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.
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The reason I just want to touch on it before we finish is because something that I feel very passionate about is people being misguided. I think everyone should try different things, try what works for them. But I really worry about the amount of what I call nutra nonsense out there, nonsense related to nutrition. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone thinks they know better, whether they're,
Even in science, or they just happen to have read some article that some famous model wrote that made her look as beautiful as she does, or goodness knows what. Everyone has an opinion. And because of this, there is so much neutral nonsense out there. and people are being misguided, and the menopause, given that it's a huge market now, it's a multi-billion pound dollar market.
I worry, and I don't want people to be taken advantage of, and I think this is what people need to be mindful of. If you put menno in front of something, can we call it menno washing? You can charge five, 10 times as much.
You can get a basic multivitamin mineral, stick menno, blah, blah, blah in front of it, charge loads more because peri and postmenopausal women who are suffering these symptoms, we're desperate. We want to do anything we can. HRT is one possible solution. But in addition to that, there can be some other solutions. But we need to make sure there's sufficient evidence for this.
And in my opinion, apart from the evidence around soy isoflavones, I don't believe there's sufficient evidence for nearly all of the supplements out there to say that they benefit menopause symptoms. What I will say, though, Drew, and I think this is really important, we all respond so differently to everything. And it might be that...
Something is working for your best friend and they feel amazing. Well, great. If they can afford it, go buy it if it's making them feel great. But it might not work for you. And I think it's to be really open minded that just because it works for one person doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you.
and to be a little bit careful about some of the claims that are out there related to some of these supplements. If I was to recommend a supplement, the only supplement I'd recommend would be soy isoflavones. These are chemicals that are found in soy-based products.
They have oestrogen-like properties because the structure of these chemicals is similar to oestrogen, so they bind to our oestrogen receptors. So what we know is populations like China and Japan who have a really high intake of soy isoflavones, they have a lower symptom burden. They have a lower prevalence of symptoms.
What we do know, though, is the type of soy isoflavone and the amount is really important. And my colleague, Professor Wendy Hall, has done some great analysis on this where she's looked at all of the different studies. And what we know is that there's a particular type of soy isoflavone called genistein.
And that if your supplement has genistein at or above 15 milligrams per day, that's where we seem to see a consistent beneficial effect. If, however, it has a lower amount than that, it's unlikely for the majority of people. to have a big effect. And then there's one last really interesting element to this.
We know that also how you respond to soy isoflavones differs from one person to the other, and this is where the microbiome comes in, and I think is really exciting. So we have species in our gut, in our microbiome, that metabolize these soy isoflavones, and they can metabolize them to a really active form that binds really strongly to the receptors.
And these bacteria are called equol producers because from the soy isoflavone, they produce another chemical called equol. And this particular chemical is a really strong estrogen-like compound. It binds to the estrogen receptor really strongly. What we know is if you're an equol producer,
So if you metabolize the soy isoflavones to Equal and you're supplemented with soy isoflavones, you have a 75% greater reduction in symptoms than if you're not an Equal producer. And the reason I want to mention that Drew is because that takes me back to my point a few minutes ago that everyone will respond differently. So for example,
If I went and started taking soy isoflavones and I'm not an equal producer, but my best friend started taking soy isoflavones and she had the gut microbiome species that enable her to produce equal, she is going to see a huge benefit. I'm not going to see such a big benefit. But that means that I shouldn't be advising her not to take it just because it doesn't work for me.
So it's just giving that kind of, yes, let's be really cautious about menna washing. Yes, there's good evidence for soy isoflavones, but still there is this huge variability. What works for one person might not work for another person.
Give whatever you want to try, but be careful not to compromise on other areas of your life if you're kind of burning massive holes in your pocket with the money that you're spending on them.
Absolutely. And you know what, there's hundreds of studies, actually, randomized controlled trials looking at different supplements. Some show that there is a benefit from this particular supplement. Some show there isn't a benefit.
The weight of the evidence, apart from soy isoflavones, I think shows specifically for menopause symptoms, there is no strong evidence to show any particular supplement exists. is really beneficial. And whilst you're absolutely right, there will be benefits to many of these supplements for other areas of people's life, like fish oil.
There's great benefits in terms of inflammation, in terms of cardiovascular disease, et cetera. So, yes, that would benefit postmenopausal women at a time that they're increased risk of that. But in terms of symptoms, i.e., you know, preventing the weight gain or reducing the sleep problems, etc., I don't think there's strong enough evidence for many of these symptoms.
But you can try and see how you get on. But just be careful spending 10 times as much just because it's got menno on the label. You know what? I was in our local supermarket last week and there's a whole area for menopause skincare and hair care. I mean, it blows my mind that, and it's a hell of a lot more expensive than the normal skincare or haircare.
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