Doctor breaks down social media menopause myths

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]All right, let's talk about this. Women struggling with hot flashes, weight gain, brain fog, and other menopause symptoms are inundated on social media with how to find relief. But many of those tips or advice are unproven. And that explains why the market for menopause treatments is big and growing.

[00:00:17]In fact, it's estimated to reach 27 billion dollars. Yeah, dollars. Billion by 2030. And there are two big trends right now. One involves taking an antacid and antihistamine combo. and the other involves creatine. And here to help us sort out what's just a fad and what could actually help you is Dr. Kathleen Jordan. Kathleen, right? I get that. Okay. Perfect. She is the medical chief medical officer at Media Health, which focuses on women going through parmenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. Dr. Jordan, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. So, I want to start with antihistamines and antacids like pepside and algra. What is that trend and does it actually work? Well, I'm hoping it's not a trend, but it is a conversation that's popular. So, it's a conversation that started with a couple Tik Tok influencers sharing that they took some stuff out of their cupboard. Algra, so allergy medicines and ant acids and felt better. So, they just shared just randomly just randomly. Okay.

[00:01:16]>> And then some people lobbed on some scientific theories that well, we do know that estrogen impacts histamine, right? So, it makes sense that antihistamines would work, >> right? So, it stimulated the conversation and we do have people asking about it, but we haven't had a lot of patients actually using it and so we haven't seen it as it trend in the conversation. Okay.

[00:01:38]>> Um, and I think your second question is does it work? There is no >> scientific evidence that it works, right? And I think it's important to know that it's important to know because there are actually evidence-based ways that definitely work, right? It's >> my life's work at Midi Health, right? So it's why we are bringing care to women.

[00:01:58]But there are definitely like hormone therapy is the gold standard. But even if you can't or don't want to take hormone therapy, there's other evidence-based ways to do it. There's linkquit, there's vioza, there's um SSRIs, there's lots of other things you can do without going resorting to your cabinet. What's in your cabinet?

[00:02:17]>> Important to hear that from the experts.

[00:02:18]So we also know there are influences influencers out there in social media promoting the supplement creatine which is popular among athletes for a muscle growth and memory. But is creatine worth adding to your menopause care?

[00:02:33]>> So creatine I think is more interesting.

[00:02:35]Okay.

[00:02:36]>> So I mean I like the conversation around creatine because we when we think about creatine we think about muscle, right?

[00:02:40]Because we store it in our muscle and it helps us build muscle. And when we're in menopause, we the hormone changes actually contribute to us losing muscle mass. Our body composition changes. And for men and women, age itself, you're going to face muscle loss, right? So you have aging, loss of muscle, then you have me women have menopausal hit to muscle.

[00:03:02]>> And we want to build muscle because muscle is good for us. I think we appreciate now. It's not just about looking good and tone, which is a nice thing, too. But uh it's actually biologically active. So your muscle actually helps your metabolism work. It also helps your bone health. It helps you be more active, more stable, less falls. Like it's good. Muscle is good for you. So in general, I do want women in menopause and men and women to actually build muscle. So then the second question is, does creatin help?

[00:03:32]>> Yes.

[00:03:33]>> Well, I have good news and bad news. So if you sit on your couch and you take creatin, it won't build muscle.

[00:03:41]>> Right. Right. Right. Right.

[00:03:43]>> But if you do it along with fundamentals, so if you do resistance training and you have a good adequate protein diet and you're getting rest, it has been shown that if you take creatin supplement, you'll actually get more bang for your buck and you'll actually build more muscle muscle. So it can be additive to like an already healthy regimen.

[00:04:01]>> I'm so glad you said that because that was the same thing I read. I take creatine because I wanted to build muscle because I I read that as you get older you start to lose that your muscle mass. So I'm thinking okay creatine take it but then there was this aspect of you also have to make sure you are working out because just taking it wouldn't do much for you >> and not just sort of the 80s aerobics right so that's good for you yeah so you need some kind of resistance training or weight training it doesn't have you don't have to have barbells to do weight you can use your body as a weight do push-ups pull-ups so all sorts of things >> but when it comes to the memory aspect of things in your brain does creatine help >> okay so this I find super cool So we think about muscles and creatin because that's where we store so much of our creatin, >> right?

[00:04:46]>> And women have actually less muscle on average. So we have less stores, >> but our brain, all our cells use creatin. So our brain actually uses it more than our other muscles. So our brain will use 20 to 25% of our creatin.

[00:05:00]So if we have low muscle creatin stores or we're not getting an adequate intake.

[00:05:04]And you can ingest it in a diet. You don't have to do it in a supplement. You can get it in your diet. You can get it in a supplement. Um, but our brains are actually using more creatine than our other parts of the body. So, women do report. I'm going to say this is less studied as we know everything in menopause. Understudied, right? It's been fun for a while. So, I do like the conversations are happening, >> but we do know that our brain needs creatin. Um, and we do know that women have lower stores, so because they generally have less muscle. So, build muscle. Creatin can definitely be additive to fundamental regimens of weightbearing exercise. Um, and some women report that it's good for their brain health.

[00:05:45]>> And so, real quick, just on the overall of that question, when it comes to creatine and menopause, good or bad?

[00:05:50]>> Um, I'm going to say overall good.

[00:05:52]>> Okay. Yeah.

[00:05:52]>> Okay. And so, why do you think that all these trends or all these supplements or all these ideas are resonating with people right now? And there's also the fact that some of them are not regulated. So what's your advice for people?

[00:06:07]>> Well, there's a lot of information out there right now and I actually like that the conversations are happening. So use, you know, the social media. Social media is often 90 seconds, sometimes 60 seconds, right? It's not a way to deep dive onto a topic.

[00:06:22]>> It's really not.

[00:06:23]>> But it is a way to engage women. So we, you know, we at MIDI, we use social media to actually bring up a topic and get people asking questions. So, I do like it is it stimulates questions, engagement in your health, but you need to deep dive a little bit more before you go into a whole regiment and take something for years or even months.

[00:06:41]>> Yeah. So, if you see something, it's important to maybe talk to your doctor and do some more research before you start to put that into >> talk to me. Yeah, >> you can come talk to Dr. Kathleen Jordan. She's got the answers for you.

[00:06:52]Thank you so much for your time today.

[00:06:53]We appreciate it. Thank you.