Soyfoods' beneficial effects on menopausal symptoms have recently been studied by Australian researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), who have attempted to translate the dietary and lifestyle patterns of Japanese women, one of which is regularly consuming soyfoods, to their Western menopausal counterparts. The very beneficial results of this research, called The Women's Wellness Program Study, were summarized at the 2003 Australasian Menopause Conference held in Hobart, Australia. According to Senior Lecturer in Women's Health at QUT, Dr. Debra Anderson, Japanese women are regarded as the healthiest women in the world, averaging a life span at least five years longer than Western women. The Women's Wellness Program, a 12-week lifestyle intervention program QUT researchers developed, involved a Westernized Japanese diet rich in calcium and foods high in phytoestrogens, e.g., soyfoods, along with walking and strength exercises.
Study participants, 120 women ranging in age from 50 to 65, were provided a book with lifestyle tips and exercises published by study authors Allen and Unwin, The Menopause Made Simple Program, and encouraged to increase dietary phytoestrogens to 40 mg per day through eating more soy-based foods and grains, raise calcium intake to 1500 mg per day and drink eight glasses of water daily. Participants were also asked to record their daily diet and exercises in a journal.
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, Anderson reported, Some of the women have ceased hormone replacement therapy, or are considering doing so, and we have encouraged them to discuss this with their GP.
Next on the research team's agenda is further studies testing the use of nutrition only and exercise only to see which has the biggest impact. Anderson's hunch is that the combination of dietary phytoestrogens is allowing the body to convert the abdominal fat (that women get postmenopausally due to change of hormones) into muscle and the combination of exercise with phytoestrogens is accelerating this very quickly. This is good news for women as abdominal fat is linked very closely to heart disease and is often very hard for women to shift.