Head foggy and sick stomach

[Willowcreek1]

Hi.  My head feels foggy like I am not quite here and I will suddenly get so hot with beads or perspiration.  A few seconds later the intense heat calms down.  I also start feeling sick to my stomach 15-20 minutes after eating and feel like I may vomit.  I have lost 25 lbs in two months without trying.  I am a 53 year old female.  I started suffering sever hot flashes about 3 years ago after my mom died.   I also quit having monthly cycles and have not had one for three years.  I thought this might be menopause and I have taken all kinds of natural solutions, hot flash pills, slept with the fan on, etc.  However, I don't think I would be having hot flashes for three years, and the sickness I have been experiencing the last few months is getting to be intolerable.  

I went to the doctor and they have had me on venaflexine for the last 4 mos.  I quit taking it a week ago as I have not seen any improvement.  Any ideas?  I don't think I can take this much longer and wonder if I will ever feel 'normal' again.   I am generally very healthy and fit, was running marathons before all of this began, and don't take any medications other than the venaflexine I just quit.

[Paxiled]

First off, did you say you just quit Effexor abruptly without tapering off slowly?  Bad idea.  This drug is very hard to stop taking for most people, so I'd rethink that choice.  To me, it sounds like perimenopause, since you say you haven't reached menopause yet.  I don't know which natural remedies you tried, but maybe you didn't use the combination that best suits you.  What they gave you was a potent antidepressant that is one of the most difficult drugs to take and to stop taking, though you probably won't have as hard of a time since it doesn't appear you metabolized it all that well.  But no antidepressant treats hormonal difficulties.  I'd be very cautious about using synthetic pharmaceutical hormonal medications as they can have problems down the line, but I would keep pursuing the hormonal angle.  For most women in western societies the problem tends to be too little progesterone.  There are a lot of combinations of natural remedies plus lifestyle changes that can be helpful or not, but you might want to see a naturopath before going down the road of pharmaceuticals.  Good luck whatever you decide to try, but please be careful with the Effexor so you don't just add another problem.

[gymdandee]

Do your research on 2 milligrams of Estriol!

Many women think that exercise might aggravate hot flashes, but Penn State researchers found just the opposite in a group of women who reported "mild to moderate" menopausal symptoms. The 92 women who participated in the study wore accelerometers to monitor their physical activity, as well as monitors to measure skin conductance, which varies with the moisture level of the skin. Each woman also recorded her own hot flashes. After 15 days of gathering data, the researchers compared the women's reports with results from the monitors. The study team defined a "true" hot flash as an event that was reported by a woman and recorded by her monitor within five minutes of each other. The investigators found that the average woman in the study experienced fewer hot flashes after exercising, although they reported that overweight and less fit women noticed the smallest reduction in symptoms.  They added that it's too soon to say whether diet and exercise to lose weight would cut down on hot flashes but suggested that more study is warranted.