What Are the Causes of Hot Flashes and Overheating?
Symptoms of hot flashes are well known—sweating, anxiety and increased heart rate—and they are signs of a problem with our body’s temperature-control center, the hypothalamus. To keep us from overheating, the hypothalamus signals the brain into action, circulating more blood and opening sweat glands.MenopauseThe hormone fluctuations associated with menopause are the most common cause of hot flashes, affecting 85 percent of American women during perimenopause and the year or two following, according to Women to Women. The hypothalamus incorrectly interprets decreased levels of estrogen as a sign of your body overheating, triggering a hot flash.Cancer TreatmentWomen with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer also suffer from hot flashes because of the hormones used to treat their cancer. Some cancer medications known to cause hot flashes include anastrozole, letrozole and tamoxifen for women and goserelin, histrelin, leuprolide and triptorelin pamoate for men.Endocrine TumorsTum
