Hot flashes with dementia?

In reading an online article about "idiopathic night sweats" there was an online comment from a physician: "idiopathic means that your doctor is an idiot and the patient is pathetic".

I hope the gp turns up something. Subjective feelings of hot and cold are one thing, but night sweats always worry me. My husband had them recently and it was one of the clues that led to a dx of atypical pneumonia, which hadn't shown up on an xray.

Good luck! And do let us know what happens...we learn from each other!

I bet it is actually related to her medication. Try a different pharmaceutical manufacturer as each company has their own fillers that they use in medications. All it takes is one filler that your Mom is sensitive to to cause her problems. I have this issue myself.

Or maybe it is acid reflux, heartburn, that can mimic hot flashes. I get that myself the first thing when I wake up in the morning.

Dementia can interfere with the body's thermostat, just as it can interfere with almost any bodily function. My husband had periods of being suddenly hot. (Not quite in a hot-flash way.) So that he could still enjoy our short summers I bought him a vest that held cooling packs. He wore it golfing. When he died someone else I know was going through similar heat experiences. I gave the vest to him. He opened up the sides so it would fit him, and wore it fishing.

(Both men had Lewy Body Dementia. Do you know what kind of dementia your mom has?)

Obviously I don't know if it is the dementia that is causing your mom's "hot flashes" but I sure know that dementia can cause issues with body temperature. Do any of the doctors she sees specialize in dementia?

If she has never had a hysterectomy and she still has ovaries, polycystic conditions or ovarian cancer can cause Hot flushes, night sweats, panic attacks, palpitations, poor sleep. See the OB-GYN.

LorrieB, try searching dementia temperature regulation on Google. There is a lot of information available.

Some medications can give people the sweats bad enough to soak through the sheets.

I googled "elderly women and night sweats". WebMD has a list of about 10 possibilities, including heart valve infections, reactions to medications and TB. Has your mom had a complete blood panel recently?

I am 83 . Was diagnosed with early Alzheimers in Dec. I am taking Donepizil. I have noticed the hot and cold but so far no night sweats. I keep my sunny side up!

Babalou, it's not fever. More like hot flashes and cold chills, from what she can tell me. I'm setting up an appointment with her GP. She had a recent blood panel to rule out thyroid and other possibilities, but nothing to explain it. The obvious reason would be the dementia, but it's important to look at treatable causes.

I care for my grandmother (96). She is a petite woman whom has always liked the house rather warm, around 74-76 degrees warm on a sunny day. So when she became ill around the holiday and lost a considerable amount of weight I found that she was stripping down at night to well all but nothing and would kick off her covers. She was waking up with a noticeable blankness in her eyes, She started calling me Ellie (her sister whom has been passed for over 25 years). Which would lead to confusion when I would correct her. I monitored this in a few ways, by lowering the thermometer at night to where I was chilled to checking her vents, filters to monitoring her diet, changing the sheets from flannel to satin for the non human related stuff. I monitored her BP sitting, standing and laying at the time she laid down and also then when she had woke again. Her BM's, her Temp, if she was sleeping soundly I would swipe across her forehead with a digital thermometer. I noticed that she was dehydrated and so we worked on slowly rehydrating which worked somewhat on the disorientation, but as for the sweats and hot flashes, I found that taking her off of her senior multivitamin in a pill form was what caused her to regulate her temperature. I found that in the am and then at night I would offer her a multivitamin in liquid form. Centrum makes an adult liquid multivitamin that has a citrus taste that she likes a lot. As she is a petite lady so she takes 1/2 dose in Am and then 1/2 dose at bedtime. I stress that the multivitamin is at night, because during the day we already get essential vitamin and sunlight, where at night when our body is resting it is also repairing, and if she is on night meds, her body is trying to break down all of those pills, only to have to work again to digest them. Which lead to blood sugar spikes and lack of food and beverage to push them thru her system well sweating them out is common. Often the hallutionations were in my grandmothers case, was because she was dreaming of her childhood and when I would check on her and rouse her, she was still kinda in that dreamy state, but would eventually come out of it. We have been doing the liquid multivitamin for a little over 3 months and she is doing wonderful. She even gets up in a better mood and also wakes up earlier then before and stays up during the day. I hope maybe this might help you.