Oh, do I love me my sleep! (LOL) But what I don’t like is waking up sweating like the horses in the Kentucky Derby!!! Seriously, I have battled the night sweat roller coaster for close to 15 years both while using HRT and now without. Totally one of the lucky ones here! NOT!!! But between wearing alvöru clothing that proactively manages body temperature along with my own trial and error of other options, I’d like to share my personal experiences.
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Quick sidebar on night sweats and/or hot flashes. Fluctuating estrogen levels confuse the hypothalamus – the region of our brain that regulates your body temperature. Like a faulty thermostat, the hypothalamus may respond to the changes in estrogen as if it senses an increase in your body temperature. In an attempt to cool you down, the hypothalamus sets off a cascade of events, including dilating blood vessels to release heat (hot flash) and triggering sweat glands (sudden, intense perspiration).The result is you wake up drenched and chilly, with a racing heart and a sensation of anxiety.
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My last bone scan indicated that I was showing signs of osteopenia – having a lower bone density than normal with increase chances of osteoporosis. Neither of these are a disease but rather a condition that happens with age. Women have a lower bone mass overall and absorb less calcium than men do. After menopause, the rate of bone loss speeds up as estrogen levels fall. lose bone more quickly after menopause, due to lower estrogen levels.
Treatment for osteopenia starts with changes to your lifestyle. Your healthcare professional will want you to increase your physical activity. Weight-bearing exercise, such as yoga, walking/jogging, climbing steps, will help strengthen your bones. It also helps to build muscle and improve your balance, which helps prevent against broken bones.
Your healthcare professional also will suggest ways to get more calcium and vitamin D in your diet. Dairy products, such as yogurt, cheese, and milk are good sources of calcium. Other sources included dried beans, salmon, spinach, and broccoli. Some foods such as orange juice, breads, and dry cereals may be fortified with calcium, vitamin D, or both. Your healthcare professional may also suggest a Vitamin D or calcium supplement as well.
OK, so here’s where my trial and error came in. I started off with taking various kinds of calcium, calcium and Vitamin D supplements. But the more I started researching, I learned that magnesium is also a great addition to this supplement ‘cocktail’ as it helps regulate calcium transport and stimulates the secretion of calcitonin, a hormone that aids in the influx of calcium to the bone. Vitamin D is required to promote calcium absorption, which helps maintain healthy bones and teeth as well as support a healthy immune system.
The addition of magnesium took me on another research tangent. Research has shown that magnesium, a mineral in the human body, has an important role in everything from heart health to stress reduction. It influences mood regulation, supports healthy bones and hormone levels, and is involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions throughout your body. As women experience menopause, magnesium decreases and therefore the need for added magnesium becomes important for good health and reduction of menopause symptoms.
Aside from the additional benefit to bone health, when I added magnesium to my supplement ‘cocktail’, I also noticed a benefit to my sleep and hot flashes. In various clinical trials for breast cancer treatments, the research found that magnesium supplementation was effective in reducing the severity and frequency of hot flashes in women after treatment for breast cancer. Research acknowledges that magnesium has effects on both blood vessels and nerves, which we know is affected by the hypothalamus (see the sidebar paragraph for hot flashes/night sweats). While my experimentation may not work for you, I’m rather happy that I have found the supplementation ‘cocktail’ that appears to be working for me.
A few more suggestions and resources:
- Start a diary of how you are feeling when you have made some changes to your diet, exercise or supplementation regimen. It can be eye-opening.
- Avoid triggers that are known to elicit hot flashes and night sweats.
- Establish healthy habits.
- Research various supplements and how they work for you. I use Baywood International Cal-Mag FIZZ – a combination of calcium, magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B complex, and select trace minerals.
https://www.nutritionalmagnesium.org/6-ways-to-handle-hot-flashes-and-night-sweats/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/magnesium-and-sleep#TOC_TITLE_HDR_8
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/163169#2
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