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A strategic study: Soy diet makes heart disease to worsen in male mice

by Medindia Content Team on Jan 5 2006 4:43 PM

Soy which is generally considered excellent for health has a counter which states that heart conditions became worse in male mice carrying a genetic mutation for heart disease when they were fed a soy diet.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or HCM was the mutation that the male mice carried and were severely affected by the soy diet. It was shown by enlarged heart muscles and eventual heart failure. This study was done by University of Colorado at Boulder.

Journal of clinical investigation features the study. "We were shocked by the results," said Colorado professor Leslie Leinwand, noting that when the mice in the study were switched to a diet of milk protein their condition improved markedly.

Female mice carrying the mutation for HCM were relatively unaffected by the soy diet, according to the study. That led the Colorado research team to believe that heart deterioration in male mice was due at least in part to plant-based estrogens in the soy food diet. As concluding words by prof, "I don't think normal, healthy people should be alarmed by the results of this study.

"But we are seeing more cautionary reactions from the medical community in recent years regarding the ingestion of huge quantities of dietary supplements, including soy phytoestrogens."


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