Coping with Hot Flashes
Tips to help you minimize the side effects of hot flashes

Experiencing hot flashes is a common side effect of menopause. Hot flashes may include a feeling of warmth or intense heat spreading through your upper body to your face, flushed blotchy skin on your face, neck and upper chest, a rapid heartbeat, perspiration, and a chilled feeling as the hot flash subsides
Hot flashes can last up to half an hour but most subside within a few minutes. The frequency of hot flashes varies. You may have them every hour or have them only occasionally. Nighttime hot flashes may wake you from a sound sleep. During menopause, some women experience hot flashes for a year or more.
Making changes to minimize hot flashes
If your hot flashes are mild — you have just a few a day and they don't interfere with your normal activities — you may be able to manage them with lifestyle adjustments. For example:
• Exercise. During the menopausal years, it is essential to keep active and exercise regularly. If you aren't already exercising regularly, now is the time to increase your physical activity and add regular aerobic exercise. Try a 30-minute walk every day for a start.
• Make diet changes. Avoid caffeinated food, alcohol, spicy foods and anything else that triggers your hot flashes.
• Practice relaxing. Meditation, relaxation exercises, stress-reduction techniques or yoga may help aid in relief from hot flashes.
• Practice breathing exercises. Slow, controlled deep rhythmic breathing practiced twice a day can decrease hot flashes. Practicing paced respiration can also help you get to sleep when you have nighttime flashes.
• Quit smoking. Smoking is linked to increased hot flashes, so minimize hot flashes by quitting cigarettes. This will also bring other health benefits as well, such as decreasing your risk of heart disease and lung cancer.
• Keep cool. Use fans and air conditioners to keep your temperature down, and drink something cold when you get a hot flash. 
Dietary supplements to treat hot flashes
Black cohosh. Used extensively in Europe for treating hot flashes, black cohosh and has been popular among women with menopausal symptoms in the United States. However, tudies have shown that it is doubtful that black cohosh actually helps menopausal symptoms.
Soy and red clover. Isoflavones — estrogen-like compounds in soy, red clover and many other plants—may help with hot flashes and decrease symptoms. However, clinical trials so far have not been proven to relieve hot flashes.
Vitamin E.  Studies using vitamin E in doses up to 400 international units (IU) daily have found little benefit in relieving hot flashes. Long-term, high-dose vitamin E, taken to prevent cardiovascular disease, may increase certain risks, some studies suggest.