New Study: Homeopathy treatment for Hot Flashes found to be effective and have no side effects.

From: Gaia Health 

Hot flashes are the bane of many women going through menopause. They can inconvenient, embarrassing, and even crippling. They are, in fact, a primary reason that many women are willing to risk taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The risks that go along with HRT, though, are not necessary. A new study documents that a combination of homeopathic remedies, currently marketed in France as Acthéane, is effective.

The study is what modern medicine likes to call the Gold Standard: double-blind and both placebo and randomly controlled. It compared two groups of women over 50 years of age, who had not had periods for at least one year, and who had spontaneously complained, during routine gynecological visits, of hot flashes that had lasted for at least two years and had caused significant repercussions in their social or professional lives.

Acthéane produced a near-immediate drop in the severity of hot flashes, which continued throughout the trial. The hot flash score (HFS) after the first week was 15.3 in the Acthéane group and 12.7 in the placebo group, a difference of 2.6, or 17% lower. Both groups’ HFS scores were reduced during the course of the trial, but the difference at the end amounted to 33% – a highly significant reduction.

To see details and graphs from the study please read more here: Acthéane Homeopathic Treatment Found Effective. 

Diet and weight loss reduce affects of "Hot Flashes", Menopause.

Weight loss that occurs in conjunction with a low-fat, high fruit and vegetable diet may help to reduce or eliminate hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause, according to a Kaiser Permanente Division of Research study that appears in the current issue of Menopause.

This Women's Health Initiative study of 17,473 women found that women on a diet low in fat and high in whole grains, fruit and vegetables, who had menopausal symptoms, who were not taking hormone replacement therapy, and who lost weight (10 or more pounds or 10 or more percent of their baseline body weight), were more likely to reduce or eliminate hot flashes and night sweats after one year, compared to those in a control group who maintained their weight.

Many women experience hot flashes at some point before or after menopause, when their estrogen levels are declining, explain the researchers.

"While the mechanism is not completely understood, hot flashes and night sweats are thought to be caused by a complex interaction that involves fluctuating hormone levels, the hypothalamus region of the brain that regulates body temperature, brain chemicals and receptors, and the body's blood vessels and sweat glands," said Candyce Kroenke, ScD, MPH, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and lead author of the study.

Although previous research has shown that high body weight and weight gain are associated with hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause, this study is the among the first -- and the largest to date -- to analyze whether weight loss on a diet designed to reduce fat and increase whole grains, fruit and vegetable intake might ameliorate symptoms. It is also among the first to examine the influence of a dietary change on symptoms that include hot flashes and night sweats, said Kroenke.

"Since most women tend to gain weight with age, weight loss or weight gain prevention may offer a viable strategy to help eliminate hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause," said Bette Caan, DrPH, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and the senior author of the study.

She explained that greater body fat provides insulation that may hinder heat loss, and hot flashes and night sweats provide a way to dissipate that heat.

"Weight loss, especially loss of fat mass but not lean mass, might also help alleviate hot flashes and night sweats," added Kroenke.

Know your food pt. 2: Prozac, antihistamines, acetaminophen, enrofloxacin in your chicken?

Following up on the "Know Your Food" trail, we get this recent story from Chemical and Engineering News about how, just like a human who has a nail or hair test to determine what drugs he or she may have been taking while employed at a workplace, you can do the same with animals. What researchers have been finding is rather alarming. 

"They tested each sample for 59 fungicides, antibiotics, and other compounds using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The researchers found 24 drugs and personal-care products, including the antibiotics ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, and tetracycline; antihistamines; the pain reliever acetaminophen; and fluoxetine, better known as Prozac."

"...the team also detected strictly human-use substances such as caffeine and the hormone norgestimate, which is used in oral contraceptives and to treat adverse symptoms of menopause."

And apparently the high-temperature treatment of the byproducts that become "chicken meal" or "feather meal" that's used for a variety of purposes (including, in a nature-defying move, being fed back to the chickens) don't break down all the chemical concentration and compounds. 

"They found that most of the chemicals tested partially broke down, but at least 20% of each of the parent compounds remained."

Read more of this story here: http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/web/2012/03/Chicken-Feathers-Carry-Drugs.html