Day 18: Understanding and Reducing Hot Flash Triggers

When you hear “trigger”, you probably think about the kind of things or events that cause you to react in a certain way. You might not immediately associate hot flashes with triggers. After all, it’s a biological event that’s largely out of you control, right? Well, yes and no.

Yes, hot flashes are rooted in the biological changes happening in your body. But, things that you do or you’re exposed to can actually affect the frequency, intensity and experience of your hot flashes. In short, what you do matters.

Without being too sciency, here’s the dance between triggers and hot flashes: Remember that hot flashes are thought to be related to your body’s temperature regulation and the perception that it’s running too hot. When your body is exposed to a hot flash trigger, it reacts to it in a way that says, “Hey, we’re getting too hot in here.” Your brain immediately sends out an alert to your body’s cooling system. And, you guessed it, the body’s internal AC is in high gear. Here comes the hot flash. Once the effect of the trigger is neutralized and the temperature sensors tell the brain that the body has cooled, hot flash over.

Now, even if you avoid every trigger known to modern science, you’re still going to have hot flashes, because… biology. But, what you CAN do is be mindful of what you’re sensitive to and minimize your exposure where you can. It really does make a difference.

So, how do we find these mysterious triggers?

We all have things that, when exposed to them, cause us to react in some way. That response might be a behavioral response – like crying if someone yells at us – or it might be a physical response – like being jittery from too much caffeine.

Science doesn’t really know exactly why some things tend to trigger hot flashes and some don’t. What makes it more complicated is that not all women are sensitive to the same things. The important thing is to be aware of what is commonly associated with hot flashes AND to be aware of your own body’s experiences.

How do you know which things trigger certain responses for you? Experience. You learn by trial and error. It’s basically how we learn everything.

Let’s look at some of the most common hot flash triggers.

A lot of the triggers you might encounter are related to your lifestyle. The most common ones known to us are – smoking, spicy food, stress, alcohol, and I’m sorry to say this if you love coffee as much as I do – but caffeine may trigger your hot flashes too.

The good news is, these are things you can moderate and, in some cases, control completely. Sometimes simple changes can yield big results. Managing these triggers is so powerful that some doctors often recommend lifestyle changes for at least 3 months to see if they’re effective, before considering medications.

So, what do we do about these triggers?

First of all, just knowing that triggers exist is crucial, because it’s the first step in helping us reduce them. Now that you know what triggers to watch out for, start tracking them in your log. Over time, you’ll be able to start seeing patterns in the Analytics section about how these triggers interact with your symptoms.

With all these tools and knowledge, soon you’ll have much better control over your hot flashes.