Women undergoing menopause often experience hot flashes. A handy description of a hot flash is a sudden wave of intense heat that begins in the chest or stomach region and then envelopes the entire physical body. Many women report that this hot sensation is accompanied by profuse sweating and a red flush that suffuses the face.

Women in the throes of a hot flash will report sensations of nausea, dizziness, enervation and heart palpitations. Interestingly, these hot flashes may last for short periods of 3 to 6 minutes, or in rare instances may stretch for half an hour to an hour. A hot flash will subside as suddenly as it begins. The immediate aftermath is a chilling of the body as the internal thermostat struggles to restore balance.

Hot flashes can be neatly categorized as mild, moderate and severe. Some of the things that you will experience if you are having a hot flash are rapid heartbeat, perspiration, mild warmth feeling to intense heat spreading through your upper body and to your face, chilled feeling as the hot flash subsides. You can survive the hot flash by following these tips: -

1.  Dress up in layers so that you can peel of one layer after another as you get warmer.

2.  Avoid wearing woolen clothes and synthetic clothes and be wary of silken clothes. Also avoid wearing turtle necks.

3.  Keep ice water at hand that you can sip to cool down your insides.
 
4.  Wear cotton pajamas or a night gown if you perspire a lot at night. Or else you can also use cotton sheets. Don’t use synthetic sheets. Again if you perspire heavily then it’s preferable that you wear cotton pajamas because changing the nightclothes will be much easier than changing sheets.

5.  Where possible lower the thermostat. Have a decent air conditioner or a ceiling fan. You can also have a battery operated hand held fans or the foldable kind you flutter in front of your face. Paper fans are also suitable for this purpose.

6.  Before going to bed take a cool shower and also you can try a mild medication like Tylenol to keep you cool.

So these are some of the tips which if you follow you will be able to combat the problem of hot flash. However you need to be a little bit careful on sunny days as the temperature itself will be high and you might face aggravated problems of hot flash. These problems are not much serious if you take proper care and follow the above mentioned tips.