Quality of Life and Antioxidant Activities in Menopausal Wwomen Receiving Dioscorea

As in many industrialized nations, the aging population in Taiwan is rapidly increasing and great efforts are being made to improve the quality of life for postmenopausal women. Many physical and mental disturbances are attributed to the menopause. Early symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and insomnia are common complaints among menopausal women. Increased risks of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis are also well documented as late sequence of the menopause. These symptoms could be due to estrogen deprivation, secondary to follicular depletion. The advantages and disadvantages of hormone therapy (HT) for postmenopausal women have been extensively studied in Western countries. HT is believed to have beneficial effects on menopausal symptoms; however, it may also increase the incidence of breast cancer. Thus, many gynecologists and menopausal women seek alternatives to HT, such as SERMs (selective estrogen receptor modulator) including Traditional Chinese Medicine for maintenance of health of menopausal women. In last few years, we have carried out multiple trials of HT, SERMs, and TIBOLONE in Taiwanese menopausal women at National Cheng Kung University Hospital. Those supplements have been shown to be effective to Taiwanese menopausal women. Dioscorea is a yam steroid extract and contain phytoestrogen and/or phytosterol components. Many research institutes expressed high interests to the cultivation and development of Yam including Dioscorea. Anticancer action of cytotoxic to many human cancer cell lines was found in methyl protogracillin, the extract from Dioscorea collettii var.. Clinically, three weeks supplementation of Dioscorea in aged women has antioxidant activities and reduce serum lipid significantly (Araghiniknam, 1996). The purpose of this study is to compare the effect Dioscorea with those of conjugated equine estrogen plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) on climacteric symptoms, blood lipid profiles, bone mineral contents, antioxidant activities and sexuality in Taiwanese postmenopausal women. We expect this pilot study will provide information on this effects of Dioscorea on the quality life of menopausal women and may initiate the interests of researches and promote the values of Dioscorea in menopausal treatment. Our study indicated a general improvement on almost all clinical symptoms investigated on those menopausal women. Though many of the investigated items did not reach significant level between those receiving Dioscorea compared to those of placebo , there were significant differences in the improvement of insomnia (p=0.03), musculoskeletal pain (p=0.04), dizziness (p=0.01), and numbness of the extremities (p＜0.01) in those receiving Dioscorea. Besides, we also found significant elevated peripheral blood concentration of DHEA-S (p=0.02) in those receiving Dioscorea compared to those of placebo. The BMI (p=0.04), triglyceride (p=0.03), MDA (p=0.03), and the size of breast cyst (p＜0.01) were reduced in those receiving Dioscorea compared to those of placebo.

Project ID:PG9307-0145
External Project ID:DOH93-TD-1017