Long-term exercise training and soy isoflavones to improve quality of life and climacteric symptoms.
Study Goal
The researchers aimed to determine whether combining phytoestrogen supplementation with exercise improved climacteric symptoms and health-related quality of life in postmenopausal women.
Results Summary
The study found that adding phytoestrogens to exercise did not provide additional benefits for health-related quality of life compared to exercise alone. Both groups showed similar improvements in physical functioning, emotional well-being, vitality, and global health, while phytoestrogens and exercise together may have interfered with long-term improvement in climacteric symptoms.
Population
Overweight postmenopausal women (mean age 59.2 ± 4.8 years, BMI 29.1 ± 3.5 kg/m²).
Effective Dosage
Not specified
Duration
12 months
Interactions
None mentioned
| Intervention | Direction | Endpoint | Population | Dosage | Impact | Claim # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
phytoestrogen supplementation combined with aerobic and resistance training | increase | physical functioning | postmenopausal and overweight women | - | significantly and similarly increased | #1 |
phytoestrogen supplementation combined with aerobic and resistance training | increase | role-emotional | postmenopausal and overweight women | - | significantly and similarly increased | #2 |
phytoestrogen supplementation combined with aerobic and resistance training | increase | vitality | postmenopausal and overweight women | - | significantly and similarly increased | #3 |
phytoestrogen supplementation combined with aerobic and resistance training | increase | global health | postmenopausal and overweight women | - | significantly and similarly increased | #4 |
phytoestrogen supplementation combined with aerobic and resistance training | decrease | Kupperman index total score | postmenopausal and overweight women | - | improvement | #5 |
phytoestrogen supplementation | no change | health-related quality of life | postmenopausal and overweight women | - | does not provide the additive effect | #6 |
exercise and phytoestrogen | no change | climacteric symptoms | postmenopausal and overweight women | - | may interfere in the improvement | #7 |
OBJECTIVE: To verify the efficacy of phytoestrogen supplementation combined with aerobic and resistance training on the improvement of climacteric symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in postmenopausal women. METHODS: From a pool of women who had participated in a 1-year intervention study and were randomly assigned to either exercise + phytoestrogen (EX + PHY) or exercise + placebo (EX + PL), a total of 31 healthy but overweight women (mean age 59.2 ± 4.8 years, body mass index 29.1 ± 3.5 kg/m2) finished the study (EX + PHY, n = 15; EX + PL, n = 16). All the following variables were measured before, after 6 months and after 12 months of intervention: body composition (fat and lean body mass, DXA), HRQoL (SF-36 questionnaire: physical and mental component summaries and subscales; and the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire), climacteric symptoms (Kupperman Index questionnaire). RESULTS: After 1 year of intervention, physical functioning (p = 0.003), role-emotional (p = 0.031), vitality (p = 0.007), and global health (p < 0.001) were significantly and similarly increased in both groups. Regarding climacteric symptoms, an improvement in the Kupperman index total score (p = 0.015) was observed. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that adding phytoestrogens to exercise training does not provide the additive effect for HRQoL in postmenopausal and overweight women. Moreover, exercise and phytoestrogen may interfere in the improvement of climacteric symptoms in the long term.