Dietary isoflavones are biologically active in humans, but few observational data exist on the relationship between isoflavone intake and excretion in Western populations. We examined associations between self-reported soy intakes and overnight urinary isoflavone excretion in a population-based sample of western Washington State women, and we investigated the usefulness of one versus two overni...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether soy-derived isoflavone extract improves performance in cognitive function and quality of life in Chinese postmenopausal women. DESIGN The study was a 6-month double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel group trial. Participants were community-dwelling women aged 55 to 76 years; 191 eligible women were randomly assigned to receive a daily oral intake...

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how beverages containing Lactobacillus casei Shirota (BLS) and soy isoflavone consumption since adolescence affected the incidence of breast cancer. In a population-based case-control study, three hundred and six cases with breast cancer and 662 controls aged 40 to 55 were matched for age and residential area and included in the analyses. Diet, lifestyle...

Chemically, soy contains a group of phytoestrogens called isoflavones, predominantly genistein and daidzein. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of post weaning consumption of dietary soy isoflavones on prepubertal and postpubertal serum levels of some reproductive hormones of male Wistar rats. The study involved investigating the effects of different doses of isoflavones ...

It has been suggested that soy isoflavones have protective effects against breast cancer. However, data from epidemiological studies are not conclusive. A recent meta-analysis showed that soy intake was inversely associated with breast cancer risk in Asian but not Western populations, which indicates that protection against breast cancer may require that women consume levels of soy typical in A...

349 The potential health benefits of soy, and the soy isoflavones in particular, are widely publicized. Although soy and soy isoflavones exhibit both risks and benefits (1,2), in this article we focus on the thyroid toxicity of genistein. Genistein is the major isoflavone synthesized by the soybean; genistein possesses both estrogenic and goitrogenic activities. The claimed benefits of genistei...

Soy isoflavones are promising dietary agents for prevention of breast cancer. Isoflavones bind estrogen receptors (ER) and may variably act as either estrogen agonists or antagonists depending on the estrogen environment. In this study, we used a postmenopausal primate model to evaluate interactive effects of dietary soy isoflavones and estrogen on risk markers for breast cancer. The experiment...

Over the past 2 decades, soy foods have been the subject of a vast amount of research, primarily because they are uniquely rich sources of isoflavones. Isoflavones are classified as both phytoestrogens and selective estrogen receptor modulators. The phytoestrogenic effects of isoflavones have led some to view soy foods and isoflavone supplements as alternatives to conventional hormone therapy. ...

Three batches of yogurts were made with soy protein isolate (SPI) supplemented with 2% (S2), 4% (S4) or 6% (S6) of skim milk powder (SMP). The fourth batch (control; S0) was prepared from SPI without SMP supplementation. Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus ATCC 11842 (Lb 11842) and Streptococcus thermophilus ST 1342 (ST 1342) were used as the starter culture. Biotransformation of the inac...

BACKGROUND High isoflavone intake has been related to decreased fertility in animal studies, but data in humans are scarce. Thus, we examined the association of soy foods and isoflavones intake with semen quality parameters. METHODS The intake of 15 soy-based foods in the previous 3 months was assessed for 99 male partners of subfertile couples who presented for semen analyses to the Massachu...