As far as the latter nutrient is concerned, peri- and post-menopausal women often don't get enough in their daily diet. That is the conclusion of a study recently published by the Spanish medical journal Nutricion Hospitalaria.

Researchers measured the dietary intake of more than 3,500 women, all of whom were between the ages of 45 and 68. The team reported being shocked to find that just 39 percent of all participants got the recommended daily allowance of vitamin D.

The authors recommended that menopausal women eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains while avoiding excess protein and fat. Another simple way to get all the vitamin D one could ever want is by taking dietary supplements.

In later life, being vitamin D-deficient can increase the risk of poor bone health among mature women.

Published in the journal Archives of Ophthalmology, the research found that women with early-onset MD – a condition in which the eye's retina degrades over time – may be able to prevent the onset of the ailment by taking vitamin D supplements.

The study's participants, all of whom were women under the age of 75, were tested for their blood levels of the nutrient, and their dietary habits were recorded as well.

Those who consumed the most vitamin D had a 59 percent lower chance of having developed age-related MD than those whose intake of the nutrient was the lowest.

Scientists concluded that in addition to supporting strong bones and efficient calcium uptake, regular vitamin D consumption may be good for aging women's eyes.

Individuals who do not consume adequate amounts of liver, eggs, mushrooms or dairy products – which are the prime food sources of the substance – may consider getting their vitamin D from a multivitamin.

Called polyphenols, this class of compounds was found to reduce inflammation and improve bone health, in a study led by researchers at the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women's Health at the Texas Tech University.

Scientists did not ask participants to drink green tea, however. Instead, the study's 171 postmenopausal women were given daily vitamin supplements containing 500 milligrams of the substance. This amount is the equivalent of four to five cups of unsweetened green tea.

The research team found that after six months on such a regimen, participants displayed better bone health and fewer bloodborne markers of oxidative stress.

Polyphenols are known to act as an antioxidant, preventing highly charged ions called free radicals for damaging cell parts and fast-tracking both inflammation and the aging process.

Besides improving cellular and bone health, herbal supplements that contain green tea extract may improve mood and overall well-being.

The report, published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, found that two and a half months of twice-weekly acupuncture reduced the psychological and somatic effects of menopause.

In particular, women who received the alternative treatment reported feeling less discomfort while experiencing hot flashes.

Researchers also measured levels of estrogen and follicular stimulating hormone in all participants, finding that these hardly varied from those of women not receiving acupuncture.

The study's authors theorized that the use of acupuncture needles may have stimulated the production of endorphins, which are hormones that register pain, excitement and feeling of well-being. These could have given the sense of enhanced thermal regulation.

For menopausal women who have limited access to acupuncture, taking a daily herbal supplement may be their best bet for staying healthy and minimizing hot flashes.

Researchers gave hormone treatments to mice that developed estrogen receptor positive ovarian cancer, a form of the disease that makes up 60 percent of all cases. These animals were then compared to another group with the disease, but didn't undergo ERT. The team also compared two groups of mice with breast cancer, with one group receiving ERT.

The results showed that ovarian cancer spread five times faster in mice that had been exposed to ERT as opposed to the animals that didn't receive the treatment. Also, ERT increased the risk of cancerous tumors developing in the lymph nodes by 26 percent, while the control group had a 6 percent increase.

Monique Spillman, lead author of the study, concluded that "we cannot make clinical recommendations based on what is happening in mice." She added that "every woman is different and needs to talk to her doctor about the decision to use hormone replacement therapy."

In 2006, nearly 20,000 women in the U.S. had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and of that population, a total of 14,857 patients died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In order to determine the effects of this regimen on post-menopausal women, researchers from Purdue University examined the results of two studies that had female participants aged 43 to 80 follow certain diets.

During the first trial, investigators had volunteers reduce their caloric intake by 750 calories by following an eating plan enriched or free of proteins. The second study had participants eat 1,250-calorie diets, but researchers had the women consume different types of proteins.

After each trial, the teams measured the bone density in each woman. Researchers found that weight-loss efforts that included increased protein intake were linked to bone loss.

Wayne W. Campbell, lead author of the study, stated that this diet may cause women to lose "bone mineral density faster than women who consumed normal protein diets that did not contain any meats."

Suffering from bone density loss, especially later on in life, may lead to a higher risk of developing osteoporosis, a condition that weakens bones. In fact, approximately 55 percent of Americans aged 50 years and older are at risk of developing osteoporosis, the National Osteoporosis Foundation reports.

During the three-month trial, more than 100 women who were using hormonal therapy to treat signs of menopause were randomly chosen to take oral micronized progesterone, which is a steroid found in yams, or to take a placebo. Eligible participants included women who experienced their last menstruation cycle in the past 10 years, and had undergone ovarian hormone treatments during the last six months.

In order to determine the results, researchers used the average daily vasomotor symptom score (VMSScore), which represents the number and intensity of hot flashes and night sweats experienced daily.

The team discovered that 68 women who had taken the horomone supplement reported a 56 percent improvement in their VMSScores, while the participants who took the placebo confirmed a 28 percent lower VMSScore.

The investigators concluded that these were the first findings that allowed women to use a treatment this closely related to actual hormones.

In 2008, a total of 23.3 percent of women who used hormone treatments for menopause opted for oral estrogen medications, according to the North American Menopause Society.

Previous trials have found that women who have already experienced menopause are among the most common high-risk populations. In order to better understand the connection between low hormone levels and this health problem, researchers enrolled 60 women aged 31 to 80 who had been diagnosed with aneurysms in a two-year study.

The team then surveyed the participants about their gynecologic history and hormone treatment use, and compared their responses to a control group of more than 4,600 women.

The researchers discovered that approximately 78 percent of the control group reported the use of oral contraceptives, while 60 percent of the aneurysm group had used these medications. Also, an estimated 45 percent of the aneurysm-free women used HRT, while only 24 percent of the study group had a history of HRT.

Michael Chen, co-author of the study, stated that these findings "support our hypothesis that drops in estrogen that occur in menstruation and particularly at menopause may explain why cerebral aneurysms are more frequently found in women."

Patients who have been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm have a 15 to 20 percent chance of developing at least one more during their lifetime, The Aneurysm and AVM Foundation reports.

For three years, a team of investigators from the University of California, Davis asked women who had already experienced menopause to take supplements containing isoflavones, estrogen-like compounds found in soy. Two groups of the participants were given capsules containing different amounts of the nutrients and were compared to a control group.

The results of the trial showed that long-term use of the isoflavones-enriched supplements had no beneficial effect on preventing bone loss compared to the positive results seen from eating soy.

The researchers concluded that these results may have occurred because the capsules didn’t contain high enough levels of isoflavones needed to improve bone health. Also, these findings may suggest that depending on what type of soy source a person consumes, their body may be affected differently by the nutrients in the foods.

In addition to improving bone health, researchers from Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia discovered that post-menopausal women who increase their soy consumption can also experience healthy weight loss.

Soy is a vegetable used to make milk, oil and other food products, and contains a variety of nutrients, including compounds similar to estrogen, that can lead to many health benefits when added to one’s diet.

Women who have experienced menopause will typically have lower hormone levels, which has been linked to abdominal weight gain. In order to maintain healthy hormone levels, some women turn to replacement therapy, which has been proven to cause many health problems, including the development of breast cancer.

In an effort to find a natural alternative to hormone treatments that also provided weight loss benefits, researchers fed soy, a plant that contains compounds similar to estrogen, to post-menopausal rats.

The results of the rats eating an increased intake of soy led to higher energy expenditure and weight-loss.

Michelle Murphy, a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, stated that these findings have "implications for the development of alternative natural treatments for obesity in post-menopausal women."

For post-menopausal women who are interested in adding other natural alternatives to their diets in order to improve weight-loss, recent research conducted at Johns Hopkins University showed that eating pomegranate can boost weight loss results and provide natural replacement therapy.