Why Soy Products For Menopause Relief Is Not Recommended

By Graciela Wynn Chavez


Almost all health-related magazines, documentaries and TV shows have hitherto, shouted out the myriad benefits of soy and its products in a wide range of health complications, spanning from breast cancer, osteoporosis, and the heart illness. Examples of soy products include soy milk, soy beans, soy cheese, and soy protein, among others. Some companies have also developed some soy pills and powders from soy phytochemicals, and have widely pronounced them to be natural healers for menopausal discomforts, and also other illnesses. It is not however not authenticated that soy products for menopause relief play a vital role in managing menopause symptoms.

However, all these soy extracts are not safe solutions for menopause relief, as will be discussed below. It is undeniably true that soy is rich in isoflavones, which are type of phytoestrogen. Phytoestrogens are chemical elements found in plants, and which play similar roles with estrogens. The human body can substitute them for estrogens.



Hitherto, there has been alternative ways of treating women in menopausal, for example by dint of conventional medicines, but in the recent past, the use of natural approaches to relieve discomforts associated with menopausal has become exceedingly popular. This has since prompted the foods and supplement industries to make alternatives to the traditional conventional pharmaceutical estrogens like Premarin. In consequence, the soy foods industry has benefited most from this quest for natural solutions for menopausal, arguably because of soys high content of phytoestrogen.

The message that soy phytoestrogens act in similar capacity as surrogate estrogens has been widely spread, and this thereby gives women the general impression that they can alternatively prefer soy products to relieve symptoms of dwindling estrogen levels at their menopausal stage, albeit naturally. However, the research does not confirm that isoflavones act as estrogens, and therefore the conclusion that they are all a woman needs to alleviate her menopausal symptoms, cannot be completely validated.

It is important to note that soy phytoestrogens have minimal impact on vasomotor symptoms like night sweats, vaginal dryness and hot flashes. Studies relieved that women who made use of soy products that are phytoestrogen-rich realized a thirty five to fifty percent decrease in the intensity of their hot flashes.

These soy phytoestrogens and estrogens however, only diminish the impact and intensity of hot flashes, and not completely eradicating them, like conventional estrogens which eliminate them in a faster fashion. The isoflavones in soy products are aromatase inhibitors, and this reduces the levels of estrogen made in the body. This is as confirmed by several recent studies. This is contradictory to earlier claims that they aid in the treatment of vasomotor symptoms.

The two most harmful soy foods are soy protein powders and infant soy formula. Soy has been linked to malnutrition, breakdown of the immune system, dysfunction of thyroid functions, cognitive decline, infertility, digestive distress, alongside a couple of other demerits.These reports therefore contradict earlier claims that soy foods play a great role in eradicating a host of health-related problems.

Conclusively, though there has been a speculation that the use of soy and its products helps in the managing of menopause discomforts, there is no valid proof for this.




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