Vitami.n C Lowers Bloo.d Pressur.e

Monday November 10 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Eating lots of soy each day may boost some women's sexual drive and arousal, according to a report published in Journal of Sexual Medicine.

The case report by Amsterdam A and colleagues All Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center-Surgery says that a woman who ate 4 pounds of a soy product for nearly one month actually suffered persistent sexual arousal syndrome.

Patients with this condition can be distressed by the escalation of tension in the pelvic region and have an urge to self-stimulate to release the pressure.

In the reported case, the 44-year-old woman suffered increased pelvic tension for 5-6 months and she experienced an increase in desire that required her to self-stimulate to orgasm about 15 times per day.

This was what the patient told her gynecologist when she went to see her gynecologist for dysmenorrhea and menometrorrhagia.

The woman's menstrual difficulties and sexual complaints disappeared after one month of supportive counseling and dietary modification.

This case, according to the authors, suggests that increased intake of phytoestrogens from soy may cause persistent sexual arousal.

Women's sexual desire may be affected by a range of factors including hormones like estrogen and testosterone.

A recent study found a high dose of testosterone delivered through patches doubled sexual episodes in postmenopausal women who suffered hypoactive sexual desire disorder.   But natural hormone like testosterone can be dangerous as the one-year study also found some women were diagnosed with breast cancer while the disease was not found in any one in the control group.

Soy is known to have estrogenic phytochemicals. Eating soy may not work for every woman with low sexual desire.   But the report in Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that using soy or plant products with high phytoestrogenic activity may help some women.

The good thing about the natural approach is that natural foods like soy are much safer than hormones like testosterone.