Soy May Not Soothe Menopause Symptoms

By April Clarkson, April 20th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

To ward off hot flashes and bone loss, common symptoms of menopause, women have tried a number of remedies to achieve this goal without the use of hormone replacement therapy, which can have serious adverse effects.

Until now, it had been believed that taking soy supplements offered some relief, but a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that over a two-year period, women taking the supplements showed no improvement over women taking a placebo.

In fact, according to the results of the study led by Silvina Levis, MD of the University of Miami, there were no differences in bone density changes between the two groups, although women taking soy isoflavones had more hot flashes.

Levis and her team studied 248 women, ages 45 to 60, from July 2004 through March 2009, all within five years of menopausal onset with similar bone density at the spine and hip.

Two years into the study, researchers found little difference in bone density in the two groups except in those taking the placebo who also had very low vitamin D levels. These participants showed a marked decrease in spinal bone density.

The women taking soy supplements had nearly twice the occurrence of hot flashes.