Soy fails for hot flashes

Q. I found that stopping all soy products made my hot flashes hugely better. The same thing has now occurred with my sister.

My doctor tells me that, for some women, soy is an estrogen blocker. It blocks our own natural estrogens, but doesn’t completely bind with our receptors to stop hot flashes. Stopping soy and flaxseed, another phytoestrogen, reduced my hot flashes in number and intensity quite dramatically.

I really liked soy, and it is a good low-fat protein, but for some women, soy makes menopause worse.

A. Soy has a reputation for easing menopausal symptoms, but recent research confirms your experience (Archives of Internal Medicine, Aug. 8/22, 2011). In this well-conducted double-blind trial, women received either tablets containing 200 mg of soy isoflavones or placebo daily for two years. There was no difference in bone density at the end of the study, but more of the women taking soy experienced hot flashes.

Q. Your radio program on “Why We Get Fat” with Gary Taubes may have changed our lives. As overweight middle-agers, we need to slim down.

I bought his book the next day, and reading it has given me a new perspective on food. We lost weight in the past with both the South Beach and Atkins diets, but we never really got the “bad carbs” point. As a result, we put all the weight we’d lost right back on again once we were off the diets.

This has to be a lifestyle change. Can you recommend a food list for a high-protein, low-carb diet for vegans?

A. Following a low-carb diet is more challenging for vegans, but it can be done. Avoid bread, candy, crackers, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice and sugar. Eat plenty of vegetables. Nuts, soy and other beans and legumes are good sources of protein.

Anyone who would like to listen to our interview with Gary Taubes can find it at www.peoplespharmacy.com. Look for show No. 823.

Q. I had been suffering with aching joints for a little over 10 years. Doctors weren’t listening because I’m only 37. Yet I could not move well and was in constant pain.

My mom read about taking gelatin to ease joint pain. I didn’t listen, but then she asked me to do her the favor of printing out some info on this subject from the Internet for a friend. She’s very wise: The friend was me!

She knew I would at least try it if I found others online with similar afflictions.

So I gave unflavored gelatin a try, a little bit in a glass of water. I was skeptical, but by the third night, I was able to move my toes with no pain! It had been a decade since I’d felt this good.

To me, it is a personal miracle.

A. We heard about this remedy for joint pain a couple of years ago from a reader who stirs a packet of Knox Gelatine into juice, oatmeal or yogurt every day. You can read more stories on our website, www.peoplespharmacy.com.

2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc.