A.Vogel Talks Menopause: Soya for menopause – how it helps & the right type to take

Read the full video transcript below

Today's topic

Hello, and welcome to my weekly video blog. And today on  A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I thought that I would talk a little bit about phytoestrogens or plant oestrogens and how they can actually help you through the menopause.

Phytoestrogens or plant oestrogens

Now, plant oestrogens are normally very gentle. They don’t have the big clout and the potential side effects that HRT can give you. And, very often, all they’re doing is just very gently helping to raise and balance your oestrogen levels. And that will help to support you as you go through the menopause.

And plant oestrogens such as fermented soya that’s in our Menopause Support and herbs such as black cohosh will work well for most low oestrogen symptoms. So that would be symptoms such as your hot flushes, your anxiety, your low mood, your joint aches and pains, and vaginal dryness and a whole raft of other minor symptoms. The great thing about these phytoestrogens as well is they do tend to work quite quickly. They can work within about four to six weeks, if not sooner, to just start to gently ease some of your symptoms.

Now, our Menopause Support is made of fermented soya. And we know that soya seems to be a very good food if you like to have during the menopause. The problem is that we have lost a little bit in translation as to how good and what soya can actually do for us and also what types of soya that we need to take.

Soya and menopausal women – why does it help some more than others

Now, in the Far East, it was noticed that a lot of women there didn’t get menopause symptoms. They seem to just sail through it. And it was sort of thought, if you like, that one of the reasons for this was the fact that they eat a lot of soya foods. And so what happened was that the scientists sort of said, “Right, you know, let’s bring soya to the West and offer it to menopausal women.” So what we have here is we have whole soya foods, such as soya milk, soya cheese, soya yoghurts, and all sorts of different soya-based foods.

Now, the problem is that, in the Far East, first of all, these women were eating soya products from a very, very young age. Whereas, in the West, you know, suddenly we get to 45 and think, “Oh, I think I should be eating some soya foods to help me through the menopause. So their bodies were actually used to it for a long, long time. And, secondly, the main foods that they eat are fermented soya foods. And this means that there has been a fermentation process which has broken the whole soya down. And fermented foods, such as miso, tempeh, and natto and some forms of tofu, are very easily absorbed, and they seem to help very, very quickly.

But, unfortunately, in the West, we’re actually encouraged to eat a lot of the whole soya foods. And, for us, especially if you wait until your mid-40s to start eating the soya, our digestive systems just can’t cope. And you can end up getting a lot of digestive discomfort. And, you know, I mean I’ve had some women, they’re drinking a litre of soya milk a day and then wondering why they don’t actually feel particularly well. So it’s really important here that if you’re going to use soya as part of your diet that you actually use fermented soya foods and not the whole soya foods.

Homework

Now, just one other little bit of interest for your information, a lot of the soya foods are quite highly processed. And your homework for today is…or at some point, is to Google how soya milk is made. And I am sure that you will get a really big surprise. So that’s just something to look forward to.

How to use Menopause Support

So looking at our fermented Menopause Support product, because it’s fermented, it’s going to be much easier to be absorbed. It’s going to work reasonably quickly. And these fermented foods, they’re very safe to take. So with the Menopause Support, you can look at using it in the run up to the menopause. If you find that your periods are starting to tail off or go missing and you’re getting some of the pre-menopause symptoms, you can take it during the menopause. And you can take it well after the menopause as well just to keep your oestrogen levels just elevated that little bit more.

One word of warning

Now, just one word of warning, though, it is an oestrogen-base. It acts as an oestrogenic inside the body. So if you have had any hormonally-induced cancers, if there is the likelihood of breast cancer in your family, then we do not advise that you self-medicate with any of these products or foods and that you discuss it with your doctor or other healthcare professional.

So I hope that’s thrown a little bit of light on soya and how it can actually help you through the menopause. And I look forward to speaking to you next week on A.Vogel Talks Menopause.