BARRY'S BOOKS


New book in Dutch

Eet vet word slank

Eet vet word slank gepubliceerd januari 2013

In dit boek lees je o.a.: * heel veel informatie ter bevordering van je gezondheid; * hoe je door de juiste vetten te eten en te drinken kan afvallen; * hoe de overheid en de voedingsindustrie ons, uit financieel belang, verkeerd voorlichten; * dat je van bewerkte vetten ziek kan worden.


Trick and Treat:
How 'healthy eating' is making us ill
Trick and Treat cover

"A great book that shatters so many of the nutritional fantasies and fads of the last twenty years. Read it and prolong your life."
Clarissa Dickson Wright


Natural Health & Weight Loss cover

"NH&WL may be the best non-technical book on diet ever written"
Joel Kauffman, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, PA




 
 
   
 
   
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Soy Online Service
 
   
 
   
 

Phytoestrogens and Menopause

Just another con?

If you've read anything about soy phytoestrogens it's most likely that you've read that they help women through tmenopause.  Spend five minutes on the internet and you can find claims, such as the following, being made:

Encore-soy: Some Isoflavones convert into weak phytoestrogens in the body and have been found to ease the difficulties of hot flushes, tension and mood swings experienced by many menopausal women.

Promensil (by Novogen): Scientific research suggests that diets high in all four isoflavone phytoestrogens, or naturally occurring dietary oestrogens, found in red clover, can be effective in relieving the symptoms of menopause.

Phytolife (by Blackmores): Blackmores has formulated a therapeutic dose of soy in a concentrated nutritional supplement for women approaching and experiencing menopause.

Phytosource (by Herron): As women, we're aware that menopause brings about changes to our bodies.  But these changes can vary greatly from one individual to another.   today the most common form of therapy is HRT.  However may women aren't prepared to take this.  For those who prefer a more natural form of treatment, Herron has developed two complimentary supplements from their Body Optimum range.

Sad to say if you believe these claims you've been conned.  And not only conned about the benefits of isoflavones, but manufacturers of isoflavone supplements have failed in their duty to inform you that taking isoflavone supplements places consumers at increased  risk of thyroid disease and cancer.  Read more here http://www.mercola.com/2002/jan/12/menopause.htm. Also read our Big Ugly Bull Award for Novogen.

The Office On Womens Health, US Department Of Health And Human Services have also released a press statement urging caution on soy-based menopause remedies.  To quote Dr Whitehead of St Georges Hospital Medical School, London, "We really don't know how phyto-estrogens act in the human body".  The safety issues of phytoestrogens in breast cancer patients have also been raised in correspondence to the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Phytoestrogen Therapy for Menopausal Symptoms?  There's No Good Evidence That It's Any Better Than Placebo By Susan R Davis, FRACP, PhD.

 

Further Research

Soya Supplements May Be a Health Risk
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) Germany, has undertaken a health assessment of isoflavone supplements. BfR found that there is a lack of evidence to confirm the safety of such supplements, yet there is some evidence to suggest that there may be health risks. Long term studies of these extracts are needed to evaluate the health implications. Read more here.

A randomized controlled trial of the effect of dietary soy and flaxseed muffins on quality of life and hot flashes during menopause.
Lewis JE, Nickell LA, Thompson LU, Szalai JP, Kiss A, Hilditch JR.
Department of Family Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. lewisj@ucalgary.ca
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16837885&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of daily ingestion of soy flour (S), ground flaxseed (F), or wheat flour (W) muffins, on quality of life and hot flash frequency and severity in postmenopausal women. DESIGN: This was a double-blind, randomized, controlled, intention-to-treat trial. Ninety-nine women, 1 to 8 years after menopause, ingested muffins with 25 g of flaxseed (50 mg of lignans), 25 g of soy (42 mg of isoflavones), or wheat (control) daily for 16 weeks. Subjects completed the Menopause-specific Quality of Life instrument monthly along with daily hot flash frequency and severity diaries. Compliance measures included a 3-day food diary and urinary isoflavone and lignan analyses at weeks 0 and 16 and returned muffin counts monthly.
RESULTS: Eighty-seven women (28, ground flaxseed muffins; 31, soy flour muffins; and 28, wheat flour muffins) completed the trial. Multivariate analysis of variance of all quality-of-life domains yielded an insignificant treatment x time interaction (F46,122 = 0.92, P = 0.62) but a significant time main effect (P <.0001). Repeated-measures analyses of covariance controlling for body mass index showed no significant group x time interaction nor time nor group differences on all quality-of-life domains and hot flash measures except severity. Hot flashes were less severe with flaxseed (P = 0.001) compared to placebo; however, the group x by time interaction was not significant. Phytoestrogen excretion analysis showed treatment group exposure as allocated and no contamination.
CONCLUSION: Neither dietary flaxseed nor soy flour significantly affected menopause-specific quality of life or hot flash symptoms in this study. PMID: 16837885 [PubMed - in process]

 

For Menopause Symptoms, Soy & Other Alternatives Appear to Provide Little Relief, Says Consumer Reports' Survey

 

Dietary soy protein and isoflavones have no significant effect on bone and a potentially negative effect on the uterus of sexually mature intact Sprague-Dawley female rats.

Nakai M, Cook, L, Pyter, LM, Black M, Sibona, J, Turner RT, Jeffery EH, Bahr JM.

Menopause. 2005 May-Jun;12(3):291-8.

Histologically, uteri and vaginae were normal in all groups except that 1 of 10 rats in the high-soy group and 2 of 10 rats in the high-extract group showed extensive squamous metaplasia in the uterine gland. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that dietary isolated soy protein and isoflavones have no effect on bone and the vagina during premenopausal period, but may have an adverse effect on the uterus.

Full Abstract Here

 

The effect of soy protein isolate on bone metabolism.

Gallagher JC, Satpathy R, Rafferty K, Haynatzka V.;

Menopause. 2004 May-Jun;11(3):290-8.

The present study did not find a significant positive effect of soy protein isolate supplemented with isoflavones on BMD and the serum lipid profile in early postmenopausal women.

Full Abstract Here

 

Endometrial effects of long-term treatment with phytoestrogens: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Unfer V, Casini ML, Costabile L, Mignosa M, Gerli S, Di Renzo GC.;

Fertil Steril. 2004 Jul;82(1):145-8.

Long-term treatment (up to 5 years) with soy phytoestrogens was associated with an increased occurrence of endometrial hyperplasia. These findings call into question the long-term safety of phytoestrogens with regard to the endometrium.

Full Abstract Here, More Here

 

Estrogen Linked to Insulin Resistance

Postmenopausal women taking oral estrogen, with or without progesterone, show increased insulin resistance, even when allowing for being overweight.

Read More Here

 

A pilot study of the effects of phytoestrogen supplementation on postmenopausal endometrium.

Balk JL, Whiteside DA, Naus G, DeFerrari E, Roberts JM.

J Soc Gynecol Investig 2002 Jul-Aug;9(4):238-42

We performed a prospective, double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial comparing the effects of 6 months of dietary phytoestrogen supplementation versus placebo in postmenopausal women.

Hot flushes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness were significantly less severe at the final week of the study compared with baseline in the placebo group. Insomnia was more common in the treated group. There were no other statistically significant differences in symptoms or side effects. CONCLUSION: Phytoestrogens did not cause stimulation of the endometrium. Insomnia was more frequent over the 6-month study in the soy group, whereas hot flushes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness improved from baseline in the placebo group but not in the soy group.

Full Abstract Here

 

Effect of soy-derived isoflavones on hot flushes, endometrial thickness, and the pulsatility index of the uterine and cerebral arteries.

Penotti M, Fabio E, Modena AB, Rinaldi M, Omodei U, Vigano P.

Fertil Steril 2003 May;79(5):1112-1117

The patients were administered 72 mg of soy-derived isoflavones or placebo under double-blind conditions. The daily number of hot flushes was recorded in a diary.

Both treatments led to a 40% reduction in the number of hot flushes. Soy-derived isoflavones had no effect on endometrial thickness or the PI of the uterine and cerebral arteries. The daily administration of 72 mg of soy-derived isoflavones is no more effective than placebo in reducing hot flushes in postmenopausal women. It also has no effect on endometrial thickness or the PI of the uterine and cerebral arteries.

Full Abstract Here

 

Phytoestrogen supplements for the treatment of hot flashes: the Isoflavone Clover Extract (ICE) study: a randomized controlled trial.

Tice JA, Ettinger B, Ensrud K, Wallace R, Blackwell T, Cummings SR.

JAMA. 2003 Jul 9;290(2):207-14.

Clinical trials demonstrating increased risk of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer among women randomized to hormone replacement therapy have increased interest in other therapies for menopausal symptoms.

Although the study provides some evidence for a biological effect of Promensil, neither supplement had a clinically important effect on hot flashes or other symptoms of menopause.

Full Abstract Here

 

Hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms in relation to soy product intake in Japanese women.

Climacteric 1999 Mar;2(1):6-12

Nagata C, Shimizu H, Takami R, Hayashi M, Takeda N, Yasuda K.

Department of Public Health, Gifu University School of Medicine, 40 Tsukasa-machi, Gifu 500-8705, Japan.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationships between dietary intake of soy products and hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms. METHODS: Subjects were 284 women aged 40-59 years who attended a health check-up program provided by a general hospital in Gifu, Japan. They completed a health questionnaire including the Kupperman test of menopausal distress. Diet was assessed by a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: Fermented soy product intake but not total soy product intake was significantly negatively correlated with hot flush severity (r = -0.16, p = 0.01) after controlling for age and menopausal status. Neither total soy product intake nor fermented soy product intake was significantly correlated with menopausal index score. Estimated isoflavone intake from total and fermented soy products was significantly lower by 15% (p = 0.02) and 19% (p = 0.01), respectively, in women with hot flushes, compared to those without hot flushes after controlling for covariates. CONCLUSION: The data support a hypothesis that intake of fermented soy products alleviates the severity of hot flushes.

 

 

 




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