anybody use flax seed?

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Sunflower64
Sunflower64 Member Posts: 166

hi girls,

just wanted to know if any of you ate flax seed.  i was taking it daily with yogurt before bc.  now there are some things i read saying you shouldn't after bc. i also would like to know if any of you are taking special supplements or eating foods to decrease bc recurrance, and what they are.  any help would be appreciated.

thanks,

diane

Comments

  • KEW
    KEW Member Posts: 745
    edited November 2009

    Hi Diane--I do 3 tablespoons ground most mornings.  There are thoughts on both sides, sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing, but it has such great nutrional value.  I've talked to 3 oncs all said in moderation, the MD, ND, and RD at the Integrated Medicine department all say to use it, and nothing else but fish oil and vitamin D--supplement wise.  I even wrote to the researcher in Toronto who has heen doing all the mouse studies and she thinks it is OK.  I don't know, but yes, I use it, too.

    I wish I could give you a more concrete answer to benefits/risks.

    Best,

    KarenW 

  • Rabbit_fan
    Rabbit_fan Member Posts: 166
    edited November 2009

    Hi Diane - we got diagnosed right about the same time!  After I finished my treatment I went to see an integrative oncologist for nutrition and supplementation advice.  Here's what they put me on:

    Vitamin D

    I3C

    Calcium d-glucarate

    Reishi mushroom with green tea tablets

    Multi-vitamin without copper or iron

    Antioxidant supplement

    Resveratrol

    High EPA fish oil

    Cherry concentrate

    They also recommend green powder, but I haven't tried that yet. 

    They also put me on curcumin, which I had been eating anyway.  But I have since stopped that because I read that it can interfere with Tamoxifen and I'm only an intermediate metabolizer, so they agreed it made sense to not take it, even though they did not find a lot of research on interaction with Tamox.

    They also advise a low fat vegetarian diet with no dairy.  They said that casein, which is the main protein in dairy products is cancer promoting.  But whey protein, which is the lesser protein in dairy is protective, so whey powder is ok.

    I have three books that I recommend highly on this subject. 

    Anti Cancer A New Way of Life by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber

    Foods to Fight Cancer by Richard Beliveau

    Life Over Cancer by Dr. Keith Block

    Other people recommend The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, but I haven't read that yet.

    I began immediately following the advice from Anti-cancer, and in the last couple of months also have adopted the diet from Life Over Cancer and it is an adjustment at first, but I don't feel deprived at all anymore.  Junk food never did me any favors, and I have finally lost the 25 pounds that have plagued me for 30 years! 

    I've been making awesome fruit smoothies with frozen berries, mango, and coconut water.  I always used to crave fruit-flavored candy, but now I just eat the fruit!

    I'll also paste a link here to a nutrition and breast cancer booklet that I have been posting everywhere lately.  It has a little info on flax, too.  http://cancer.ucsf.edu/crc/nutrition_breast.pdf

    Good luck to you!

  • charleneg
    charleneg Member Posts: 69
    edited November 2009

    Hi,

    Could you tell me where you got the pamphlet on nutrition & breast cancer?

    Thanks.

    Charlene 

  • bcamnb
    bcamnb Member Posts: 417
    edited November 2009

    Hi,

     I was told to avoid flax - very high in phytoestrogens.

  • Colleen123
    Colleen123 Member Posts: 289
    edited November 2009

    I am ER positive and I was given a list of foods to avoid as they are estrogenic (estrogen producing ??).   Flax seed was on the list.   The cancer clinic nutritionist said that I wasn't to worry about small amounts (eg. mixed grain breads), but not to eat it in large quantities or to take flax oil, etc.

    Colleen

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