HWN Suggests

Flasseed Oil: Does it Raise Estrogen?

For years I’ve been hearing people say that flaxseed oil should be avoided because it can “raise estrogen levels” and “cause gynecomastia”. For those who are unfamiliar, flax oil is extracted by pressing flaxseeds. Although it is well known that flaxseeds contain lignans, it is not entirely clear what role lignans have on the human body. Lignans are polyphenols found in the hulls of flaxseeds and many claim that when ingested, lignans will exert estrogenic effects on the body. Is this true? Don’t know. Although it is clear that phytoestrogens (estrogen like chemicals found in plants) such as lignans do resemble estrogen and can effectively occupy the estrogen receptor, the activity that takes…

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Featured

 A Silent Spring

Mention “Silent Spring” and thoughts immediately turn to Rachel Carson’s epic in which she alerted readers to the risks of pesticides. But long before, way back in the 1940s, Australian sheep farmers experienced a silent spring of their own. The familiar baa baa of spring lambs was absent. Lambs were being born alright, but they were stillborn. What was causing the disaster? Actually it was the farmers themselves. Or at least the clover they had planted to feed their sheep.s.

 Dietary lignans: The phytoestrogens with amazing health benefits for women and men

Lignans are compounds that form the building blocks of plant cell walls. They contain phytoestrogens that help regulate the body’s estrogen production. When we eat plant foods the lignan compounds are converted in our intestines by good bacteria to produce a form that the body can assimilate. Enterolactone—the primary lignan metabolite (a substance produced by metabolism) that circulates in our blood—produces weak estrogenic activity. Dozens of reports have revealed that high levels of enterolactone in our blood help to reduce risk of breast, prostate and colon cancers, and cardiovascular disease. Studies have also shown that high levels of lignans can support healthy weight and glucose metabolism, reducing the risk of insulin sensitivity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

 Lignans – The New Phytonutrient

Lignans are phytonutrients found in a wide variety of foods such as, flaxseed, whole grains, beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables. They are actually the components in these plants that develop into the hard outer tissue, known as lignin tissue. Our intestines convert lignan-rich foods into beneficial hormone-like compounds, phytoestrogens. (Although this conversion is blocked if you take antibiotics or have a high fat diet.) Flaxseed contains 75-800 times more lignans than any other plant.

Articles of Interest

Lignans May Benefit Women's Health in a variety of ways

Lignans have the unique ability to balance hormones, especially estrogen. The lignans exert a weak estrogenic effect. If estrogen levels are low, they get a boost of estrogen from the lignans. If estrogen levels are high, the plant lignans compete with endogenous (naturally occurring) estrogen for estrogen receptors. This balancing effect of estrogen can benefit many organs and systems in the female body. Lignans mimic estrogen and provide a natural way to get natural hormone replacement therapy without some of the risks associated with conventional therapy. Click here to read more on Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy.

Lignans: Compounds of plant origin that promote good cardiovascular health

There are over 8,000 phenolic and polyphenolic compounds found in plants. These compounds are not nutrients, but they have various beneficial biological activities in the human body. They are generally grouped into 4 classes: phenolic acids, flavonoids, stilbenes (e.g., resveratrol), and lignans. Lignans are dimers of monolignols, which can also be used in the synthesis of a long branched polymer, lignin, found in the walls of the conductive vessels of plants. From a nutritional standpoint, lignins are considered to be a component of insoluble dietary fibre.

My Thoughts on High Dose Lignans from Linseed to Balance Estrogen Levels Naturally

The way that linseeds work in the body to balance estrogen levels is through the process of estrogen modulation. Linseeds or flaxseeds contain a phytoestrogen called lignan. Lignans lock on to your body’s estrogen receptor sites and trick your body into either increasing or decreasing its production of estrogen, depending on what’s going on in your system at that point in time. So, for this reason it’s a really safe food to use. It doesn’t really matter where your oestrogen levels are at, the linseed is going to help to balance them out so that they’re in the correct ratio for your body at that stage of your life or at that point in time.

Naturally Lignan-Rich Foods: A Dietary Tool for Health Promotion?

Lignans, which possess a steroid-like chemical structure and are defined as phytoestrogens, are of particular interest to researchers. Traditionally, health benefits attributed to lignans have included a lowered risk of heart disease, menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis and breast cancer. However, the intake of naturally lignan-rich foods varies with the type of diet. Consequently, based on the latest humans’ findings and gathered information on lignan-rich foods collected from Phenol Explorer database this review focuses on the potential health benefits attributable to the consumption of different diets containing naturally lignan-rich foods

The Lowdown on Lignans

Lignans represent one of the four major classes of chemical compounds referred to collectively as phytoestrogens. Isoflavones, for instance, are another major class of phytoestrogens. Together, isoflavones and lignans are the most common phytoestrogens in the diet

The What and Who of Dietary Lignans in Human Health: Special Attention to Estrogen Effects and Safety Evaluation

Lignans are a group of phenolic compounds found in plant-based diets. The human body can obtain lignans through diet, which are then metabolized into enterolignans. The enterolignans have been linked to several health benefits, including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant effects, and estrogen effects. This review explores the relationship between the estrogenic effects of lignans and health.

The what and who of dietary lignans in human health: Special focus on prooxidant and antioxidant effects

Lignans are structurally complex bioactive polyphenolic compounds that are formed by the coupling of two coniferyl alcohol residues through the shikimic acid or the phenylpropanoid pathway. Based on their origin, they are broadly grouped into plant lignans and mammalian lignans.

[Lignan: an important natural estrogen from plants]

Lignan is an important phytoestrogen with weakly estrogenic and anti-estrogenic properties, and possesses diverse bioactivities, including antioxidation, antitumor and antivirus etc. In particular, it may prevent hormone-dependent diseases, such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia. However, many important scientific problems have not been constrained, whether do the metabolites of lignans from foods have their potential genic toxicity? What are the anticancer mechanisms of lignans? What is the dosage of lignans to achieve the desired biological effect?

Resources

7 Tasty Foods High in Lignans to Eat More Of

Aside from soy foods, lignans are among the best sources of phytoestrogens, which are plant-based compounds that have estrogen-like effects. Some people are concerned that phytoestrogens can increase your body's estrogen levels, but eating flaxseeds (which are rich in lignans and phytoestrogen) either decreases or has no effect on blood estrogen levels, according to May 2014 study in ​Integrative Cancer Therapies​. The study also found that eating 1 ounce of ground flaxseeds is associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer and anti-tumor effects.

Lignans for Life

At Lignans for Life, we manufacture high-quality natural supplements for you and your dog. From multivitamins to melatonin and probiotics, we have them all. We also have different types of lignans — from sesamin to flaxseed, you will find them all here.