An effective hot flash treatment may be just a few herbs away, a new Chinese study suggests. According to Reuters Health, a mix of traditional Chinese herbs may help ease menopausal hot flashes because of its weak estrogen-like activity.
To reach their conclusions, researchers from Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine assigned 72 women to take either the herbal mixture—called Jiawei Qing’e Fang—or a placebo mix of similar tasting herbs for eight weeks. All of the women involved in the study were having either irregular menstrual periods or had recently stopped menstruating, and were experiencing at least 14 episodes of hot flashes a week, Reuters said.
At the study’s conclusion, 70 percent of women taking Jiawei Qing’e reported a drop in both the number of hot flashes experienced and their level of intensity. The placebo group also experienced improvement, though not as markedly as the group taking the real herbal mixture. According to researchers, 56 percent of women taking the placebo reported an improvement in their health.
Jiawei Qing’e Fang is made from three Chinese herbs that have been in use for more than 1,000 years. The first two—cortex eucommia and fructus psoralae—were traditionally used to treat menopause symptoms. The third, Salvia miltiorrhiza, has been used to treat “gynecologic diseases,” the nes agency said.
