Brazilian medical personnel have discovered that "isoflavones," a type of phytoestrogen found in soybeans, can alleviate various common symptoms in menopausal women, and unlike the estrogen therapy widely used in medicine today, it does not produce side effects.
A certain hormone component found in soybeans by scientists can alleviate menopausal symptoms in women, without the side effects caused by current estrogen therapy.
Gynecological experts from the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil conducted a 6-month follow-up test on 80 menopausal women and found that 85% of the subjects experienced improvements in menopausal symptoms after taking "isoflavones," a phytoestrogenic substance; moreover, 75% of the women showed a decrease in their cholesterol levels after starting to take isoflavones.
What excited the researchers was that isoflavones could treat all the symptoms that estrogen could treat; although the efficacy of isoflavones was slightly lower than that of estrogen, it did not have the side effects of estrogen.
As women enter menopause, their body's ability to produce hormones begins to decline, leading to symptoms such as insomnia, depression, bone loss, and occasional hot flashes, which affect their quality of life. Generally speaking, 90% to 95% of women can improve menopausal symptoms by taking estrogen, but the risk of side effects such as uterine or breast cancer also increases.
The researchers replaced traditional estrogen with isoflavones for the women in the test, and none of them developed symptoms such as breast or endometrial swelling. The researchers therefore concluded that soybean products do not have the medical risks of side effects associated with estrogen.
The researchers stated that soybeans are one of the most complete and most functional foods currently known to humans; in addition to their high nutritional value, the high protein content of soybeans is the best substance for treating or preventing diseases such as cancer and osteoporosis.