Soyabean reduces hot flushes by 52 per cent - Experts

By Sade Oguntola

Soyabean

Millions of women suffer from hot flashes duringmenopause, but not many appreciate that diet can have a lot to do with it. Fortunately, hot flashes do not have to be an expected part of menopause. In fact, women in some cultures, namely in Asia, rarely experience discomfort from hot flashes at all. What is their secret? It is related to their diet.

Research indicates that soy, a significant element in the traditional Japanese diet, may be useful in preventing hot flashes in women. Edible beans, especially soybeans, contain the compounds genistein and daidzein, which are estrogenic and help control hot flashes.

This age long benefit of soybean compound that reduces hot flashes researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) have shown can reduce both its frequency and severity by at least 52 per cent when women consumed a soy supplement without evidence of negative side effects.

The findings, which appeared in the January issue of Menopause, Dr. George Blackburn, one of the investigators at BIDMC, Harvard Medical School said, started with the need to find a safe and effective alternative to hormone therapy.

According to the expert, this is of particular importance considering that while hormone therapy yields the best results in treating hot flashes, its long-term use could increase the risk of certain medical disorders such as coronary heart disease or stroke.

At least three quarters of all menopausal women are affected by hot flashes, which are noticeable, by the sudden, intense, feeling of heat caused by a decline in estrogen levels. With evidence that hot flashes are often uncommon in countries where a lot of soybeans are consumed, the research team at BIDMC decided to test a compound found abundantly in soy germ, in the form of a daidzein-rich isoflavone-aglycone supplement (DRI). Isoflavones are one of the several classes of phytoestrogens that exert both estrogenic and antiestrogenic properties.

Researchers studied 147 menopausal women who were divided into three groups and instructed to take one soft-gel DRI capsule a day. They tested two different DRI concentrations, 40 mg or 60 mg, and compared them to a group taking a placebo. After 12 weeks, hot flash frequency was reduced by 52 per cent in the 40 mg DRI group and 51per cent in the 60 mg DRI group compared with 39 per cent in the placebo group.

The team found that the degree of improvement in women taking the DRI supplement was similar to that of alternative therapies such as a serotonin inhibitor but without their negative side effects, thus making improvement in quality of life an added advantage for these patients.

Dr. Hope Ricciotti, an Obstetrics and Gynaecologist at the medical center, also declared that, “the chemical structure of this compound is very similar to that of our own oestrogen, allowing it to act as a regulatory mechanism if the body’s natural levels decrease.”

Meanwhile an added advantage for these women that consume soybean according to other studies is that such women have a reduced risk of bone loss that typically occurs after menopause. And as women’s risk for heart disease significantly increases at menopause, soybeans numerous beneficial cardiovascular effects make it a particularly excellent food to consume frequently as menopause approaches.

Similarly in a review study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Drs. Kenneth Setchell, one of the foremost researchers in soy’s effects on health, and Eva Lydeking-Olsen, they also concluded that “the collective data suggest that diets rich in phytoestrogens have bone-sparing effects in the long term, although the magnitude of the effect and the exact mechanism(s) of action are presently elusive or speculative.”

Australian researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in a research, called The Women’s Wellness Programme Study, which was summarised at the 2003 Australasian Menopause Conference held in Hobart, Australia came to the conclusion that virtually all study subjects experienced significant reductions not only in menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and palpitations, feelings of depression, fatigue and lack of motivation, but also in body fat, particularly abdominal fat, and blood pressure. Benefits were so significant that, some of the women ceased hormone replacement therapy or considered doing so.

Meanwhile, it is not only soybeans that can help relieve hot flashes. Black beans also contain about the same amount of phytoestrogens as soybeans. Ground flaxseed, which can be baked into bread and muffins, is also a good source. What is more, you do not have to eat a lot of phytoestrogen-rich foods to get the benefits. Getting just 2 ounces of tofu or tempeh (a cake made from soybeans) a day can help prevent hot flashes from coming back. Or you could have a bowl of soup, which is flavoured with a salty condiment made from soybeans and salt according to a book by Selene Yeager, titled “New Foods For Healing”

Oatmeal is full of minerals. Just as oatmeal can help to lower blood sugar and so an excellent food for persons with diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, it is also good to control hot flashes according to Letha Hadady Dac, in the book titled Asian Health Secrets.

If want to increase your soybean intake by the following ways:
Replace some of the wheat flour in your favourite baked goods recipe with soybean flour and increase the protein content of your cookies, cakes, muffins and breads.

Add soybeans to vegetable stews and soups.

Use soymilk in place of cow’s milk as a beverage and cereal topper.

Plantain juice sure way to heal ulcer

ULCERS are of different types and could be the stomach, peptic or duodenal type.

Antacids are some of the common drugs used to treat ulcers. They are very effective and have been proven to be good in solving ulcer problems. However, people need to know that the way they treat ulcers would determine whether it would go or not. Not only that, the treatment applied would also play a major role in the healing process of this internal wound. Ulcer patients must also appreciate the fact that using weak, ineffective antacids that do not contain the required active ingredients required for a healing process and expect a quick recovery.

Also, the kind of food they eat is also a major determinant in this healing process.

For instance, an ulcer patient fond of eating a diet containing high quantities of pepper, fried foods, roughage and all sorts of hot seasonings should not expect better result even if he or she is using the best anti-ulcer drugs. Likewise an ulcer patients that likes alcohol, smokes or eats kola nut must be ready to continue to manage the pains and not blame any doctor or drugs for his/her predicaments. All that have been mentioned above are contra-indications for the treatment for ulcer.

Some patients may not have sufficient hydrochloric acid in their stomach and according to medical doctors may need to get this relieved with hydrochloric acid in form of tablets.

However for those experience serious gastritis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the stomach with attendant complaints like pains, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, headache and dizziness, simple antacids may not cure this problem. Also if the gastritis is not due to measles, diphtheria, pneumonia, typhoid fever, nervous tension or alcohol related, then there is a proven, evidence-based natural therapy that would stop it.

Also, people experiencing peptic or duodenal ulcer, particularly if it is accompanying with bleeding can also seek alternative treatment.

The good herbal news is that you can say bye-bye to ulcers with plantain juice. It may interest you to note that plantain is becoming more popular in recent times as it is featuring often on pages of newspapers. One of the reasons is that more attention is now being given to this plant in many herbal centres all over the world because of its numerous medicinal values.

To use plantain to treat an ulcer, what needs to be done is to get some bunches of unripe plantain, peel them, and cut them into smaller chips. On to these sliced plantain kept in a keg, add clean water, cover allow fermenting for say three to four days.

After the fourth day when it has fermented, half a cup of it can be taken three times daily. But the whole content of the keg should be discarded once the taste of the juice changes from what it was initially.

The efficacy of this natural anti-ulcer therapy was corroborated in a testimony given by Mr. Olugbenga Ajayi, a post-graduate student at the University of Ibadan, who speaking with Natural Health.

He has had ulcer for eight years but eventually got relieved after taking unripe plantain juice. He said, “Some people may not believe this, but that is just the truth. I have no course to take any antacid again after receiving healing through the use of unripe plantain juice. To some people, testimony like this may be difficult to believe, but it is only the person involved or concerned that can understand. Not until you try this therapy, you may not actually appreciate this story or this simple, “magic drug” for ulcers,” he declared.