Did You Know That Heart Disease Is The Leading Cause of Death?
Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States. Each year, 500,000 Americans die from heart disease, and it contributes to another 250,000 deaths from other causes. With the FDA's go-ahead, soy is poised to play a significant role in heart disease prevention.
In Oriental cultures, where soy has been a staple for 5,000 years, far fewer people suffer from heart disease and related problems than in countries where soy foods are not eaten. As a matter of fact, Japan has the lowest rate of heart disease death for men worldwide and the second lowest rate for women. This is what first raised scientific curiosity about soy as a preventative against heart disease. Hundreds of research studies have been performed worldwide to try to deduce which ingredients of the soybean might have heart-protective effects and how these ingredients work in the body. The results have shown that soy proteins and isoflavones, the phytochemicals (plant chemicals) contained in soy, have several different actions that work together to keep arteries clean and clear.
Heart disease is actually a disease of the arteries that feed this hardworking organ. These vessels (known as the coronary arteries) wrap around the outside of the heart, bringing freshly oxygenated blood to every inch of the heart muscle. A combination of poor diet, heredity, stress, and exposure to toxins can conspire to create blockages in the arteries, so that blood cannot reach the walls of the heart.
These blockages are usually created quite slowly; they often begin to form before the end of the teenage years, but don't generally end up causing problems until the fifth or sixth decade of life. At every step along the way, the formation of plaques in blood vessels (atherosclerosis) can be slowed or halted with diet and supplements. In most instances, one of the components of soy can help do the job. Research on soy proteins and phytochemicals has revealed a number of possible mechanisms by which they could stop the progression of heart disease. The isoflavones, the estrogen-like phytochemicals found in soy, are thought to be responsible for most of the positive effects.
