Fighting Fire With Fire

I discovered something interesting by accident this week. You can fight fire with fire.

Specifically, cayenne pepper eases hot flashes. Or did so with mine, anyway.

I hadn’t taken any cayenne for a few weeks because I’d been too lazy to fill the capsules myself. Yeah, we make our own. My husband brings in the empty gelatin capsules to sell at his health food store so we buy hot pepper in bulk and fill them ourselves.

I got around to it about two nights ago and took one shortly before retiring the other evening. No hot flash.
For the past few weeks I could count on becoming uncomfortably warm around 11 p.m. It was a nightly routine that lasted maybe 10 minutes, then I’d be okay.
I’d be blessed once or twice again before morning.
But that night something magic happened.

That is, nothing.

I continued with the capsaicin (that’s the chemical that gives the peppers their heat) capsules and again, no hot flash.

Last night I had a minor one around 11 p.m and it would be as stretch to call it hot. It was lukewarm at best and barely lasted a minute.

We use the 250 mg size capsules and I take at least three a day. I rarely take more than six, and that’s only if I’m fighting a cold.

My husband is field-testing cayenne for pain relief and I’ve noted it's really good for the stomach.

Capsaicin is apparently good for circulation. I heard that some people sprinkle hot pepper in their socks to ward off cold feet. I’ve never tried it, so I have no opinion. Ingesting it is supposed to keep you warm, but I never heard that it could subdue hot flashes.

What a cool surprise.

Read about cayenne here http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/cayenne.htm
Or here http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/healing-herbs.shtml

Note: I am in no way offering medical advice. This is anecdotal evidence of something capsaicin did for me.