flaxseed and CLA

aspen

This may have been asked already but,

does anyone have information on the use of flaxseed and/or flaxseed oil with ER+ breast cancer or the use of CLA with ER+ BC as well.

Thanks.

jameson

i have been wondering that tooo good question

LillianP

Flaxoil is effective in fighting breast cancer cells in animal studies and may be more effective than flax lignans.  See Research reports from Lilian Thompson's lab at the University of Toronto School of Medicine or visit our website www.polarfoods.com and click on News & Research -> Current News.

jameson

The reason i was curious... is because i have always tried to add flaxseed for my health to my diet....  The other day on Dr oz  they were saying that flax is a phytoestrogen? What does that mean in terms of having estrogen positive cancer cells???? i have just found two articles. they kind of contradict each other?  hmmmmm

http://www.a-zbreastcancer.com/articles/aflaxseed.htm

http://www.cyst101.com/phyto.htm

http://www.cyst101.com/phyto.htm

MBJ

Chia seeds have all of the good things that flax have without the bad and is much better for you.  Also good for weight/appetite control if you have gained weight from your treatments and/or chemopause.

cs7777

Be careful about assumptions about phytoestrogens.  There are many different ones, and they are not equal in terms of their activities within the body.  All can interact with the estrogen pathways, but some stimulate and some inhibit.  (Biologically it's possible that a single phytoestrogen might stimulate some activity in some tissues while inhibiting in others like tamoxifen does, although I haven't looked for data that demonstrate it.)  All the data I've seen that looks at flaxseed oil and flaxseed lignins on breast cancer specifically shows that it's good for breast cancer (or at least not bad for it) and that it does not interfere with tamoxifen; if anything, its inhibitory effects appear to be additive to tamoxifen's.  Most of this work on breast cancer specifically comes out of the Thompson lab mentioned above.  I for one add flaxseed to my vegetarian diet because it has lots of good properties I need and the BC data suggest its beneficial in that respect as well. 

jameson, I'm unsure why you say those two articles contradict eachother.  Both are talking about data that says flaxseed is ok if not beneficial for breast cancer.  The first, at the end, gives the typical warning about "we don't know enough so ER+ women ought to be careful" but that doesn't affect the data they cite, just how you want to use it.  That's my interpretation anyway. 

hrf

After my first dx for TN bc I thought I would stay healty by adding freshly groung flaxseed to my morning oatmeal. Three and a half years later, I developed ES+ bc so from my experience, it might have promoted a new bc to grow. I had already removed my ovaries so there was no estrogen coming from that source.