Soy Lecithin Reduced Fatigue, Blood Pressure in Menopausal Women

Article

Daily or weekly fatigue often accompanies menopause. Soy lecithin and egg yolk contain phospholipids-compounds that can repair damaged cell membranes-with earlier studies finding a fatigue benefit for soy lecithin. In this study, 89 menopausal women complaining of fatigue took 600 mg or 1,200 mg of soy lecithin per day, or a placebo.

After eight weeks, while there were no changes for placebo, and only slight improvement in the low-dose lecithin group, those in the high-dose lecithin group reported much less fatigue, and showed greater improvement in major aspects of energy and mood including tension, depression, anger, vigor, fatigue, and confusion. Diastolic blood pressure also decreased by an average of 4.1 mmHg in the high-dose soy lecithin group.

Reference: Nutrition Journal; 2018, Vol. 17, No. 4, Published Online

A Note from Don Goldberg:

I was curious as to what type of “soy lecithin” supplement was used. There are several forms, in differing strengths, of soy lecithin available. Were they giving 600 and 1200 mg of “liquid” soy lecithin in softgels, or “granular” soy lecithin in powder? Were they giving an isolated phospholipid concentrate. The liquid lecithin is only 62% phosphatides while the granular form is 95% phosphatides. So I looked up the original published study.

Here is the pertinant section:

“The participants were randomized into 1 of 3 groups to receive active tablets containing high-dose (1200 mg/day; n?=?32) or low-dose (600 mg/day; n?=?32) soy lecithin, or placebo (n?=?32) for 8 weeks. The high-dose and low-dose soy lecithin and placebo tablets, indistinguishable in shape, weight, and color, were manufactured and packaged by Kikkoman Corporation (Noda, Japan). The tablet contained phospholipids in the form of phosphatidylcholine, 24%; phosphatidylethanolamine, 20%; and phosphatidylinositol, 12%. The women were instructed to take six tablets per day after breakfast. Medication adherence was evaluated by collecting the packages of the supplements from participants. The participants were sequentially numbered, and received supplement packages with the corresponding number. The content of each package, namely high-dose or low-dose soy lecithin, or placebo, was known only by the manufacturers. Thus, allocation was concealed from both the participants and the investigators. Safety was assessed by patient-reported treatment-emergent adverse events.”

This is confusing, as they use the word “tablets,” but based on the dosage and phosphatide composition (approximately 62%), I suspect it should be “softgels.” As this research was performed in Japan, I suspect it is just an error in translation, or terminology. You cannot make “tablets” from liquid soy lecithin.

Regardless, lecithin is relatively inexpensive and safe, so you should experiment with various dose levels, including not only liquid soy lecithin (liquid or softgels), granular lecithin, or phosphatidyl choline. I suspect higher levels of phosphatidyl choline will work even better. Talk to the nutritionists and pharmacists at Willner Chemists for help in choosing the product best for you.