surges of heat and sweating that affect millions of middle-aged women in the years leading to menopause.
Studying rats, researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, in Tucson, have pinpointed a small region of the brain that may go awry during typical hot flashes, finding that a certain set of neurons acts as a virtual control switch for the problem when estrogen levels drop.
"I think the idea is to develop some alternate treatments for hot flashes, but how could we possibly develop appropriate treatments if we don't know what causes them?" said study author Dr. Naomi Rance, a neuropathologist, professor and associate head of pathology at the university. "This is the first evidence these neurons have anything to do with [heat] regulation."
Scientists note, however, that research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans. The study appeared recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An estimated 70 percent of women -- along with some men -- experience hot flashes, and previous research indicated the flashes originated in the hypothalamus, a section of the brain serving as the "switchboard" between hormone signals and the central nervous system.
University of Pittsburgh scientists published a study earlier this year showing that the parasympathetic nervous system -- part of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates unconscious bodily functions such as heart rate and breathing -- isn't working as efficiently as normal during a hot flash.
In the new research, Rance and her colleagues created an animal model of menopause by using a toxin to deactivate a group of brain cells known as KNDy (pronounced "candy") neurons in rats. After these neurons were deactivated, the rats' tail skin temperature consistently lowered, suggesting that the neurons control the widening of the blood vessels known as vasodilation that lead to hot flashes by increasing blood flow to the skin. The rats' tail skin temperature rose after removal of their ovaries, which produce estrogen.
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