Soy Products May be Useful in Menopause Soy Products May be Useful in Menopause As more and more women reach the age of menopause there has been a growing interest in ways of combating the metabolic and physiologic changes that occur during this time. Many women are looking to other more natural ways to deal with the drop in estrogen production that accompanies aging. In Japan, there is no word for menopause and it is widely believed that in that country women do not suffer from the effects of this change of life. The most obvious difference is the high consumption of soybean and soybean products.
Soybean contains a family of chemical compounds called phytoestrogens.
Phytoestrogens have chemical structures similar to the estrogens produced in the body and it is believed that eating foods rich in phytoestrogens can help alleviate low estrogen production in the body. Adding sources of phytoestrogens such as soybean and soybean products to the diet may, therefore, be a more natural way to treat the symptoms of menopause. A recent report by a team of researchers at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem NC indicated that soy phytoestrogens indeed behave like the estrogen normally given to women as part of hormone replacement therapy. In monkeys the soy phytoestrogens showed similar effects on atherosclerosis and fat metabolism as did estrogen. Although not a study of menopause, it adds further evidence of the similarity of estrogen and phytoestrogens.