Daily soya drink intake may alleviate vasomotor symptoms

Alpro Foundation Supported Research Project

Dr Pamela Magee, Lecturer in Human Nutrition, Ulster University

Consumption of a soya drink may alleviate vasomotor symptoms in post-menopausal women without affecting mood or cognition.

Dr Pamela Magee’s successful application for an Alpro Foundation grant supported the research of her PhD student Orlaith Furlong ‘The effect of soya foods on cognitive function and menopausal symptoms in post-menopausal women.’

Orlaith’s work also investigated consumer attitudes to soya and associations between dietary patterns and cognitive function in postmenopausal women.

Orlaith completed her PhD within the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food at Health at Ulster University under the supervision of Dr Pamela Magee, Dr Liz Simpson, Dr Emeir McSorley and Dr Jacqueline McCormack.

Study overview

This study investigated the effects of consuming a soya drink daily for 12 weeks on cognitive function, mood and vasomotor symptoms in menopausal women. 101 women aged 44-63 years who were ≤ 7 years post-menopausal participated in the study. The participants were randomly assigned to consume a volume of soya drink providing a low (10 mg/day; control group), medium (35 mg/day) or high (60 mg/day) dose of isoflavones for 12 weeks.

Key findings

Following the intervention, the researchers observed several key findings:

1. Cognitive function and mood stability or variability were not significantly different between the dietary soya intervention groups

2. Although no effects on menopausal symptoms were observed between treatment groups overall, sub-analysis demonstrated a beneficial effect of soya on vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and night sweats)

3. When women were stratified according to the severity of their vasomotor symptoms at baseline, those women with more severe symptoms had a significant improvement in vasomotor symptoms following consumption of 350ml soya drink daily, providing approximately 35mg isoflavones, for 12 weeks in comparison to women with less severe symptoms at baseline.

"This finding is clinically relevant as soy drinks may provide an alternative, natural, treatment for alleviating vasomotor symptoms.”

Orlaith Furlong

Conclusion

Research findings demonstrated that a daily intake of approximately 350ml soya drink has beneficial effects on hot flushes in women with more severe symptoms whereas it did not have an effect on cognitive function. These findings are in agreement with previous studies supporting a role for soya isoflavones in alleviating vasomotor symptoms in menopausal women.

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