Three components facilitating the cessation of hot flashes and initiating weight reduction in menopause.
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Menopause ain't a walk in the park, ain't it? Hot flashes, mood swings, insomnia, weight gain, low sex drive... it's a real tough time. That's why many women turn to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to ease some of these symptoms. But HRT's got its own drawbacks, like elevated risk of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers, heart attack, stroke, and pulmonary embolism.
But here's some good news for those of you who'd rather go all-natural: there's a way to almost eliminate one of the most bothersome symptoms of menopause!
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The plant-based secret to beat hot flashes
About 80% of women going through menopause suffer from what's known as hot flashes. They can occur during the day or night (or even worse, both), messing up your sleep and overall quality of life.
In 2022, researchers looked for ways to put an end to this discomfort. The study involved 84 women who reported having at least two moderate-to-severe hot flashes daily.
The women got divided into two groups: one approached a low-fat plant-based diet that featured half a cup of cooked soybeans each day, and the other continued their usual diets for 12 weeks.
The results were off the charts. The plant-based diet...
- ** slashed overall hot flashes by a whopping 95%**
- completely wiped out severe hot flashes
- dropped moderate-to-severe hot flashes by 96%
- cut daytime and nighttime hot flashes by 96% and 94%, respectively
As if that wasn't enough, those following the plant-based diet also shed an average of 6.4 pounds.
"We're still figuring out why this combo works, but it seems like these three elements are key: avoiding animal products, reducing fat, and eating soybeans daily," explains lead researcher Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee and adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine.
"Our findings mirror diets in places like pre-Westernized Japan and modern-day Yucatán Peninsula, where a low-fat plant-based diet with soybeans is more common. Postmenopausal women in these regions experience fewer symptoms."
But we wanted to know more about how the plant-based diet affected these changes, so we ran a secondary analysis of the study's data. Get this - we discovered something unusual in the gut microbiomes of the women that could account for the relief provided by the plant-based diet...
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It's all in the gut
We found some interesting stuff when comparing the gut microbiomes of the women at the start of the study and again after 12 weeks on a plant-based diet.
Turns out, there were changes in the amount of several types of gut bacteria that correlated with reduced hot flashes.
For example, decreased Porphyromonas and Prevotella corporis bacteria were linked with less severe daytime hot flashes, while a decrease in Clostridium asparagiforme was tied to fewer total severe and severe nighttime hot flashes.
This lower level of Clostridium asparagiforme could help explain the benefits of the plant-based diet for heart health and possibly connect hot flashes with cardiovascular disease risk. It could also offer a link between the two. Remember how the risk of heart disease rises during menopause and takes off in the following years?
The changes in other bacteria could also be behind alleviating hot flashes by stabilizing estrogen levels, reducing inflammation, and boosting satiety.
"The message is clear for women who want to crush hot flashes: feed your gut a diet loaded with fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans, which, not surprisingly, also leads to weight loss and protects against heart disease and type 2 diabetes," says study co-author Dr. Hana Kahleova, director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
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Resources:
- EurekAlert!: Vegan diet promotes gut microbiome changes that reduce hot flashes
- Complementary Therapies in Medicine: Alleviation of postmenopausal hot flashes by gut microbiome changes via a plant-based diet
- Mayo Clinic: Hot flashes
- The plant-based diet, rich in soybeans, significantly reduced hot flashes in menopausal women, with a 95% reduction in overall hot flashes and a complete elimination of severe hot flashes.
- The gut microbiomes of the women on the plant-based diet showed changes in the amount of certain bacteria, such as a decrease in Clostridium asparagiforme, which could explain the benefits of the diet for heart health and potentially connect hot flashes with cardiovascular disease risk.
- Adopting a plant-based diet, filled with fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans, can lead to weight loss and protect against heart disease and type 2 diabetes, potentially alleviating hot flashes by stabilizing estrogen levels, reducing inflammation, and boosting satiety.
- Inflammation and brain health are interconnected, and the right nutrition, such as a healthy-diets focused on brain-healthy foods, can contribute to overall wellness and women's health, particularly during the menopause transition.
