Showing posts with label Flaxseed. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 June 2019

70 Reasons To Eat More Flaxseed

70 Reasons To Eat More Flaxseed:

The science has never been clearer: flaxseed deserves to be top of the list of the world's most powerful medicinal foods. For just pennies a day it may protect against dozens of life-threatening health conditions.

Written By:

Sayer Ji, Founder

This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2018
Visit our Re-post guidelines

The science has never been clearer: flaxseed deserves to be top of the list of the world's most important medicinal foods. For just pennies a day it may protect against dozens of life-threatening health conditions.
Many of us have been enculturated to think about the nutritional dimension of our food intake in terms of the government's recommended daily allowances (RDAs), focusing on getting the "right" amounts of carbohydrate, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. However, I believe this focus on the quantifiable dimensions of food versus the qualitative/informationl elements has profoundly lead us astray. We bear witness to this in the fact that Americans are some of the most overfed yet simultaneously malnourished people on the planet. It is no wonder that we we are dying by the droves, with heart disease and cancer representing the most common (and also most preventable) causes of premature death.
What if there was a nutrient-packed super-food which costs pennies a day that can greatly reduce the risk of dying not only these, but dozens of other life-threatening conditions? Would you take it? The good news is there already is: welcome to the amazing nutritional/medicinal potential of flaxseed!

70 Reasons To Consume Flaxseed Daily

Admittedly, the title of this article is a bit over the top. Wouldn't five good reasons, or even just one good reason be enough to consume it more regularly? After all, think of the millions of people around the world who take aspirin daily only because it promises to reduce the risk for one condition: namely, prevention of heart attack. A practice, incidentally, that is dubious at best, and for which natural and likely far safer and effective alternatives may exist. If we can establish the preventive value of flaxseed in only one serious condition, perhaps this alone would be compelling enough to convince our readers to start incorporating it into their daily dietary regimen. However, for those nutrition geeks out there who like to read the first-hand research, here's our flaxseed database page, wherein you will find all the abstracts we have gathered on the topic of this seed's immense potential in preventing and/or treating up to 70 different health conditions.

7 Flaxseed Healing Highlights

Below you will find our top 7 reports on flaxseed's immense health benefits, including their role in preventing and/or reversing the #1 and #2 killers, namely, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

For those who are interested in how best to take advantage of flaxseed's many health benefits, but are unsure what is the best way to consume it, we address some of the most common questions below.

Should I Eat The Seeds Ground or Whole?

First, keep in mind that flaxseeds are Nature's ingenious design for preserving the precious cargo inside: highly therapeutic, though fragile polyunsaturated fatty acids, amino acids, and other fat soluble vitamins. This also means that you don't have to worry about refrigerating it. Once the seed is ground up and exposed to air, light, ambient fluctuations in temperature, and time, it begins to "go bad," i.e. oxidize and degrade. This is why many make a daily practice of grinding up their own seeds in a coffee grinder to ensure maximum freshness. While I think this is a great idea, not everyone will have the time or desire to adhere to this daily routine. This is why some purchase pre-ground flaxseed. I am not against the practice. My only stipulation is that the buyer make sure the manufacturer has nitrogen-flushed the container so that oxygen didn't get into the package at the time of manufacture.
The same rule applies to flaxseed oil. The company manufacturing the oil should maintain optimal freshness via nitrogen flushing the container, which will preferably be in non-chemical leaching glass. Also, opt for a high lignan form of the oil when available because you lose this valuable component of the seed material when you produce oil concentrate. Flaxseed has one of the highest levels of naturally occurring lignans known, and this is why if you are consuming the oil you may also wish to supplement with whole or ground flaxseed so that you benefit from these highly therapeutic compounds.
As far as whole flaxseed, make sure that you chew it well, if you primary objective is to obtain the beneficial nutrients, lignans, and fiber from them. Also, consider that flaxseed produces a very soothing mucilaginous gel when exposed and/or soaked in water. You can pre-soak a tablespoon in a glass of water overnight to produce a very good concoction for constipation by drinking it in the morning. Because flaxseed will naturally soak up water, remember not to consume too much dry, whole flaxseed without adequate hydration, as it could be a bit binding – the exact opposite effect that it will naturally have when consumed in the correct manner.

Which is Better? Flaxseed Oil or The Seed?

Hands down, this is the most common question I have fielded. The truth is that one is not better than the other for general preventive health purposes. For optimal protection I would suggest using both. However, there are some important things to consider when incorporating either of these forms into your diet:

Never heat flaxseed oil: All oils rich in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids are prone to enhanced oxidation (rancidity) when heated. This means that you would not cook with flaxseed oil, opting for naturally saturated (and therefore more heat stabile) fats like palm, coconut oil or ghee (clarified butter) instead.
Get creative with flaxseed meal: Flaxseed meal is an excellent addition to smoothies or for sprinkling on foods that have a higher glycemic index, e.g. pasta, cereal. The flaxseed meal will slow the breakdown of the starchy carbohydrates and therefore blunt blood sugar spikes and concomitant elevations in insulin. Also, the fiber is excellent for helping to contribute to regularity (it is useful both for going too much and not enough). The key, of course, is to always stay hydrated when using flaxseed, as it can cause significant binding in a dehydrated individual.
Flaxseed is full of good fats: Keep in mind that flaxseed is a potent source of omega-3 fatty acids, containing a 4:1 ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids. This is a great way to balance out the predominant ratios in the Standard American Diet, which is so heavy in corn, canola, soy, and peanut oils, all of which have several orders of magnitude more omega 6 than omega 3.

How Much Should I Take?

Generally, a tablespoon or two of meal a day is a good dose for ensuring you are getting a physiologically significant amount. The same goes for the oil. I have personally consumed five tablespoons of meal a day without any harm, and have used a good amount of the flaxseed oil in place of olive oil as salad dressing (I happen to like the taste of flaxseed better). Everyone will be different, so go with your intuition if you are just experimenting. If you are sick, consult your health practitioner or dietary coach to obtain specific recommendations. Also, listen to your body. If you aren't finding flaxseed agrees with you, then back off on the amount or stop it until you find another dietary intervention that does work for you. Another alternative that has many of the same health benefits is chia seed.

Just the Nutritional Facts

We'll leave you with some nutritional snapshots of flaxseed from the more quantitative perspective, so that it is clear how valuable it is in human nutrition simply as a source of both macronutrients and micronutrients, above and beyond its clearly medicinal function (a reflection of what I would call it's "therapeutic information" content) in the wide range of health conditions our database shows. The information below is based on 1 cup (168 grams) worth of flaxseed whole.

Flaxseed Protein and Amino Acid Content

Flaxseed Vitamin Content

Flaxseed Mineral Content

Flaxseed Fatty Acids

For more nutritional data on flaxseed, visit the Nutritiondata.com website.

Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

Sunday, 10 February 2019

Flaxseed Beats HRT in Reducing Menopause Symptoms in Clinical Study

Menopause

Posted on:

Saturday, February 9th 2019 at 5:45 am

Written By:

Case Adams, Naturopath

This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2019
Visit our Re-post guidelines

Both men and women can face menopausal syndrome in varying degrees. But hormone replacement therapy is riddled with risk, from heart disease to cancer. A recent clinical study finds flaxseed beats out HRT therapy in overall effectiveness for menopausal syndrome.
As a woman heads into her menopausal years, she may be met with varying degrees of what is often referred to as menopausal syndrome. Men too sometimes face some symptoms of menopausal syndrome during those years, but such symptoms and occurrence are generally less severe.
Menopause is not a disease. It is a natural metabolic change that accompanies changes that revolve around reproductive abilities. Menopause is distinguished from perimenopause in that menopause occurs when menstruation stops completely. During perimenopause, a woman might have irregular menstruation or she may miss menstruation for a month or more before it returns. In contrast, the typical criteria for menopause include not menstruating for more than a year.
Issues women face regarding menopause in addition to the discontinuance of menstruation and the loss of reproductive abilities include a host of menopause syndrome-related symptoms such as mood swings, joint pain, hot flushes and night sweats, insomnia and others.
Men sometimes also have these symptoms during their 50s and 60s, though generally less severe.
The reason for much of menopausal syndrome relates to the body producing less estrogen. For women this means their ovaries are simply producing and secreting less estrogen.
Men produce estrogen by converting testosterone with an enzyme called aromatase.
This means that reduced levels of aromatase, testosterone or both can lead to lower than healthy estrogen levels in men.

Estrogen reception

Many of the cells of the body contain estrogen receptors on their surface. When estrogen attaches to these estrogen receptors, it stimulates the cell to function in a number of ways.
These include stimulating the production of critical substances, such as collagen in the case of skin cells, cortisol in other cells (which balances inflammation and increases energy), mucosal secretions among mucosal linings, and neurotransmitters that assist in mood balance and cognition among neuron cells.
When the body's production of estrogen is dramatically reduced – in both men and women – the receptors will lie dormant or be replaced by non-estrogens. This causes the cells to produce less of these important substances, and produce the symptoms linked to menopausal syndrome that both men and women can experience.

Phytoestrogens as estrogen replacement

In both men and women, phytoestrogens can help alleviate problematic symptoms related to low estrogen levels. Phytoestrogens are contained generally in plant-based foods: Grains, beans, seeds, fruits and vegetables.
Phytoestrogens are nature's estrogens. They attach to estrogen receptors just as estrogen does, and thus stimulate most of the same activities that estrogen does.
Among phytoestrogen sources, some of the highest levels of phytoestrogens are found in soy and flax. And clinical research has supported the fact that these two foods can significantly reduce menopausal symptoms.

Flaxseed clinically tested for menopausal symptoms

This is what was found in a recent study which also compared flaxseeds to pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Researchers from the Departments of Nursing and Pharmacy at Turkey's Izmir Katip Celebi University investigated the potential of flaxseed reducing menopausal symptoms with 140 women volunteers who had not experienced menstruation for at least a year.
The women were divided into four groups of 35. Groups one and two did not take - nor had they been taking - hormone replacement therapy. Both of these groups were given five grams of flaxseed per day. (A tablespoon of whole flaxseed equals about 11 grams.) They received the flaxseed from the researchers in bulk and took the flaxseeds daily for three months. The only difference between group one and group two is that group two also received information training about menopause.
Group three received hormone replacement therapy as prescribed by a physician. Their HRT consisted of 2 milligrams of estradiol hemihydrate and 1 milligram of norethindrone acetate per day.
Meanwhile, group four – the control group – received no treatment.
The length of the study was three months for all four groups.
Everyone in all four groups received two tests at the beginning and end of the testing period. The testing consisted of the Menopause Rating Scale – first used in 1992 – and the SP-36 Quality-of-Life Scale – a leading test since 1987. The menopausal rating scale measured the various menopausal issues including intensity and frequency.
The scores for the tests before and after the three months were analyzed by computer to create a statistical analysis for the results.

Flaxseed matches HRT in reducing menopausal symptoms

After the three months, the researchers found the groups that consumed the five grams of flax per day had significantly fewer and less-intense menopausal syndrome symptoms.
The group that didn't receive any HRT treatment nor flaxseeds (control group) had increased menopausal syndrome symptoms by an average of 7%.
Groups one and two had a decrease in menopausal syndrome symptoms, by an average of nearly 9% and 10%.
This actually means that the daily flaxseeds improved menopausal symptoms by up to 17% when compared to the control group.
Meanwhile, those women who received pharmaceutical HRT drugs also saw their menopausal symptoms decrease, by about 10%. This was slightly higher (10% compared to 9.8%) than group two, but the difference was very slight.

Quality of life scores reveal flax' advantage over HRT

One might wonder what is the advantage of flaxseed over pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy - besides cost. While flaxseed therapy with menopause education basically matched HRT in the reduction of symptoms, there is more to hormonal therapy than simply menopausal syndrome symptoms.
The two flaxseed groups in this study experienced significantly improved Quality-of-Life scores. Group one's QOL scores increased from 38.93 to 49.00, while group two saw QOL scores increase from 38.63 to 41.69.

The HRT group, however, had reduced Quality-of-Life scores. Their scores went down from 37.29 to 34.65.

The control group also had a reduction of Quality-of-Life scores – from 34.94 to 33.82.

This means the Quality-of-Life scores of those who took hormone replacement therapy drugs dropped more than those who didn't do any therapy.
Another obvious advantage for flax relates to side effects. HRT typically comes with a host of side effects. One of these was evidenced from the large Women's Health Initiative, a 15-year study of over 161,000 women. This study found combination HRT therapy (such as in this study) came with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Short-term HRT use also increased inflammation (C-reactive protein). Other studies have shown increased risks of breast cancer with HRT.
Other adverse effects of HRT typically include intestinal irritation, vaginal bleeding, nausea, headaches and others.
What this all means is when flax is compared to HRT utilizing a complete spectrum - symptoms plus quality-of-life plus adverse side effects - we can conclude that flax significantly outperformed HRT in this clinical study.

What's in a Quality-of-Life Score?

When it comes to overall effectiveness of any therapy, QOL is a critical component. A therapy is rightly measured by both its symptom reduction and its Quality-of-Life scores because no one wants to feel worse overall when they are undergoing a therapy. For example, if someone takes an NSAID for a headache and finds the headache gone but is now faced with feeling drowsy and a stomach ache, or just a feeling of being down in the dumps, how effective was the therapy?
As this study proved, flaxseeds not only reduce symptoms of menopause – at practically the same levels as the HRT therapy: But flax also increases quality of life and comes with positive side effects. These include flax' positive effects upon digestion, cholesterol and cognition.
For example, flax contains considerable amounts of phytosterols, which reduce levels of oxidative low-density lipoproteins (LDL). Flax also contains healthy prebiotic fiber, so it aids digestion and bowel movements. Pertaining to cognitive levels, flaxseed comes with considerable content of an omega-3 fat called alpha linolenic acid or ALA. ALA is converted by a desaturase liver enzyme into heart- and brain-healthy docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA is utilized by heart, brain and nerve cell membranes to help protect them from free radical damage.
For these many reasons, I always sneak a good dose of flaxseeds into the smoothies I make for my wife and I.
For additional research on the health benefits of flaxseed consult the GreenMedInfo.com database on the topic: Flaxseed Health Benefits Research.
Learn about natural solutions for food allergies and sensitivities.

REFERENCES:

Cetisli NE, Saruhan A, Kivcak B. The effects of flaxseed on menopausal symptoms and quality of life. Holist Nurs Pract. 2015 May-Jun;29(3):151-7. doi: 10.1097/HNP.0000000000000085.
Physicians Desk Reference. 2005
Pradhan AD, Manson JE, Rossouw JE, Siscovick DS, Mouton CP, Rifai N, Wallace RB, Jackson RD, Pettinger MB, Ridker PM. Inflammatory biomarkers, hormone replacement therapy, and incident coronary heart disease: prospective analysis from the Women's Health Initiative observational study. JAMA. 2002 Aug 28;288(8):980-7.
Originally published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2019-02-09
Breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy: collaborative reanalysis of data from 51 epidemiological studies of 52,705 women with breast cancer and 108,411 women without breast cancer. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Lancet. 1997 Oct 11;350(9084):1047-59.

Case Adams is a California Naturopath with a PhD in Natural Health Sciences, and Board Certified Alternative Medicine Practitioner. He has authored 26 books on natural healing strategies. His focus is upon researching, writing about and authenticating traditional therapies with clinical evidence. His books can also be found at Heal Naturally. Contact Case at case@caseadams.com.