Can KaNDy crush flushes?

Investigating a potential new non-hormonal treatment for hot flushes

Some interesting news about a potential non-hormonal treatment from a company called KaNDY for hot flushes came my way the other day. That’ll be great news for those of us for whom, for various reasons, hormone replacement therapy is not a good choice.

The story starts deep in your brain in the hypothalamus, which does a lot of work keeping your body in balance. It has many jobs, but just two we need to think about here, it controls the release of Luteinising Hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) which together cause ovulation and also oestrogen and progesterone production. It’s basically the part of your brain that runs your menstrual cycle.

Oestrogen then regulates the very nerve cells in the hypothalamus that have been responsible for its own regulation — the human body loves circular arguments! Without oestrogen they go rogue. They get bigger and busier and and frankly touchier. Their comfort zone becomes so narrow that they very easily panic and tell your body it’s seriously too hot — at which point it pumps out all its heat energy to your skin — especially the skin of your head and neck. You’ve probably noticed that your feet can still be ice-cold while all this is going on!

It can also decide that you’re too cold and start shivering and getting goosebumps — which is why some women experience cold flushes. We can also get a cold flush after a hot flush as the hypothalamus settles down and has to tell…