December 2003

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Check out From the Laboratories, an online newsletter that focuses on research.

Soy story: Scoping out a highly touted food

By John Tyler

Addison Taylor, MD, PhD

Considering a little soy with your meal? In a few years, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston may be able to tell if there are real benefits.

BCM studies now underway are evaluating soy’s potential for lowering blood pressure, cleaning out harmful oxidants, alleviating the uncomfortable symptoms of menopause and providing stronger bones.

"Food supplements are often touted to be very good, but there is rarely any data to support those claims," said Addison Taylor, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and a BCM expert in high blood pressure. "This is because the FDA does not regulate them as stringently as they do drugs. Soy has been looked extensively in the past, but we feel we really need the data to quantify these benefits."

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s/Agriculture Research Service Children’s Nutrition Research Center at BCM have had a longstanding interest in examining the chemical elements that include estrogen-like compounds and anti-oxidant agents. Preliminary results also suggest that it may lower blood pressure as well as prevent the bone loss associated with osteoporosis.

William Wong, PhD

"There are many claims about soy’s benefits and its potential dangers," said William Wong, PhD, a BCM professor of pediatrics and principal investigator on the OPUS (Osteoporosis Prevention Using Soy) study. "However, most of the studies in the past have been short term and only included small groups of participants."

Wong is currently recruiting 56 post-menopausal women to take part in a clinical study to look at soy’s affect on blood pressure and a variety of other cardiovascular functions.

"We’re very optimistic about this," he said. "Soy has been shown to stimulate nitric oxide, which would dilate blood vessels and lower blood pressure."

Soy may also prove to be a powerful anti-oxidant agent. Oxidation is a damaging but essential process generates energy but can also be a pathway to certain diseases. Soy is being examined to determine whether it can reverse these effects.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $4.5 to fund the multi-center trial on osteoporosis, designed to test both the effectiveness and safety of soy. The National Institutes of Health awarded $750,000 for the hypertension study.

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