Red Clover Isoflavone Reduces
Loss of Lumbar Spine Bone Density
(Medscape, 2/11/04)

Charlotte Atkinson, PhD, and colleagues from the Institute of Public Health at Cambridge University, U.K., selected 205 women, aged 49 to 65 years, from the breast screening unit of a Cambridge hospital based on the density of tissue as shown on their last mammogram. The investigators excluded women who were on hormone replacement therapy or who had had breast cancer or major breast surgery. For one year, subjects took either a daily dose of phytoestrogen isoflavone from red clover or a placebo. The researchers found that participants in the isoflavone group lost less lumbar bone density than those in the control group. These findings suggest that the isoflavone supplement may protect the lumbar spine.