Red Clover Isoflavones Appear To Improve Heart Health

Red Clover Isoflavones Appear To Improve Heart Health

MELBOURNE, Australia--Researchers at the Baker Heart ResearchInstitute found a partial explanation for why high intakes of dietaryisoflavones lower the risk of heart disease. Their double blind study--publishedin the June issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology(23, 6:1066-71, 2003) (http://atvb.ahajournals.org)--indicatedred clover isoflavones enriched with formononetin (the precursor to daidzein)reduced arterial stiffness and total vascular resistance, which would reduce therisk of heart disease.

Researchers randomly assigned 80 healthy subjects to receive 80 mg/d ofisoflavones enriched in either biochanin (the precursor of genistein) orformononetin in a crossover design for two six-week periods. While isoflavonesdid not affect blood pressure, improvements in arterial stiffness and systemicarterial compliance were observed in the formononetin-enriched isoflavone group.