Four bone chemistry markers moved the right way, none convincingly
In postmenopausal women on a mean 98.2 mg of soy isoflavones a day for three to twenty-four months, two bone-building markers rose and two breakdown markers fell.
What the study found
Four bone markers drifted the right way, none significantly
In postmenopausal women taking a mean 98.2 mg of soy isoflavones a day for three to twenty-four months, two markers of bone building rose and two of bone breakdown fell. Every one of the four confidence intervals crossed zero, the closest of them at p values of 0.06 and 0.07.
The caveat · Blood markers, not bone or fractures
Bone turnover chemistry is a surrogate: it is neither bone density nor fracture. The temptation is to lead with pyridinoline at 12 percent lower, and its interval runs from 25 percent lower to 1 percent higher. Doses across the pooled trials ranged nearly tenfold, from 30.9 to 300 mg a day.