Gui-zhi-fu-ling-wan, a herbal therapy, depicts to be a viable alternative to hormone replacement therapy for treating hot flashes in post-menopausal women experiencing coldness in lower extremities.
In this study, an examination of the connection between extremities' blood flow and hot flashes was conducted among 352 post-menopausal women aged between 46 and 58 who were showing climacteric complaints. 131 of these women, who were experiencing hot flashes, were treated either with HRT or Gui-zhi-fu-ling-wan, a type of herbal therapy. This investigation measured blood flow under the jaw, in the middle finger, and the third toe using laser doppler fluxmetry.
Subsequent to the therapies, there was a notable decrease in the heightened blood flow under the jaw that is associated with hot flashes. However, the herbal therapy, Gui-zhi-fu-ling-wan, interestingly, increased blood flow in the lower extremities while the hormone replacement therapy did not. This suggests that Gui-zhi-fu-ling-wan does not uniformly affect the activity of the vasodilator neuropeptides on the sensory neurons of systemic peripheral vessels, thereby proving more effective in treating hot flashes accompanied with cold lower extremities.
