Dr. Sarah Berry
speaker
566 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 18 Dec
Dr. Sarah Berry’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Dec 2025 with 1.
Appearances
So we monitor not just the prevalence, so how common the symptoms are, we also ask people how much impacts their quality of life. And the peri- and postmenopausal women rate that as their symptom that has the most burden. on their life?
Yes, I still sleep really badly. I don't think HRT is the answer for everyone. And some people can't take it if they're contraindicated with certain risk related to cancer. And some people choose not to take it. And it certainly doesn't solve everything. I do think the evidence is very compelling for reduction in many symptoms.
I think the evidence is compelling or increasing and building for the beneficial effects it also has on some of these health effects that happen during menopause, like blood pressure, cholesterol, tummy fat. So I've chosen to take it for both health and for symptoms. reduce symptoms.
There isn't a one size fits all, there isn't a silver bullet, but an overall healthier dietary pattern, I believe can reduce menopause symptoms. This comes from other published research, as well as our own research that we've done at ZOE, where we've looked in a subgroup of individuals over 12 to 18 week period and looked at those
who transition to a healthier diet, they're actually following the ZOE program, but the underlying principles are the same for all individuals to follow a healthy diet. So increased plant diversity, increased fiber, a very kind of Mediterranean style diet. And what we see in those people who are improving their diet, they have 35% reduction in symptoms. Now that's huge.
I do have to caveat that to say though, that there wasn't a control arm. So it's not a clinical, an RCTS, we call it. It's a study where we followed people at one point in time and collected data at another point in time. What we now need to do is repeat this with a control arm to see if we see the same size effect.
But there are other studies that have, in a randomized control trial, asked people to follow the Mediterranean diet or control diet, and they see a similar magnitude of around 30% reduction in symptoms, which is huge and promising, I think.
But I think where we have to be really careful with menopause because we are desperate, because we're struggling, I think we're really susceptible to marketing to this menowashing. And I think there are so many supplements that are being sold as the silver bullet, you know, and I see it on social media. And I think firstly, okay, if it works for you, great. If you can afford it, great.
But what worries me is people who are spending a lot of money that they could be using to for a healthier dietary pattern or, you know, a gym membership or whatever on a supplement that there is no evidence to support. And the evidence is very, very weak. Except for a supplement called soy isoflavones, there is very weak evidence that any other supplements will work consistently.
They might work for some people, but consistently.
Yeah. So soy isoflavones are a particular chemical that are found in some foods. It's a chemical that has a structure very similar to oestrogen. So it actually binds to the oestrogen receptors in the body, which is why it has a beneficial effects on many symptoms. Now, soy isoflavones are consumed in quite small amounts in the UK and the US.
We consume probably about one milligram a day on average. In the Far East, like China, they consume about 70 milligrams a day as part of the natural diet. So in those kind of countries, they actually have a really low prevalence of menopause symptoms compared to us. They still have menopause symptoms, but it's a bit lower than us.
What we know is that if you supplement people with soy isoflavones for the vast majority of people, but not everyone, it will reduce symptoms a little bit. Not totally, but it can reduce symptoms.
So that's a good question. We've looked at how living with obesity can impact your symptoms. And we do see that if you're living with obesity, you have a higher prevalent number of symptoms. We see that if you have an unhealthy diet to start with, you have a higher number of symptoms. We see that if you have low physical activity, you smoke, etc. Yes, it's associated with high symptoms.
This is all association data, though. It doesn't show causality. And it's really important to say that.
That's quite a formal way to address me. I think we've covered an awful lot. And I think the thing that I would emphasize when people are thinking about their health, thinking about their diet, is firstly, find what works for you. Find something you enjoy. But I think I would say be really, really careful of the misinformation that's out there. Really careful.
And I would say also, if you're going to make a change, make sure it has a big enough size impact to warrant the change you're making. Because there's a lot of advocates for this health optimization. You know, make this change and it will have this impact.
Well, if you're making a change that disrupts your life significantly, but only has a 1% impact on whatever health outcome you're interested in, whether it's your cholesterol, your overall energy or whatever. Is it really worth disrupting your life that much for that small change? And I think that's really important.
I hear so many times when I'm talking to other mums at the school gate or that sort of thing. Oh my gosh, I read this and I'm going to do this. And, you know, it's going to be really hard, but they've said it will help with this. And it's like, oh, you're taking away pleasure. And actually, what is the gain?
I would love to see a world where scientists, food industry and policymakers work together. I'd love to see a world where We encourage evidence-based science, but scientists aren't scared of working with food industry, for example.
Showing 361–380 of 566 · page 19 of 29
← Previous
Next →