Flaxseed oil and Cancer
Can you use this healthy grain's oil to prevent cancer?
Scientists are always discovering new breakthroughs in natural medicine. Here's some research on using flaxseed oil on cancer.
Using Ground Flaxseeds on Cancer
Researchers in Toronto, Canada discovered when rats ate a flaxseed diet they reduced certain types of genetic damage up to 30%.
Another study from South Dakota had rats eat corn meal or flaxseed diets. Scientists compared the incidence of colon tumors and tumor size in both diets.
Amazingly, the flaxseed diet reduced the appearance of colon tumors from 83% down to 29%!
And not only that...the tumors shrank from 44 mm. down to only 5 mm. Pretty amazing results for this hardy grain.
Breast Cancer and Ground Flaxseed Study
Even more impressive is what researchers at the University of Toronto found. Women awaiting treatment for breast cancer were given muffins with 25 grams of ground flaxseeds in them and instructed to eat these muffins every day.
Researchers found these women experienced slower growing tumors, compared to women that didn't eat the flaxseed-enhanced treats.
Flaxseed Oil and Cancer Research
What about using flaxseed oil on cancer? Can you use flaxseed oil to help treat or prevent yourself from getting certain types of cancer?
Most research supports the health benefits of ground flaxseeds. There are a couple studies comparing flaxseeds and flaxseed oil. The results were positive for flaxseed oil, but not as impressive as what ground flaxseed can do.
The Department of Nutritional Sciences at University of Toronto did such a study. Would there be any difference in tumor growth when rats ate a corn meal, ground flaxseed or flaxseed oil diet for 7 weeks? Compared to the corn meal diet, the average tumor volume was over 50% smaller in both the flaxseed and flaxseed oil diets.
Comparing a diet of ground flaxseed to flaxseed oilRats eating a ground flaxseed diet had the lowest amount of new tumor growth. Doctors believe this is due to the lignans found in the hull of ground flaxseeds. And the flaxseed oil diet? It was more effective where cancer cells have already established themselves.
Side NoteLignans are phyto-estrogens (a plant-like estrogen) and an antioxidant. The main flaxseed lignan is called secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), found in the hull. Flaxseed oil has small amounts of lignans. According to research, you need a minimum of 50 mg. of SDG per day to benefit from these healthful ingredients. The Flax Council of Canada says one rounded table-spoon of ground flaxseed can contain 50 mg. to 150 mg. of lignans. Want to learn more about lignans? Check out the Flax Lignan Information Bureau for more info on how you can benefit from flaxseed lignans. |
Using Flaxseed Oil on Colon Cancer
Can you use flaxseed oil on cancer of the colon? No human studies done, but there was this animal study done in South Dakota.
Scientists at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in South Dakota took a group of rats and put colon tumor cells into them.
They fed one group of rats corn oil and the other group received a flaxseed oil diet. Would one of these diets prevent colon cancer from growing in the rats?
Well, it turned out that the flaxseed oil diet reduced the appearance of colon tumors by almost 50%! They also discovered the colon tumors were a lot larger in the corn oil fed group.
Promising results, but it would be nice to see more human studies on using flaxseed oil on cancer of the colon.
Conclusions:
Results of these animal studies look promising, but there definitely needs to be more research. There is a need for more human studies on using flaxseed oil on cancer. What worked on rats may not be as successful with humans.
The study involving women with breast cancer and ground flaxseeds shows some promise. Unfortunately, there isn't too much available research looking at the use of flaxseed oil on cancer in humans.
Nonetheless, here's what I do:
To ensure I get my daily dose of omega 3 fatty acids, a touch of fiber and lignans, I mix a tablespoon of ground flaxseeds with my morning cup of O.J. I'll also add some flaxseed oil to the odd protein shake here or there, just to 'shake things up'.
The bottom line on using flaxseed oil on cancer? Flaxseeds and flax seed oil aren't a magic cure, but they play an important part in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Research References:
The influence of dietary flaxseed and other grains, fruits and vegetables on the frequency of spontaneous chromosomal damage in mice. Mutation Research. 2004 Jul 13;551(1-2):213-22. :
Chemopreventive effects of dietary flaxseed on colon tumor development Nutrition and Cancer 2006;54(2):216-22. Bommareddy A, Arasada BL, Mathees DP, Dwivedi C. Department of Pharmaceutial Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA.
Flaxseed and its lignan and oil components reduce mammary tumor growth at a late stage of carcinogenesis. Carcinogenesis, 1996 Jun;17(6):1373-6 Thompson LU, Rickard SE, Orcheson LJ, Seidl MM. Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Chemopreventive effects of dietary flaxseed oil on colon tumor development. Nutrition and Cancer. 2005;51(1):52-8. Dwivedi C, Natarajan K, Matthees DP. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA.
The inhibitory effect of flaxseed on the growth and metastasis of estrogen receptor negative human breast cancer xenograftsis attributed to both its lignan and oil components. International Journal of Cancer. 2005 Sep 20;116(5):793-8 Wang L, Chen J, Thompson LU. Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Dietary flaxseed alters tumor biological markers in postmenopausal breast cancer. Clinical Cancer Research. 2005 May 15;11(10):3828-35 Thompson LU, Chen JM, Li T, Strasser-Weippl K, Goss PE. Department of Nutritional Sciences, Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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