Academia Discusses CAM Therapies for Menopause

NEW YORK--In a random search of articles published between 1966 and 2002, researchers from Columbia University in New York and George Washington University in Washington, D.C., found that black cohosh and phytoestrogens showed promise for treating menopausal symptoms. In the Nov. 19 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine (137, 10:805-13, 2002) (www.annals.org), researchers Fredi Kronenberg, Ph.D., and Adriane Fugh-Berman, M.D., narrowed their search to 29 randomized, controlled clinical trials in which complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) was used for hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms. Of these studies, 12 dealt with soy or soy extracts, 10 with herbs and seven with various other CAM therapies.

Kronenberg and Fugh-Berman reported soy seemed to have a modest benefit on hot flashes, but study results were not conclusive, with isoflavone preparations appearing to be less effective than soy-based foods. Black cohosh was also seen to be effective, especially in the area of hot flashes, but there was a lack of adequate long-term safety data, mainly on its potentially estrogenic effects on the breast or endometrium. However, this does not take away from the fact that three out of four reviewed studies showed it to be efficacious. Other trials indicated dong quai, evening primrose oil and vitamin E did not aid hot flashes, nor did red clover.

This news comes out after the stir raised by ending a five-year study three years in that was investigating the effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on women's overall health. [For more on that study, visit www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/281news1.html.] In the Nov. 15 issue of Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter (http://healthletter.tufts.edu), JoAnn E. Manson, M.D., DrPH, of Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator for the HRT study, reported that she now counsels women to consume soy foods on a daily basis, in addition to taking 400 IU/d to 800 IU/d of vitamin E. The interview appeared in a special report on "life after hormone therapy."

And in Johns Hopkins' November edition of Health After 50 (www.hopkinsafter50.com), the school reported soy is one of the most promising remedies to overcome menopausal discomfort, in addition to black cohosh and St. John's wort.