Hot Flashes Not Associated With Menopause

Hot flashes are primarily associated with being peri-menopause or menopause but hot flashes can be caused by a whole raft of other physical conditions and even by the medications you are taking.

Medical Conditions

Persistent hot flashes may be alerting you that you have an underlying medical condition that you are not aware of. If you have hyperthyroidism (your thyroid is working too fast), this can result in hot flashes as can systemic mast cell disease, a spinal cord injury, carcinoid syndrome, carcinoma of the thyroid, tumors in the pancreas, renal cell carcinoma and pheochromocytom. These particular conditions are thought to prompt the secretion of chemicals into the bloodstream. These chemicals stimulate brain blood vessels or nerves and this causes the hot flash, according to Wdxcyber.com.

Stress

If you are under an enormous amount of stress, this can result in hot flashes. Our body releases nonrepinephrine and epinephrine into our blood when we are stressed. This increases the flow of blood, which generates heat. We start getting hot and then sweat because the body is trying to get rid of the heat.

Drugs

Dr. Mary Pickett, a lecturer at Harvard, notes that any drug that affects the hormone serotonin can result in flushing. Antidepressants such as Zoloft and Prozac, to name two, can cause hot flashing. Migraine medicine can do the same. Anti-anxiety medicines, as well as anti-hypertensives, can also result in hot flashes.

Vitamins, Alcohol

Some individuals flush when they take the vitamin Niacin. Others can get extremely hot and sweaty after drinking alcohol.

Capsaicin

If you eat food that contains capsaicin, you are may well experience a substantial hot flash. Capsaicin is contained in hot peppers. Capsaicin has an effect on nerve endings, which prompts the dilation of blood vessels in the brain.

Breast Cancer Meds

Taking tamoxifen during treatment for breast cancer can result in hot flashes, according to Breastcancer.org. Oddly, some women don't experience hot flashes until they stop taking tamoxifen, which may be due to the fact that the tamoxifen, while being taken, found a way to combat hot flashes. Once out of the symptom, hot flashes start up or resume.

Men Can Flash, Too

According to Dr. Frederick R. Jelovsek, undergoing prostrate cancer treatment, where an anti-testosterone therapy is utilized, can cause a man to experience hot flashes. Any time that a man or woman's hormonal balance is upset, by drugs, illness, pregnancy or menopause, this can bring on a hot flash. If your hormones are operating at peak performance, you probably won't be the victim of hot flashes because estrogen and testosterone both protect against hot flashing. Hormone deficiencies prompt skin to dilate quickly and then release heat and that's what makes the hot flash happen.

References

• Wdxcyber.com
• Aolhealth.com