The truth about soy and hot flashes

Remember when the only person you knew who ate soy was your weird college roommate? Today more people eat soy foods — now sold in "normal" supermarkets — for their health.  Although soy foods and supplements are promoted as a defense against them, studies show they do little to turn down the heat. These guidelines will tell you more.

Controlling hot flashes used to be easy and straightforward: a woman simply asked her physician to write a prescription for hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is capable of reducing hot flash frequency by 60 to 85 percent. However a study of more than 16,000 subjects found that long-term use of HRT increased the risk of heart disease, stroke and breast cancer, leading many women to search for alternatives.

Soy foods and supplements seem like a logical choice for several reasons. In Asia, where tofu and other soy dishes are diet staples, only 10 to 20 percent of women develop hot flashes. Soy contains compounds called isoflavones, which are structurally similar to estrogen. Soy supporters claim that these hormone-like compounds fool the body into thinking it's receiving estrogen, thereby reducing hot flashes and other menopause symptoms.

Unfortunately, soy may not quite live up to its billing. Researchers later analyzed a stack of studies on non-hormonal approaches to relieving hot flashes. They found 17 well-designed studies on the benefits of soy extract and red clover, an isoflavone-rich herb that's also used to fight off episodes of flushing. Their findings found no consistent relief from hot flashes among women who took soy extract. (There was even less evidence that red clover helped, according to this review.)