Table 5.

Representative Human Studies Examining the Effects of Phytoestrogens on CVD

Phytoestrogen - Clinical Trial	Subjects	Study Design	Outcome	Ref
Flavonoid - Observational	34489 Healthy Post-MW age 55-69 yr	Flavonoid food composition data, 16 years follow-up	Inverse association between flavanones intake and CHD, and between flavones intake and total mortality. No association between flavonoid intake and stroke mortality. Individual flavonoid-rich foods associated with significant mortality reduction: bran, apples, pears, red wine (CHD and CVD), grapefruit (CHD), strawberries (CVD), and chocolate (CVD)	[244]
Lignan - Cross- sectional study	301 Post-MW, 60-75 yrs in the Netherlands	Food frequency questionnaire covering the year prior to enrollment	Lower systolic & diastolic BP & lower prevalence of hypertension observed with lignan intake, but no association with ankle-arm BP index or EC function.	[245]
Biochanin A & formononetin - Clinical trial	80 Healthy subjects, age 45-75 yr	Biochanin A& formononetin in two 6-week periods. Large artery stiffness, endothelial function, 24-hour ambulatory BP, and total peripheral resistance measured at baseline and after each intervention.	In normotensive men and Post-MW, formononetin reduced arterial stiffness and total vascular resistance, but had no effect on BP	[246]
Phytoestrogens - Meta-analysis	133 Clinical trials	Structured search strategy using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases	Chocolate increased FMD after acute & chronic intake and reduced systolic & diastolic BP. Soy protein isolate reduced diastolic BP and LDL-C. Acute black tea consumption increased systolic & diastolic BP. Green tea reduced LDL.	[17]