| Soy
for Strong Bones
Can soy really make
your bones stronger? The answer is a resounding, “yes.”
According to recent research reported in the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, soy helps prevent bone
loss. We know that soy protein helps lower cholesterol
and reduces hot flashes in women going through menopause,
but we can add bone loss protection to the list of
benefits.
Prescription estrogen
treatments, used for several years, help prevent bone
loss and decrease osteoporosis in post-menopausal
women. However, these medications have potentially
significant side effects and health risks. In fact,
in early July, the Women’s Health Initiative,
a large federal study on the risks and benefits of
hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was abruptly halted.
Why? After five years into the scheduled eight-year
study, researchers concluded that the overall health
risks from HRT substantially exceed its benefits.
Originally designed to discover whether taking a combination
of synthetic estrogens and progestins could lower
the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women,
the study found that HRT increased the number of heart
attacks in the study participants.
Risks for breast cancer,
stroke and blood clots were also substantially increased.
According to the data from the study, for every 10,000
women taking HRT for one year, seven more will have
heart attacks, eight more will have invasive breast
cancer and eight more will have strokes. While those
numbers may sound small, they become very large when
applied to the 6 million women estimated to be taking
HRT.
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