Dwindling estrogen supplies don’t just affect the skin. In fact, that’s the very reason behind the increased risk of injuries and fractures around menopause.

The hormone plays a role in ensuring that enough bone is being made and preventing bone tissue from undergoing resorption—or when bone gets broken down for the sake of releasing calcium into the blood.

So once menopause sets in and estrogen levels become critically low, the bones grow increasingly weaker. If allowed to progress, this may lead to fractures that could end up causing pain, disability, and even death.

But with estrogen’s drop being the issue’s core, daidzein may once again offer some relief. Whenever this isoflavone is present, the osteoblasts (cells responsible for synthesizing bone) become more active.

What makes the organic compound truly interesting though, is that it’s partly converted into equol in the intestines. Equol, despite offering the same set of perks, exhibits stronger estrogenicity and is more easily absorbed.

So far, you’ve seen just how important estrogen is to women’s health, especially when it comes to the skin and bones. However, it doesn’t end there—the heart and all circulatory pathways also depend on it.

With the female hormone playing an important role in keeping the arteries open and flexible, its presence means that pressure won’t be building up as blood gets distributed throughout the body.

This, in turn, translates to lower chances of suffering from stroke as well as coronary heart disease. And as you can imagine, when estrogen levels start to fall, these benefits begin to fade.

This is where daidzein once again works by serving as a substitute to the hormone—this time in facilitating nitric oxide production. It’s the abundance of this signaling molecule that keeps blood vessels open and flexible, or in other words, dilated.

Remember equol? It actually helps in this aspect too, bringing improvements in triglyceride, cholesterol, and free fatty acid levels, as well as blood pressure.

Although often associated with menopause, a hot flash can likewise be a problem during a woman’s periods. As long as there’s a shift in your hormone levels, or more specifically a sudden drop in estrogen, you become more prone to it.

What basically happens is that the hypothalamus (the part of the brain responsible for regulating temperature) becomes a bit too sensitive to warmth.

So despite the actual temperature not being that high, a hot flash is triggered to try and cool things down—this leads to the heart pumping faster and the blood circulating more freely, then followed by increased sweating.

With help from the isoflavone, however, these events can be avoided or at least minimized. Making sure that you supply yourself with it daily for four weeks may actually be enough to cut hot flash frequency by 40 percent.

What’s more impressive is that unlike undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT), going the isoflavone route is deemed safer. HRT, after all, has been linked to health issues like stroke, heart disease, and even cancer.

Now that you’ve learned of its perks, you’re probably wondering about the ways of getting your hands on this soy isoflavone—and there’s your clue. For each gram of soybean, there’s around 400 to 1,100 micrograms of it.

Now that you’ve learned of its perks, you’re probably wondering about the ways of getting your hands on this soy isoflavone—and there’s your clue. For each gram of soybean, there’s around 400 to 1,100 micrograms of it.

To be clear though, that’s immediately after harvesting. After being boiled, soybean’s daidzein content drops significantly down to approximately 360 micrograms per gram.

Roasting isn’t as harmful to it since roughly 1000 micrograms remain per gram of soybean (some claim that it’s only at 500 micrograms, however). But what if you aren’t too eager about eating or cooking the legume itself?

Well, there’s tofu—a meat substitute known for being a flavor sponge, making it easy to prepare. For each gram of fresh tofu, you’re getting around 100 micrograms of the isoflavone.

If you’re not really into soy, you could go for other legumes instead. Kudzu, fava bean, and lupin bean are good alternatives with about 400 micrograms per gram—though that value’s taken at dry weight.