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Menopause is a natural occurrence that will happen to every woman. Thus, symptoms of this natural event can be alleviated by medicinal plants such as the soy. This plant has phytoestrogens that can help a woman find menopause relief.
During the reproductive years of a woman, her body undergoes a repetitive cycle every month. Hormones, such as estrogens, instruct the body to prepare the womb for a possible offspring. The walls of the uterus thicken with blood, and this will help serve as the temporary home of the anticipated baby. But when there is no fertilization, the uterus releases such blood and the woman has her menstruation. This monthly event happens as long as the woman’s ovary is capable of producing enough estrogen hormones. Unfortunately, the ability to produce the estrogens decreases as the woman grows older. Her ovaries, as time goes by, produces less and less estrogens. As the concentrations of estrogens in her body radically drop, she begins the menopausal stage. Menopause is an inevitable event, just like the onset of menstruation. It should be welcomed by women as a whole new stage of their lives. With menopause, her body is no longer focused on reproduction. She can now pay attention to other vocations and role changes. But women face menopausal symptoms that make them insecure and frightened. During menopause, a woman has lesser control of her emotions. She has mood swings and she easily becomes irritable. She experiences uncomfortable hot flashes and flushes. And she loses sleep at night. A woman has several options available for her in order to find menopause relief. There are methods that can supply her body with synthetically produced hormones, such as the estrogen replacement replacement therapy (ERT) and hormonal replacement therapy (HRT). And then there are methods that provide her body several naturally-occurring substances that alleviate menopausal symptoms. These methods involve the use of herbal medicines. One non-traditional medicine that can bring menopause relief is the use of the soy plant (scientific name: Glycine max). Soy is a plant which originally came from the region of Southeast Asia. The plant itself may grow up to 5 feet tall and it usually produces clusters of pods, each containing between two to four beans. Since the soy plant grows abundantly, it became a part of the daily gustatory fare of Asians. The soy plant has isoflavones which have been discovered and proven to provide benefits to the human body. An example of an isoflavone is the genistein. Genistein and other isoflavones are believed to act like the human estrogens. This is why they earned the name “phytoestrogens”. Phytoestrogens, inside the woman’s body, seek the estrogen receptor sites. Like the synthetic hormones from ERT and HRT, they bring menopause relief. But unlike ERT and HRT, the phytoestrogens do not thicken the lining of the uterus and they do not raise the risk of cancer. In fact, the phytoestrogens of the soy plant may reduce the bad cholesterol. Phytoestrogens can be found in the herbal formulation named Menozac. |
