Menopause is the time in a woman’s life where she has her final menstruation. This occurs because the function of the ovaries is slowly reduced, whereby the oestrogen levels drop dramatically. During and after menopause, women often lose a lot of bone mass. Over time, this can lead to fragile bones which suddenly break due to minor trauma. This is called osteoporosis. In osteoporosis, the bone mass and density is low, and the bones are thus unable to withstand the same strain as earlier. The bone loss in women increases dramatically due to their oestrogen-levels dropping. The oestrogen hormone provides the bone cells with important signals about increasing the composition of bone and reducing decomposition. A loss of oestrogen will therefore cause the balance in bone composition and decomposition to shift in favour of decomposition. Moreover, the regeneration of bone after trauma drops, while the production of fatty tissue in the bone marrow increases. Earlier, a hormone substitutional treatment of oestrogen and gestagen has been used as this treatment can combat the nuisances that women in menopause experience. Hormonotherapy, however, has shown to have severe side-effects – it increases the risk of developing breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The treatment is therefore not recommended to women with a low risk of osteoporosis.
Alternative remedies
Scientists have searched for alternative medicaments for the treatment of postmenopausal women with increased risk of developing osteoporosis. A promising alternative is the so-called ‘phytoestrogens’, which have shown promising results as alternative medicine. They are able to bind to oestrogen receptors in the human cells and thereby produce the same effect as the body’s own oestrogen. The body has two oestrogen receptors: an alfa receptor and a beta receptor. The alfa receptor can be found in breast tissue and in the uterus, while the beta receptor is dominant in the bone tissue.
One of the most well-known phytoestrogens are ‘isoflavones’. In animal experiments, this has proved to be capable of binding to the oestrogen receptors in the bone tissue and increase the composition of bone tissue and reduce decomposition. Red clover contains isoflavones, but the substance first becomes active, when bacteria in the intestine has removed a tiny sugar molecule on the substance. This means that the active isoflavones are dependent on the bacterial flora of the intestine, but this varies a lot in people. A study has investigated whether this effect also concerned women in menopause. The researchers wanted to investigate if a daily intake of red clover extract affected bone density, inflammatory conditions and the cardiovascular health. Over a 12-week period, a group of women were given a daily supplement of either 150 ml red clover extract with 37,1 mg isoflavones or placebo (no effect). After the 12 weeks, the results showed that red clover extract could increase bone developing processes, while the women who did not receive any red clover had lost bone mass.
Simultaneously, the scientists did not observe any changes in inflammatory conditions, blood pressure or any side-effects of the treatments. Later studies have shown the same positive effect, and in these studies, it showed that some women progressed from initially being unable to form active isoflavones to forming them due to different intestinal flora after a short period with red clover extract. This research suggests that red clover extract can contribute to healthy bones that are less fragile in postmenopausal women. Red clover extract can be bought in many health stores.
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