Night Sweats

Gabrielle,
Wow, thanks for all that information. Lots to consider.

My situation has amazingly resolved itself…i was waiting a couple of weeks to see if it was really better before posting. I has been really working hard in my bikram classes. I tend to push myself in exercise and I suppose in life too. So first I took 5 days off from class. During that time I noticed a steady decrease in my hot flashes. I started back up but now only practice every 3 days, and I take it just a little bit easier in class. I can’t believe that it’s just a coincidence….I really think that bikram does regulate hormones in the body (and probably in the right dose really helps menopause symptoms), but that I also had to pay more attention to how I was practicing.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had also started taking a Chinese herbal remedy from my doctor for about 3 weeks before the bikram break, and I continue to take that. No hormones in it, just herbs. Still, I honestly believe that I was just pushing my body too hard and not respecting the reaction I was getting.

We’ll see as time goes on if it is all just part of a cycle and I really have no control over it. But for now, no sweating except during class 😉

Thanks,

Angela

Gabrielle,
Yes, I think you’re right about moderation!
I don’t currently take any supplements other than lots of Vitaman C, but I am a vegetarian, don’t drink coffee, and eat a primarily organic diet. I’ll take a look at the other suggestions in your post for sure. I’ve wondered specifically about Vitamin D for a long time.

Angela

Thank you one & all for your input/feedback!!! I posted initially back in early March [early onset/completion ‘M’ @ age 45-now 51]. I’ve been ‘yoga hopping’ since I began my practice @ the very end of January 2010. Bikram was my second stop for an intro month and am now @ my 5th studio—approx. 25 lbs lighter! The only other hot/warm studio was a ‘Baptiste’ Vinyasa Flow @ 95°—no hot flashes, in fact, none since I moved on from Bikram. I am not participating in any hormone replacement therapy-especially traditional medicine-based-out of fear of side effects, Rx’s etc…but will print out the amazing info that has been amassed thru this line of communication and plan to investigate the ‘cream’ & compounding pharmacies-more in-depth. I plan to re-visit the Bikram studio in August or September and will share my experience/results. If I re-experience hot flashes, I’m planning to put the Bikram peeps on the spot and ask that they investigate. If the hot flashes re-emerge while participating in the ‘hot’ yoga which was literally burning off my weight, then I will know for certain that it is directly linked.
Thank all you groovi women for sharing your input & information w/me!!!
Have the very best day you possibly can!
Stefani [Fiffi] in Big D [Dallas, Texas]

Gabrielle,
I plan to maintain as many constant variables as possible-including water & a daily 90 minute practice for a month. This time around I will weigh myself before and after the one month period—MUCH easier to get myself to do since I’ve not weighed since I began my practice in Jan. of this year AND I’ve lost bunches of weight so far. The crazy thing is…my personal emotional, spiritual & functional levels have soared to such cosmic heighths that in the midst of my financial/work crisis that I am actually a happy, calm, content person & my ability to handle the immense stress that has been plaguing me may be ‘under wraps’ for the first time in my life while warding off monumental anxiety & depression! Such AMAZING benefits!!! When I ‘grow up’ I am definitely pursuing teacher training—I want yoga to inhabit as much of my day as possible!!!
Peace & Love,
Fiffi

Hi Todd

Just wondering if there is a direct correlation between practising yoga and the sweaty episodes.

The other thing I wonder about is your intake of electrolytes. Are you supplementing? Do you use normal table salt or sea salt?

I will investigate that link later but thought I would ask the questions first.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Todd

Yes! Bananas are great.

That’s excellent news about your last yoga experience.

If I may be so bold as to suggest that the only 2 things I can think of that table salt are good for are making play dough for children and soaking clothes in water with high concentration table salt to stop dye runs.

The way that table salt is processed robs every iota of nutritional goodness and on top of that the high heat treatment of it is said to alter the ionic structure (I have not researched that YET)… but what that means is that I recommend immediate rather than eventual removal of that stuff from your kitchen. I always have a bag of it at home … in the laundry.

The advantages: You don’t have to be cautious about the amount of salt you put on your food. You can go back to enjoying salt added whenever you like. You can’t control what others put in to your processed foods (if you eat them) but you can feel happy to do the best you can at home. It’s a simple and cheap way to get your electrolytes.

At our home aim for between half and one teaspoon a day. It’s in and on salads and dressings and so on.

The modern day studies about sodium effects are most certainly because of our propensity to eat food with NaCl salt rather than sea salt. Excess Na (sodium) is implicated in many modern day diseases but what’s not addressed is the imbalance in all the necessary nutrients and electrolytes sadly missing from diets. Well, that’s my opinion, because the last few decades have seen an inordinate amount of food processing.

I welcome comments from anyone to open up this discussion! I’m off to enjoy the weekend now, so I won’t keep writing although I know I could!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

I have practicing Bikram Yoga for about 6 months and have began experiencing night sweats the last several months, and I hadn’t before. I awaken in the middle of the night with the sheets and blanket drenched, me soaking wet; and feeling amped up to the point of it affecting my returning to sleep. I hydrate throughout my class day. I also bring at least 2 litres of water to class, sweating much more profusely than the folks around me. I then supplement with additional water and gatorade after class. Could there be any correlation with it being winter and lack of sunlight and Vitamin D? Do I need further supplementation of electrolytes? I love my Bikram yoga practice, however this new after effect of the the class has me considering stopping my practice. Help.

Hi Michele

How wonderful that it has resolved for you and so quickly too.

Hi Dirk

I was wondering if you’ve been to get your blood checked out (vitamins, hormones, vit D, a whole work up). Oh and btw if you want your vit D levels checked you must ask because it is not a standard test. It’s called a 25 Hydroxy test.

There’s probably a simple answer. But rather than other yogis diagnosing, isn’t it worth getting it checked out for your own baseline measurements? At least you’ll know what you’re dealing with. You can then go online and do some research to see whether what your doc tells you gels with what your understanding is.

If you’re wanting to share those details then that will be great so we can all learn. But if you’re playing in dangerous territory then you ought to know. Having electrolyte imbalance can of course be a life threatening thing. I am not saying yours is. Then couple that with the high temperatures and the situation is compounded.

Dirk, do you have any indication as to the temperatures of the classes you’re attending? Are any others appearing to have difficulties in class? How many people routinely sit out of poses? Do you think the temperatures are a little hot?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

How much water are you drinking overall on a day you went to yoga?

Hi all:

New here, and am finding this thread fascinating. I have been doing Bikram since around 2002. With some time off here and there I go about 3-5 times per week. Years ago I started having night sweats. I changed my diet every which way I could think of, tried an Ayurvedic approach, had my doctor run all kinds of tests, and could not figure it out. Tests were perfect except for low vitamin D, which I have been supplementing since April 2010.

I moved in June 2010 and fell off the yoga wagon. No night sweats. I finally got my butt back into gear this January, going 4-5 times per week. Night sweats are back.

It seems I typically have them whenever I do the yoga. I make sure I eat balanced meals and drink plenty of water and use electrolyte packets on days I do yoga. So there is, for me, definitely a correlation between the yoga and the sweats.

My sweat production seems normal any other time of the day. But it is very unpleasant for me, and my partner, to wake up several times a night in a pool of sweat and wet blankets!

Any other suggestions would be most welsome!

Thanks!
Christine

Hi. I’m a 49 (for 3 more weeks) year-old woman, not yet going through menopause, as far as I can tell. I have been enjoying Bikram for four years, although I never learned to love the heat and frequently got head aches after class. Recently, I have started to feel extremely nauseous during class and find myself sitting out half the poses. Last class, the teacher had to bribe me with a towel soaked in her cold water and put on my forehead, or I would have walked out. I barely had to sit down, even in my first class, before about a month ago. I keep going, but it’s beginning to feel like a waste of a precious hour and a half, when I can comfortably do other yogas and swim and bike without any discomfort. I have adjusted when I eat before class; I always eat lots of potassium and a reasonable amount of salt; and plenty of fluids. I hope you don’t mind my joining this thread, but I suspect there may be a link between heat tolerance and perimenopause, and I would love some insight.

Hi everybody!

What an interesting thread… hot yoga really can and will affect your body and psyche in numerous ways. When I first started my regular practise (about five times/w) I experienced night sweats, almost always in direct correlation to yoga the evening before. After about a month they subsided, and were completely gone after three months. During these three first months of bikram yoga I also had days of crazy appetite, days of no appetite, cravings for some specific foods while couldn’t stand other tastes that I used to love (coffee for example!), I also experienced break-outs worse than ever before (which cleared away within a few days when I started the yogabody supplements by the way- but that is a different thread!)

My take on this- with no medical knowledge whatsoever, is that a regular hot yoga practise really is quite “invasive”, I believe that going from a “normal” exercise routine, i.e. aerobics twice a week, to hot yoga many days in a row simply takes some getting used to.

Eight months now with a steady practise and I can’t imagine ever going back to any other kind of exercise (other than to maybe complement my yoga practise) and I feel healthier and stronger than ever, and am starting to research teacher training alternatives.

wow, I was only supposed to comment on the sweat thing… 🙂 what I wanted to say is that I am 24 yrs old so sweating doesn’t have to have anything to do with menopause, and that for me, it got better quite fast. It might be true what my most dedicated teacher likes to recommend as a remedy for basically anything (she winks while she says this!) “try MORE yoga!” 😉

Namaste everybody

My friend lilly sweats a lot in night even in the low temperature and even in cold chilly winters.

Can you suggest me what’s wrong???