What’s relaxing, good for you, and may help reduce hot flashes? It’s yoga.

The practice of yoga is an excellent way to stay fit through middle-age and beyond. Even better, research from the Mayo Clinic finds that practicing yoga can reduce hot flashes by 30 to 100 percent! That’s very good news, considering that 75 percent of women experience hot flashes.

The key is that yoga activates the parasympathetic branch of the autonomous nervous system, the branch that governs relaxation. Most of us exist in a state of sympathetic activation — the sympathetic branch being the one that enables us to react to stresses and challenges in our environment. It’s not good for our bodies (or our minds) to be in such a constant state of alert. Yoga teaches the body to relax: Breathing and heart rate slow down, circulation improves, and a feeling of relaxation sets in. It’s a more conducive environment in which the body can function effectively.

By tuning in to your body’s responses, you can minimize hot flashes. You learn to recognize when you feel one coming on and intercept it. Though nervous system responses are considered involuntary, the practice of yoga teaches you to change your body’s way of responding. It’s a combination of mind- and body-control that, over time, reduces the severity and frequency of hot flashes.

Don’t worry if you’ve never done yoga before. Everybody begins as a novice, and yoga is not about twisting yourself into a pretzel. It’s about harmonizing body and mind for a new level of well-being — and fewer hot flashes!