menopause and electric shock
By Andrea Donsky | Fact Checked | Sources
Have you ever felt like a tiny bolt of lightning shot through your body? This feeling has been named electric shock sensation, and some women in menopause are among those who sometimes experience it. What's it all about and how can you manage it?
What is electric shock sensation?
Electric shock sensation is a phenomenon that some people describe as having electricity surge through the body. It's an uncomfortable, sharp, and frequently painful sensation that lasts only seconds. Although it's not entirely understood, it seems to be associated with the central nervous system and the brain-estrogen connection.
The discomfort or pain you can experience from electric shock occurs because the neurons in the brain misfire. No actual harm happens, but you do feel varying degrees of pain.
How is electric shock sensation associated with menopause?
Experts believe that electric shock sensation may be caused by fluctuations in estrogen levels that occur starting in perimenopause and during menopause. As the hormone levels change and decline, the signals transported to the brain may be misunderstood or short-circuited and result in the electric shock sensations.
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How do you manage electric shock sensation naturally?
You can make some lifestyle changes to help minimize or even eliminate electric shock sensation.
Read about 11 ways to reduce stress in your life
- Minimize stress. Fortunately there are scores of ways to manage stress, but the secret is consistency: practice stress reduction methods daily. It's best to have several methods or habits at your disposal so you won't get bored or tend to skip them. Meditation, deep breathing, exercise (that you enjoy), progressive relaxation, yoga, tai chi, dancing, listening to soothing music, walking in nature, and spending time with pets are just a few of the methods you can use.
- Take magnesium. This mineral can help relax the nervous system and thus minimize the opportunity for shocks to occur. You can take a supplement (about 250 mg daily) or include more magnesium-rich foods in your diet, such as leafy dark greens, avocados, seeds, whole grains, and legumes.
- Get more omega-3 fatty acids. These essential fatty acids are important for a healthy, functioning nervous system. Salmon, tuna, walnuts, and flax seeds are helpful, as are omega-3 supplements.
- Eliminate saturated fats. Many meats, dairy foods, and baked goods contain saturated fats that can interfere with blood circulation. Choose more fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and lean meats.
- Cut caffeine and alcohol use. Both of these substances can make electric shock sensation worse. Eliminate their use completely or at least significantly cut down and see if you don't notice a difference.
- Get more sunshine exposure. The sun's rays not only help build vitamin D in the body; it also can work to stabilize the nervous system.
- Get wet. Alternating between warm/hot and cool/cold water can help restore balance to the nervous system. You can do this by taking a hot shower followed by several seconds (or more) of a cold shower (but avoid your head). You may also alternate putting your left arm in warm/hot water for 30 seconds, removing it, and then putting your right arm in the water. Do this several times.
- Go barefoot. Walking barefoot on grass or sand is grounding in the ordinary sense of the word. It makes you slow down and pay attention to your feet, and some women find that it settles the nervous system.
- Stay hydrated. Insufficient water intake can contribute to zapping sensations, so be sure to drink at least 8 eight-ounce glasses of water daily.
A correction we owe you. This page used to say that walking barefoot may help eliminate electromagnetic radiation your body absorbs from your environment and your electronic devices. We have taken that out. The body does not absorb and store electromagnetic radiation that can later be discharged into the ground, so there is nothing there to release. If you have bought grounding mats, sheets, or shoes because of that idea, they are not doing what we suggested they do. Walking barefoot is still worth doing if you enjoy it.
If what you feel is more of a flutter, a skipped beat, or a racing heart rather than a jolt, that is a different symptom. We cover it in menopause and irregular heartbeat.
When to see your doctor
Electric shock sensation is typically harmless and disappears as you enter postmenopause. However, if your zapping sensations are disrupting your life or you have other concerns, please contact your healthcare professional for an evaluation.
When an electric shock feeling is not menopause
Most zapping sensations in perimenopause are brief, random and harmless. What follows is not a list of things you probably have. It is the short list of things that get missed, because a woman in her forties learns to file everything new under hormones.
Book an appointment, and use the word nerve rather than menopause, if any of these fit:
- The sensation runs in a line down one arm or one leg, or travels from your neck into a hand, rather than jumping around. A compressed nerve root in the neck, called cervical radiculopathy, does exactly this, and it often comes with weakness or a change in reflexes.
- It is in both feet or both hands, roughly symmetrical, and it is constant or worse at night. That pattern points toward peripheral neuropathy, which has causes worth finding, including diabetes and thyroid disease.
- You eat little or no animal food, have had weight loss surgery, or take metformin or a long term acid reducer, and you have tingling in your hands or feet. All of those lower vitamin B12, and a B12 deficiency damages nerves in a way that can become permanent if it runs long enough. It is one blood test.
- The sensation comes with numbness that lasts hours or days, weakness, changes in your vision, or trouble with balance or your bladder. Those are not perimenopause. They need assessing, including for multiple sclerosis, which is most often diagnosed in women between twenty and forty.
Go straight to emergency, do not wait for an appointment, if numbness or weakness comes on suddenly down one side of your body, or arrives with a drooping face, slurred speech, or the worst headache of your life. That is a stroke pathway, not a nerve one.
None of this means your zaps are sinister. It means the difference between the harmless kind and the kind that needs a doctor is a pattern you can check yourself in about a minute.
Bottom Line
If you are in perimenopause or menopause and having periods of short, sharp electric shock sensations, don't panic. These generally harmless jolts are the result of misfiring nerve cells in the brain and should disappear once you graduate to postmenopausal years.
