Moderate alcohol consumption (about three drinks a month) significantly reduces the severity of hot flushes for menopausal women, new research suggests.

Many women going through menopause experience hot flushes; unpredictable and sometimes disruptive feelings of intense heat in the upper body, neck and face. Generations of doctors have prescribed hormones to reduce these symptoms, but very little research has focused on their underlying causes or the predisposing factors, even though more than 40 million women experience hot flushes each year.

Some factors, such as smoking and genetics, increase the likelihood that a woman will experience hot flushes more often, or more intensely. But it now seems that alcohol consumption reduces that risk.

"We don’t know why moderate alcohol consumption is reducing the risk of hot flushes, other than it doesn’t seem to be doing so by changing hormone levels," said researcher professor Jodi Flaws of the American University of Maryland.

Obesity has also been found to be a risk factor for increased hot flushes, possibly because those with a higher body mass index have lower levels of oestrogen.

"It could be that oestrogen levels are higher in the fat, but not circulating in the blood," said Flaws. "It’s the blood that gets to the brain and to the thermoregulatory centres that govern hot flushes."

She added that while you can’t do anything about your genetic makeup, body mass index, alcohol use and smoking are three things that can be changed. "So probably if women quit smoking, and they lose weight, it will reduce their risk,” she said. “And if they engage in light drinking, that might also reduce the risk of hot flushes.”

The evidence is that these lifestyle changes may be more beneficial than hormone replacement therapy, with several recent studies having exposed that it is related serious health risks, including breast cancer. Read more: Hormone Replacement Therapy Breast Cancer Link.

Several previous studies have found that wine has health benefits: it may help you live longer (Read more: Drinking Wine Could Raise Your Life Expectancy), improve your heart health (Scientists Locate the Healthiest Red Wines) and even boost antioxidants (Grape Expectations for Healthier Wine).