Re: all flaxseed info senders - Gee thanks!

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/21/03 3:20:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, lyn122@...

writes:

> Heidi...I've not heard of high insulin causing depressed delta six

> desaturase enzyme. It's not something I know much about. Could you

> point me in the direction of more info on this?

While I'm sure he's not reccomended reading on this list, Barry Sears is BIG

on this issue. His books are fantastic in the care he takes to make his case

scientifically to a popular audience. But they probably don't offer you much

if you are looking for experimental data. Too many bad dietary recommendations

to boot.

Chris

[Guest guest]

>Heidi...I've not heard of high insulin causing depressed delta six

>desaturase enzyme. It's not something I know much about. Could you

>point me in the direction of more info on this?

Sorry, no, just saw it in that one article.

>And (not to start another debate) but here's one more question on

>lignans. A while ago I remember a study that used 2 tbls of ground

>flax daily in muffins to equal tamoxifin treatment with breast

>cancer patients. The study came out from Canada (where flax is grown)

>so I've wondered about it.

I have read somewhere that flax DOES kill cancer cells. But it does so via

a kind of toxicity -- it's not very good for healthy cells.

>What I like to know is if it's necessarily bad to use phytoestrogens

>to help rev up the estrogen when it's declining. My understanding is

>that the man-made estrogenic compounds bind to estrogen receiving

>sites when not enough is being produced. The phytoestrogens prevent

>this from taking place by getting in there first. Is this a bad

>thing??? Or maybe I'm way off in my thinking.

Theoretically it *could* be ok. There just isn't enough info on it,

I think. I've come to believe that Americans are REALLY fouled

up in the hormone dept. for reasons other than phytoestrogens

(pros or cons) so all these epidemiological studies don't tell

the whole story. What about Ori's take, for example, that wheat

is estrogenic? And 40% of the American diet is wheat, up 30% in

the last 10 years? Or all the hormones in milk, also way up

since the cows get added hormones? Or the fact that fat cells

also produce estrogen, and the majority of Americans are now

overweight? Or that fact that dioxin (in everything now) messes

up hormones?

It's just too complicated to talk about one factor. Personally

I think that if a woman has a good diet and has no intolerances

to what she is eating, she won't get osteoporosis or breast

cancer, and phytoestrogens wouldn't be needed, but this isn't

based on anything scientific, just a gut feeling. The majority

of people I've met with osteoporosis were gluten intolerant (it

decidedly messes up calcium usage) and that or similar problems

also mess up the immune system so cancer can thrive. However, I

have yet to live through menopause :--)

-- Heidi