Supplements containing a soya compound called genistein may help increase women's bone mass after menopause, a study suggests. Italian researchers found that a combination of genistein, calcium and vitamin D helped protect postmenopausal women's bone density better than calcium and vitamin D alone.
In fact, women who took the soya compound showed a modest increase in bone density over two years, compared with a small decrease among women who used only calcium and vitamin D, the researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Genistein is a type of isoflavone, plant chemicals that have effects similar to the female hormone estrogen and may have certain estrogen-like effects in humans. The estrogen decline that follows menopause contributes to bone density loss, and some research has linked high soya intake from food to a lower risk of the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.