Abstract
During menopause, women experience various symptoms including hot flashes, mood changes, insomnia, and sweating. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been used as the main treatment for menopausal symptoms; however, other options are required for women with medical contraindications or without preference for HRT. Functional health foods are easily available options for relieving menopausal symptoms. There are growing concerns regarding menopausal functional health foods because the majority of them include phytoestrogens which have the effect of endocrine disruption. Phytoestrogens may cause not only hormonal imbalance or disruption of the normal biological function of the organ systems, but also uterine cancer or breast cancer if absorbed and accumulated in the body for a long period of time, depending on the estrogen receptor binding capacity. Therefore, we aimed to determine the effects and safety of menopausal functional health ingredients and medicines on the human body as endocrine disruptors under review in the literature and the OECD guidelines.
Highlights
The average life expectancy of human beings is increasing with improvements in standards of living, economic level, scientific advances, and medical technology
Considering this feature in connection with the fact that most functional health foods containing phytoestrogens are accessible without a prescription from health professionals in Korea, and that middle-aged women who consume phytoestrogens can live an average of 30 years or more after menopause [2], safety of phytoestrogens must be evaluated and validated; When a woman’s body is exposed to these substances alone or together with other substances from the environment, they can accumulate in the body and have harmful effects on their health [15] in the near or distant future by affecting the uterus and ovaries [16,17]
In this review, we aimed to investigate the types of endocrine disruptors in menopausal functional health foods, the extent to which people are exposed to them, and what measures can be taken to protect against their harmful effects
Summary
The average life expectancy of human beings is increasing with improvements in standards of living, economic level, scientific advances, and medical technology. One of the features of EDCs is to accumulate in the human body without excretion for long periods of time [14] Considering this feature in connection with the fact that most functional health foods containing phytoestrogens are accessible without a prescription from health professionals in Korea, and that middle-aged women who consume phytoestrogens can live an average of 30 years or more after menopause [2], safety of phytoestrogens must be evaluated and validated; When a woman’s body is exposed to these substances alone or together with other substances from the environment, they can accumulate in the body and have harmful effects on their health [15] in the near or distant future by affecting the uterus and ovaries [16,17]. In addition to studies showing the efficacy of plant-derived phytoestrogens and extracts of natural substances on human health, further research is required to determine the presence of endocrine disruptors using methods such as the OECD–provided guidelines
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