Clinical Investigations: Prevention and RehabilitationEffects of oral soy protein on markers of inflammation in postmenopausal women with mild hypercholesterolemia☆,☆☆,★,★★
Section snippets
Methods
Women were randomly assigned dietary treatments of either 25 g of isolated isoflavones (Protein Technologies International, St Louis, Mo) or 25 g of total milk protein (Protein Technologies International), with each treatment period lasting 6 weeks and separated by 1 month in which the patients were off treatment. The only differences between the 2 products were the protein source and isoflavone content. All study participants returned to the hospital for blood drawing and brachial artery
Results
Thirty postmenopausal women with hypercholesterolemia (age 55 ± 5 years) who had not taken hormone replacement, antioxidant vitamins, or lipid-lowering therapies in the preceding 2 months and who had low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels >130 mg/dL were enrolled in the study. All had plasma 17β-estradiol levels <50 pg/mL and follicle stimulating hormone levels >50 pg/mL. No subject had hypertension or diabetes mellitus or was a current cigarette smoker. The baseline lipid profile
Discussion
The intake of soy protein (25 g daily for 6 weeks) did not affect markers of vascular inflammation in 24 postmenopausal women with hypercholesterolemia, compared with a placebo (milk protein). We focused on isolated soy protein containing naturally occuring isoflavones because of observational, epidemiologic, population-based studies that have demonstrated cardiac protection and antiatherogenic effects resulting from soybean isoflavones. “Dietary estrogens” are adsorbed from the intestinal
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Cited by (0)
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Supported by a grant from Protein Technologies International, St Louis, Mo.
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Reprint requests: Arnon Blum, MD, Director, Department of Internal Medicine A, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv 64239, Israel.
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E-mail: [email protected]
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1097-6744/2003/$30.00 + 0