News Flash
RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT SOY SUPPLEMENTS DON’T HELP MENOPAUSAL SYMPTOMS
Soy Supplements No Help for Menopausal Symptoms Soy supplements don’t appear to work any better than placebos when it comes to relieving menopausal symptoms, according to a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study followed 248 women ages 45 to 60 who took soy supplements or placebos over a two-year period. Researchers found that soy supplements did not help with bone loss, night sweats, insomnia, loss of sex drive, or vaginal dryness in the women who were taking them. The supplements actually increased hot flashes, constipation, and bloating. The natural loss of estrogen during menopause is the cause of most symptoms of menopause. Soy products are thought by some to be an alternative to hormone therapy because soy contains isoflavones— estrogen-like compounds that could provide some estrogen-like effects. Though the study found soy supplements to be unsuccessful in treating menopausal symptoms, its results don’t mean that a diet rich in soy-based foods, such as whole soy beans, soy flour, tofu, or soy milk, won’t be beneficial. Just keep
• Soy supplements no help for menopausal symptoms • Vitamins may do more harm than good • Older women want more sex, not less
5.9 X %
Folic acid intake increased the risk of death by 5.9 percent
in mind that soy products may be unsafe for women with breast and other estrogen-dependent cancers.
Vitamins May Do More Harm than Good It might be time to reconsider your daily vitamin regimen. A large study of older women (average age 62) published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that women who took certain vitamins increased their risk of death due to heart disease and cancer. The main culprits in the
19-year study were: folic acid (increased risk of death by 5.9 percent); vitamin B6 (4.1 percent); copper, iron, magnesium, and zinc (3 to 4 percent); and multivitamins (2.4 percent). Other vitamins, such as
vitamin D, were shown to have no effect on death risk, and calcium supplements actually appeared to decrease the risk. This is good news for older women taking calcium and vitamin D to improve their bone health.
Older Women Want More Sex, Not Less Women older than age 50 are
Two-thirds of older women said they were content with their sex lives
mostly satisfied with their current level of sexual activity and continue to be sexually active after menopause, according to a recent study published in the journal Menopause. The study collected information on more than 27,000 women ages 50 to 79 and found that more than 60 percent of women ages 50 to 59 were sexually active, as well as almost 50 percent of women in their 60s and more than 28 percent of those in their 70s. Nearly two-thirds of the women in the study said they were content with their sex lives. Among those who were dissatisfied, 57 percent said they wanted to be having more sex, and only 8 percent said they would prefer less. The main reasons women said they stopped having sex were lack of a partner, poor health, and poor quality of life. The findings disprove long-
held assumptions that older women lack sexual drive and are satisfied with being less sexually active. The study also found that the decrease in hormone levels related to menopause did not seem to have much effect on the women’s sexual activities.
FALL / WINTER 2011 pause 21
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