Let me start by saying I didn't believe it. But with hot flashes in the news as causing all sorts of heart problems and dementia later on, I'm going to share what I can to help.
A patient told me that she was taking apple cider vinegar for her hot flashes and it helped. Since I couldn't see the immediate connection, I reacted like a regular doctor and pooh pooh'd it in my brain. But, unlike a regular doctor, I keep a list of strange possibilities and pass them on to other patients as well as the things I think will work. My job is to help people get better, not to assume I know everything.
So I passed on the recipe to another patient, as well as discussing the many other treatments she could do. I have a starter list of things I do besides hormones for estrogen imbalance. These are just the start, but it gives women an idea of how much they can do to affect their hormones. (For your ease, I've recopied the list below this article.)
Here's the recipe:
4-6 oz water
1 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
2 ice cubes
1/2 tsp honey (to taste)
Drink twice daily.
It looks like a recipe for a tart drink, not a hormonal modifier. So imagine my surprise when the second patient asked if she should stop the treatment because it was delaying her menstrual cycle. That's pretty powerful, on the level of a full dose of an estrogen pill (that's why you take a week off birth control, or they give you placebo pills for a week to allow the body to go through a period). More importantly, she said when she missed a dose, she was getting cramping.
Suddenly apple cider vinegar went from "eh, maybe" to "wow, that's powerful!" So I did a little research on this particular salad addition.
Apple cider vinegar is not well researched, but the material we do have is pretty dramatic. I would stongly support more research, as different blends of apple cider vinegar react differently. Organic apple cider vinegar has a wider range of bacteria, and they exist in different proportions within the vinegar.
In a test tube, diluted apple cider vinegar is an effective antibiotic against a number of bacteria as well as yeasts. There's even a case report of vinegar being used for an antibiotic resistant vaginal candida infection, but it wouldn't be my first choice (ouch, burning).
In mice fed a high cholesterol diet, apple cider vinegar lowered their cholesterol. It did it by helping their liver process more efficiently.
Male rats given vinegar had significant increases in their liver and kidney metabolisms, as well as changes in numerous minerals. The combination led the researchers to think that vinegar might lessen the damage from diabetes. When given to rats fed a high fat diet, apple cider vinegar lowered all the markers we would associate with greater heart attack risks.
In chickens, the addition of vinegar to the water acts as a preventative for the known bacterial infections chickens get in close quarters. Clearly, the vinegar is acting to modify the microbiome of the gut in a healthy direction.
So, here's my thought about how apple cider vinegar might help. It improves the microbiome, lowering the burden on the immune system and the liver. The liver improves its clean up of other things, including hormones that aren't in the normal range. For women with hot flashes, that results in less bouncing around, and fewer hot flashes. It's not a huge amount, maybe 1%, but that 1% makes a huge difference in hormonal responses.
The one reasonable concern I would have about apple cider vinegar is possible dental issues. But the study I found had no dramatic changes of tooth enamel even up to fifteen minutes of exposure. The vinegar worked to decrease candida in the mouth while not altering the color of the teeth. But evidently drinking glasses of vinegar straight can be a problem for growing teeth.
I'm sure that someone out there will think that if a little is good, more is better. Keep in mind that a drink of water is nice, while being submerged in water is called drowning. Apple cider vinegar is an acid, and too much can burn you, inside or outside. Don't even try this or any idea without talking with your doctor. A good doctor is worth ten million online articles.
Oh, if you want to do more about preventing dementia, I have a book called The Dementia Diet that goes into detail about how to keep your most precious memories.
If you want other options for altering hot flashes, here's my starter checklist:
A patient told me that she was taking apple cider vinegar for her hot flashes and it helped. Since I couldn't see the immediate connection, I reacted like a regular doctor and pooh pooh'd it in my brain. But, unlike a regular doctor, I keep a list of strange possibilities and pass them on to other patients as well as the things I think will work. My job is to help people get better, not to assume I know everything.
So I passed on the recipe to another patient, as well as discussing the many other treatments she could do. I have a starter list of things I do besides hormones for estrogen imbalance. These are just the start, but it gives women an idea of how much they can do to affect their hormones. (For your ease, I've recopied the list below this article.)
Here's the recipe:
4-6 oz water
1 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
2 ice cubes
1/2 tsp honey (to taste)
Drink twice daily.
It looks like a recipe for a tart drink, not a hormonal modifier. So imagine my surprise when the second patient asked if she should stop the treatment because it was delaying her menstrual cycle. That's pretty powerful, on the level of a full dose of an estrogen pill (that's why you take a week off birth control, or they give you placebo pills for a week to allow the body to go through a period). More importantly, she said when she missed a dose, she was getting cramping.
Suddenly apple cider vinegar went from "eh, maybe" to "wow, that's powerful!" So I did a little research on this particular salad addition.
Apple cider vinegar is not well researched, but the material we do have is pretty dramatic. I would stongly support more research, as different blends of apple cider vinegar react differently. Organic apple cider vinegar has a wider range of bacteria, and they exist in different proportions within the vinegar.
In a test tube, diluted apple cider vinegar is an effective antibiotic against a number of bacteria as well as yeasts. There's even a case report of vinegar being used for an antibiotic resistant vaginal candida infection, but it wouldn't be my first choice (ouch, burning).
In mice fed a high cholesterol diet, apple cider vinegar lowered their cholesterol. It did it by helping their liver process more efficiently.
Male rats given vinegar had significant increases in their liver and kidney metabolisms, as well as changes in numerous minerals. The combination led the researchers to think that vinegar might lessen the damage from diabetes. When given to rats fed a high fat diet, apple cider vinegar lowered all the markers we would associate with greater heart attack risks.
In chickens, the addition of vinegar to the water acts as a preventative for the known bacterial infections chickens get in close quarters. Clearly, the vinegar is acting to modify the microbiome of the gut in a healthy direction.
So, here's my thought about how apple cider vinegar might help. It improves the microbiome, lowering the burden on the immune system and the liver. The liver improves its clean up of other things, including hormones that aren't in the normal range. For women with hot flashes, that results in less bouncing around, and fewer hot flashes. It's not a huge amount, maybe 1%, but that 1% makes a huge difference in hormonal responses.
The one reasonable concern I would have about apple cider vinegar is possible dental issues. But the study I found had no dramatic changes of tooth enamel even up to fifteen minutes of exposure. The vinegar worked to decrease candida in the mouth while not altering the color of the teeth. But evidently drinking glasses of vinegar straight can be a problem for growing teeth.
I'm sure that someone out there will think that if a little is good, more is better. Keep in mind that a drink of water is nice, while being submerged in water is called drowning. Apple cider vinegar is an acid, and too much can burn you, inside or outside. Don't even try this or any idea without talking with your doctor. A good doctor is worth ten million online articles.
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| Image by zujen from Pixabay |
Oh, if you want to do more about preventing dementia, I have a book called The Dementia Diet that goes into detail about how to keep your most precious memories.
If you want other options for altering hot flashes, here's my starter checklist:
Female Hormone Checklist
Many of my patients have requested a listing of things they can do that will positively affect female hormone imbalances. As I tell my patients, the issue is not that there isn’t anything you can do, it’s that there is so much that can affect hormones.
I would never recommend simply taking handfuls of pills. The goal with any treatment should be to taper up, taper down, and try one thing at a time.
- Black cohash 2-4 caps
- GABA 2 caps daily
- Multivitamin with women’s herbs (Innate Formulas one a day)
- Meditation 20 minutes daily
- Diet Brown, whole, green and colorful, no caloric restriction, no fast food
- Detox one day a week (vegetable stew/salads)
- Red meat discussion (20% increase in testosterone in two hours)
- Dairy discussion (cow hormones still need processing by the body)
- Alcohol discussion (300% increase in estrogen due to processing delay)
- Teas raspberry, “Yoni,” female teas
- Cold packs for pain/hot flashes
- Progesterone creams
- Combination creams
- PhytoB (4 pellets twice a day = one half a standard hormonal dose)
- Licorice/Ashwaghanda mix
- Soy (SOYI9)four caps or half a cup of soy a day
- Sleep discussion (90 minute cycles)
- Cycle discussion (temperature readings/ journaling)
- Exercise (adrenal/ thyroid = worse/better) helps process hormones
- Bowel movements per day (LIQU8) if not at least one.
- Family history how to avoid/get what mom had.
- Vitex (VITEX), Chaste Tree-one a day.
- Weight changes (gain or loss) alter hormonal picture
- Folic acid 5 mg a day (Gynecol Endocrinol. 2010 Sep;26(9):658-62.)
- Tyrosine 500mg a day (Actas Urol Esp. 2009 Apr;33(4):337-43.)
- 5 HTP 50-600mg a day (Serotonin involvement)
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