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 (EMAILWIRE.COM, March 31, 2012 ) Wilmington, North Carolina -- When it comes to soy, there are very strong opinions about the benefits and risks associated with this controversial bean. Natural Health Sherpa observes: "On one side, you have the soy advocates touting soy for its menopause and heart-protective benefits. On the other side, you have the naysayers claiming that soy increases your risk for female-related cancers, thyroid complications, and digestive upset.”
What further complicates the issue, according to the website, is that the scientific studies that support either side are funded by groups that have vested interests. The only logical thing to do then, the website reasons, is to carefully analyze the facts in the published studies.
In their post on the topic, the website quotes a study called “Lipoprotein response to diets high in soy or animal protein with and without isoflavones in moderately hypercholesterolemic subjects” published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. According to the author, soy isoflavones “although potentially helpful when used to displace products containing animal fat from the diet, the regular intake of relatively high levels of soy protein had only a modest effect on blood cholesterol levels and only in subjects with elevated LDL cholesterol levels. Soy-derived isoflavones had no significant effect.”
Natural Health Sherpa also reviewed a study published in the November 2001 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. According to Natural Health Sherpa, “they found that those who ate legumes (all legumes, not just soy) four times or more per week compared with less than once a enjoyed a 22 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease and an 11 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease.”
Natural Health Sherpa notes that the study is about all legumes that include beans, peas and others. This means that the health benefits observed in the said study may or may not be because of soy.
The Other Side of The Coin:
Not all published studies paint a rosy picture of the effects of soy on consumer’s health. For example, Natural Health Sherpa says that according to published studies “women taking tamoxifen to help stop the growth or spread of breast cancer were completely undoing the positive effects of the medicine by eating soy.”
The post also revealed interesting facts about the relationship between soy and thyroid disorder as well as the effects of soy in infant formulas on babies.
One study conducted on rats found that soy isoflavones “practically shut down the rat’s thyroid function,” according to Natural Health Sherpa. “The researchers themselves were not blind to this. They concluded that even the possibility that widely consumed soy products may cause harm in the human population is of concern,” the website added. It should be noted, however; that animal studies do not always correlate to the same effects in humans so more research needs to be done in this area.
Soy has been used as an ingredient in infant formula. In a random, double-blind study performed at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, researchers tried to find out “how much phytoestrogen 21 four-month-old infants received from soy-based formula.” The researchers learned that the babies who were fed soy-based formulas had “13,000 to 22,000 times higher plasma oestradiol concentrations in early life, which may be sufficient to exert biological effects.”
"Therefore, simple common sense says that if you can get those same benefits naturally somewhere else, thereÂ’s little point in consuming something with such well-documented dangers," concludes the Natural Health Sherpa post.
About Natural Health Sherpa:
Natural Health Sherpa provides in-depth, science-based, independent reviews of natural health therapies and remedies that have been proven to be both safe and effective and are backed by good science -- multiple double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized studies. Unfortunately, there are many charlatans making bogus, unfounded claims in the natural health area, so our goal is to separate fact from fiction to pinpoint what actually works.
Natural Health Sherpa
Anna Hudson
(910) - 795 - 1984
press@naturalhealthsherpa.com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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