Wellness Letter: Acupuncture News

Can Acupuncture Help Your Hot Flashes?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), menopause is a naturally occurring event that manifests the female body’s great inherent wisdom. TCM teaches that instead of sending blood and nutrients to the uterus, a woman’s body in menopause sends blood and nutrients upward, toward the heart.

The heart is where shen or spirit resides, so more blood and nutrients for the shen means more wisdom. The upward change in direction of energy can also be seen in the symptom of heat rising up to the head or heart center of the body. In Western medicine, this rising of heat is known as a hot flash or, if they occur at night, as night sweats.

According to the North American Menopause Society, more than 30% of women use either acupuncture, natural estrogen, herbal supplements, or so-called plant estrogens to manage hot flashes. Acupuncture can help manage the occurrence of hot flashes, as well as improve other aspects of your life, such as sleep, which in turn can enhance mood.

Acupuncture is suggested as a viable alternative treatment of vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes). In one study of postmenopausal women, one study showed an impressive 50% decrease in the number of reported hot flashes (Wyon et al., 2004). An earlier study showed similar results; additionally, the effects of acupuncture persisted at least 3 months after the end of treatment (Wyon et al., 1995).

From a Chinese physiological perspective, menopause is understood as energy focused up to a woman’s heart and mind to nourish the woman’s spirit, rather than on preparing the woman’s uterus for the growth of a baby. In the book Su Wen (Simple Questions), “At seven times seven, the ren mai is vacuous, the tai chong mai is declining and scanty, and the tian gui is exhausted.” What does this mean? For women around the age of 49, a period of transition occurs when the chong and ren vessel (meridians or channels) function begins to decline and the body’s yin substances and yang activities lose balance. Hot flashes and night sweats mostly have to do with this deficiency of yin accompanied with deficient heat.

Acupuncture can also alleviate other symptoms of menopause in specific sleep disturbances and mood changes. One study shows that acupuncture at menopausal-specific sites holds promise for non-hormonal relief of hot flashes and sleep disturbances (Cohen et al., 2003). Another study of 30 women found that electro-acupuncture may have a pronounced effect on mood in postmenopausal women (Sandberg et al., 2002).

—May 2005

References

Cohen, S.M. et al. (2003.) Can acupuncture ease the symptoms of menopause? Holistic Nurse Practitioner, Nov/Dec, 17(6): 295-9.

Sandberg, M. et al. (2002.) Effects of electro acupuncture on psychological distress in postmenopausal women. Complementary therapies in Medicine, 10(3):161-9.

Wyon, Y. et al. (1995.) Effects of acupuncture on climacteric vasomotor symptoms, quality of life, and urinary excretion of neuropeptides among postmenopausal women. Menopause, 2(1), 3-12.

Wyon, Y. et al. (2004.) A comparison of acupuncture and oral estradiol treatment of vasomotor symptoms in postmenopausal women. Climateric, Jun; 7(2):153-164.