Ask Dr. Mike: Hormones, Vitamin E, Dementia & Hot Flashes

Here you'll find the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions posed by Healthy Talk fans.

Listen in... because what you learn and come to know helps ensure healthy choices you can actually live with.

Today, on Healthy Talk you wanted to know:

I have been taking hormones for two years and was feeling better, but recently my hot flashes and insomnia are back. What happened?

Assuming that the dosage of your hormone regimen hasn't changed, your liver could be congested. Your liver does all the metabolizing of the hormones in your body. All of the hormones that you take are fat-based, which need to be metabolized by your liver. Often, your liver becomes congested and it fails at continuing to metabolize hormones, which can create some imbalance.

One suggestion would be to do a liver detox to help rid the liver of toxins and congestion. This doesn't mean you have to stop using your hormones while undergoing a detox. You can use something mild like milk thistle or artichoke extract.

I heard drinking beer could help ease hot flashes. Is this true?

NO, it's not true.

Even though hops, one of the main ingredients in beer, is a phytoestrogen, it doesn't mean it's able to cure your hot flashes. Beer is also fermented and contains other ingredients like sugars, chemicals, and malt that can alter the levels of hops; so you're not exactly sure if you're getting any hops.

You're better off taking a hop extract that's standardized to around 20 percent of 8PN (phytoestrogen).

Genetic testing showed that I have the same mutations as those with dementia. What does that mean?

If you've had DNA sequencing done, you're able to determine the precise order of your genes. If 80 percent of people who suffer from age related dementia share these polymorphisms (biology when two or more phenotypes exist in the same population in a specific species), it's referred to as associated with dementia, not necessarily true risk factors.

Once doctors have these groupings of polymorphisms, they can take your genes and test against that to see if you have some of those variations. This does not mean you will have dementia later in your life.

Does Vitamin E cause prostate cancer?

No! There is a synthetic form of vitamin E, D-alpha Tocopherol, that if used all by itself displaces the most important form of vitamin E, Gamma E Tocopherol and can cause some inflammation problems.

If you are taking vitamin E, you want to make sure you're taking natural vitamin E products.

If you have a health question or concern, Dr. Mike encourages you to write him so he can help give you support and helpful advice.