What Are the Causes of Hot Flashes?

A hot flash is comparable to walking head-on into a blast of hot air from a furnace. It's mostly felt in the head and neck region, but can extend to the rest of your body. According to Dr. Melissa Conrad Stoppler of Edmedicinenet.com, a hot flash generally lasts between half a minute to a couple of minutes, and can involve sweating or flushing. The cause of hot flashes is not yet completely understood by the medical community, but it is believed that they are brought on by a combination of biochemical and hormonal fluctuations caused by the declining level of estrogen in a woman's body.

Daytime and Nighttime Sweating

• Night sweats generally, but not always, go along with hot flashes. A night sweat occurs, obviously, during the night, when you are sleeping-- or trying to. Profuse sweating occurs, soaking your nightwear. Afterward, you may begin to chill because you are wearing damp pajamas. Night sweats are daytime hot flashes plus some. To determine if there is an underlying reason for night sweats, other than menopause, a doctor can run tests on you.

Other Considerations

• Idiopathic hyperhydrosis is a condition that can cause profuse hot flashes and night sweats.This condition prompts the body to sweat too much, with no immediately identifiable medical cause.

Other Culprits

• Illness and infections that can cause hot flashes include endocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart valves, and tuberculoisis, which is the infection most commonly associated with night sweats. Osteomyelitis, inflammation of the bones because of an infection, can cause hot flashes and sweating.

And More ...

• According to Dr. Stoppler, hot flashes and flushing can be caused by an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism), as well as as other medical conditions and the medicine that you are taking for them, including cancers and severe infections.

The Young Aren't Exempt

• Even if you are a young woman and a long way off from perimenopause, you can still experience hot flashes right before your period or even during your period. This is not unusual. About 75 percent of all women will experience hot flashes sooner or later.

Foods That Make You Hot

• Hot flashes can be brought on by eating hot peppers or drinking alcohol. Hot peppers contain capsaicin, which stimulates nerve endings that control and dilate the brain blood vessels, according to Wdxcyber.com. Medications--including mood-altering drugs, as well as anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medicine--can prompt hot flashes

Still Trying to Figure It Out

• Even though the medical community is still working on a specific cause for hot flashes, it is believed that there is probably increased blood flow and heat in the area of the brain that regulates heat. The brain subsequently releases chemicals that make the skin blood vessels dilate so the temperature can be released, according to Wdxcyber.com. If a person has a deficit in the sex hormone--estrogen, for example--the body is less able to tolerate a change in temperature. The heat sensors are triggered to dilate the blood vessels at the slightest change in temperature. Because of the super-sensitivity to temperature, due to the lack of estrogen, any time there is even the slightest change in the body heat, or an increase in blood flow at the brain's heat-regulating center, it will result in a hot flash.