Benefits seen across participants with breast or prostate cancer, as well as postmenopausal women
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 24, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Targeted wrist cooling may offer a safe approach for managing vasomotor symptoms, according to a study published online Sept. 20 in Endocrinology and Diabetes.
Nazlı Uçar, from the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University, and colleagues evaluated whether a wrist cooling device could serve as a safe, nonpharmaceutical intervention for reducing hot flash severity. The analysis included 27 participants (10 breast cancer patients, 12 prostate cancer patients, and five postmenopausal women) experiencing at least two daily moderate-to-severe hot flashes.
The researchers found that compared with baseline, the active cooling intervention reduced severe hot flash episodes by 46 percent and total daily hot flashes by 18 percent. There were consistent effects observed across all populations (41 percent reduction in breast cancer patients; 50 percent reduction in both postmenopausal women and prostate cancer patients). There was significant reduction seen in hot flash severity when adjusting for age and underlying condition.
“Most nonhormonal pharmaceutical options for managing hot flashes are limited by significant side effects, and hormone replacement therapy is not appropriate for breast and prostate cancer patients who were on, or who have been treated with, hormone deprivation therapy,” coauthor Michael F. Holick, M.D., Ph.D., also from Boston University, said in a statement. “This creates an urgent need for safe, effective, nonpharmaceutical interventions suitable for diverse patient populations experiencing debilitating vasomotor symptoms.”
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