From Hot Flashes to Better Sleep: Tocotrienols for Menopausal Symptom Relief
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
|A woman's body goes through several changes in her life. First, she experiences the challenges of growing up, followed by understanding and adapting to her menstrual cycle, which becomes a key part of her life. Then, she learns to manage each monthly cycle, then learns the journey of childbirth, and finally faces menopause. While many women adapt to these life stages, menopause often comes with little guidance or preparation. In some cases, women are unaware that the symptoms they’re experiencing are related to menopause.
The most common symptom is hot flashes (sudden, brief, and periodic body temperature increases), affecting about 75% of women.
For 80% of them, these hot flashes last two years or less. Hot flashes often come with sleeplessness, further disrupting the quality of life.
There are many dietary and lifestyle habits that can contribute to menopausal symptoms and it is important to investigate and address these when it comes to treatment. The focus of this article will be learning about tocotrienols, a potent form of Vitamin E, and how they can help provide relief from hot flashes and promote better sleep. Let’s explore!
What are Hot Flashes?
Before jumping into the tocotrienol benefits, let's first understand what hot flashes are and how they happen.
Simply put, hot flashes happen when the body is in a hurry to cool itself down. The body is typically quite good at maintaining its temperature throughout the day, a process known as thermoregulation.
However, during menopause, where there are hormone changes such as decreased estrogen levels and potential changes in the nervous system, even small changes in body temperature can trigger your body’s cooling system, leading to hot flashes. Simultaneously, this can make sleeping harder, as the sudden warmth and sweating can wake you up.
How Can Tocotrienols Help Reduce Hot Flashes?
Hot flashes result from the body’s inability to regulate temperature effectively and are often linked to lower estrogen levels. So, the following is how Tocotrienols can help manage Hot Flashes in menopausal women. There is not an exact method for how Tocotrienols help reduce hot flashes, but below are some explanations for your easy understanding.
- Help support hormonal health, potentially by reducing inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, which are often heightened during menopause and contribute to hot flashes.
- It improves cellular function, and this may restore balance in the nervous system, which plays a key role in regulating body temperature.
- Vitamin E is thought to support blood vessel function by potentially helping them relax and widen, a process that might play a role in heart health. It has also been studied for its possible effects on postmenopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes, changes in blood vessel function, plasma lipid levels, and vaginal health.
- One study found that a one-month vitamin E prescription can improve sleep quality. It can also reduce sedative drug use in postmenopausal women dealing with chronic sleep disorders.
- Additionally, Tocotrienols have indicated positive anti-osteoporotic attributes in post-menopausal studies.
Read the following placebo-controlled double-blind trial for a better understanding of Vitamin E's effect on menopausal women.
What They Did:
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Conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 51 menopausal women.
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Participants were given either a placebo or 400 IU of vitamin E daily for 4 weeks, after a 1-week baseline and 1-week washout period.
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A diary was used to track the severity and frequency of hot flashes before and after the treatment.
What They Found:
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Vitamin E significantly reduced the severity and frequency of hot flashes compared to the placebo.
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The severity score went from 2.37 to 1.80, and the daily frequency decreased from 5.00 to 3.19.
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The results were statistically significant, with a p-value of less than 0.0001.
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As per the result, Vitamin E is recommended as an effective treatment for hot flashes in menopausal women.
Conclusion: Based on their trial, they recommended vitamin E to treat hot flashes.
Note: All the Tocotrienols Vitamin E benefits mentioned above in various health conditions are still in the early stages of research, and further research is needed to confirm the extent of these benefits. Do not take it as a substitute for your prescribed medicine.
Final Note
Menopause symptoms can be alleviated, and long-term health issues can be addressed with hormone replacement treatment (HRT), often known as hormone therapy for menopause. However, the majority of women are choosing hormone-free therapy because these treatments are not suitable for everyone.
This is where tocotrienol comes into the picture, as this plant-based ingredient can be a helpful ally during your menopausal journey in combination with advice from your healthcare provider and an intentional diet and lifestyle. Read more about the role of tocotrienols in the menopausal phase. Who knows, maybe it will become a supportive friend as you age.
Disclaimer: These statements have not been assessed by the FDA. The information contained within this page is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace the advice or attention of health care professionals.
