Thu, Nov-06-03, 12:20
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Forum Founder
Posts: 37,414
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Plan: LC, GF
Stats: 241/190/140
BF:
Progress: 50%
Location: Eastern ON, Canada
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quest
I'm reading Susan Weed's book on menopause and she says that people shouldn't take flax oil capsules for more than a few months because of cancer risk. However, she says it is ok to use cold pressed oil or grind your own flax seeds. Is this a recognized position?
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As the others have stated, there's no difference between the flax oil in capsules or the oil in a bottle .. except for the risk that capsules may not be fresh, and that you need to take a LOT of capsules to get the same dose as 1 Tbsp or more of the liquid.
As for the supposed link between flax and cancer .. this is a myth, based on a misunderstanding about phytoestrogens. Flax seed contains phytoestrogens (most plants do, to a greater or lesser degree) but that doesn't mean they act "just like estrogen" in the body. The phytoestrogens in flax are able to hook up to receptors on cells which normally hook up to estrogen. This effectively blocks the effects of excess estrogen on the cells, and is very beneficial. In fact, scientific studies have shown that flax can PREVENT cancers, such as breast, ovarian, prostate and testicular .. and recent studies suggest that daily flax consumption lessened the risk of reccurence in women who already had breast cancer The phytoestrogens are found only in the ground whole seed, not in the oil.
hth,
Doreen
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