Acupuncture for Hot Flashes Is a Total Game-Changer

I was 48 when I began hot-flashing, and they hit me like a burning sledge hammer about four or five times an hour throughout the day. Wham! I’d slip off my sweater and flick on the little fan under the desk in my office. Shiver! The sweat cooled down, and, clammy and chilled, I’d put the sweater back on and turn off the fan. Fifteen minutes later: Wham! All over again.

My hot flashes were a burning sledge hammer that hit about four or five times an hour throughout the day.

Bothersome, uncomfortable, embarrassing—all of those things made worse by what accompanied these heat tsunamis. A few times a day, I’d also get a sudden blood sugar plunge. I’m hypoglycemic and have controlled it well through the years by eating often and carefully, almost completely avoiding the awful sensation of a drop—a lightheaded, shaky, anxious, nauseous, and completely dim-witted (the brain basically runs on glucose) feeling. Usually when my blood sugar sinks, I get warning signs, but there was no build-up to these plunges; they smashed like a truck, and I had to sit very still and wait for them to pass. What would happen, I worried, if one hit while I was in a meeting….or worse, driving?