Flaxseed (again) and ER+/PR+

In the first link I'd be curious to know how exactly they measured the cell growth index for breast cancer in these women as well as measure the decrease in their HER2 receptor status. How did they take these measurements on each of these patients?

I know nothing about the subject.Flaxseed totally turns me off.It's linseed oil, and with the amount I've "eaten" off the handles of paintbrushes, I should never have gotten bc .
I just came to make sure everyone knows that the actual flax SEEDS are indigestable.They pass through digestive tracts whole.To get benefit they must be ground.(People suggest keeping a special coffee grinder for this.)
Reason I mention it is PLENTY of allegedly healthful food "CONTAINING FLAXSEED!" , breads, muffins, cereals, have whole flaxseeds visable.Part of the whole grains thing, but badly researched, and waste of $.

Did you really?Protective for the wood probably?
I painted a picket fence white once.horrible, horrible job.Who knew every picket has ****4**** sides?Those little narrow sides look like hell if they're not painted.Felt like Tom Sawyer.

I was a painter most of life (oils, landscape/still life).I had a way of popping a brush handle into my mouth , between my teeth, to hold while I quickly did something else.Mostly smudging lines with my fingers.So my fingers, and brushes were always carrying oil paint and linseed oil.
Not a good taste.
When I bought my first bottle of FLAXSEED oil, to drizzle on salad...imagine my horror when I got that old taste again.

The other thing about linseed oil is it tastes REALLY awful the older it gets, and it ages FAST.Ewwwwww.

This study cracks me up. It has to be funded by the soy industry. The news has slowly gotten out that soy promotes the growth of a tumor, now they want to study flax and soy taken together to see if flax will overcome the detrimental effects of eating soy on tumor growth. I just had to share this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez...Pubmed_RVDocSum

So someone thinks flax is good to eat. And there's too much money funding the wrong projects. FDA open your eyes about soy.

The information I've read also states the oil has a short life. If buying oil, it must be refrigerated. If buying seed, it must be ground fresh daily to obtain the maximum benefit. I bought a coffee grinder just for my flaxseed breakfasts.

I made the mistake one day of running out of yogurt. Instead I cooked my ground flaxseed with oatmeal. Blech blech and blech!! yukko!

Another thing that I think I notice -- my hair feels like my hair again. It seems thicker now, and my hair was very thick pre-diganosis. While I've been grateful that my hair grew back after chemo, it's been a shadow of its former self.

Cyndi,

No one can say that flaxseed is good or bad because they don't do many human studies. Mice studies are all coming out positive. There are people eating flax who are BC survivors and who are on either AI's or tamox. Why they don't put the call out and do a study using them, or any others who are willing to join in, is beyond me.

I think the flaxseed industry is blowing away a golden opportunity. Can you imagine the headlines if it does work? We'd all be eating flax.

Here's some info on mice and flax:

http://www.flaxhealth.com/breastcancerupdate.htm

Wow, Cathy, you make it sound so, um, interesting....I guess that's one thing I won't need to try.

I put ground flaxseed on my (already cooked) oatmeal. I believe that cooking flaxseed destroys some of the benefit of the omega-3 fatty acids. If I want to sweeten it, I use pomegranate concentrate and rice milk. (Pomegranate should be avoided for those on tamoxifen.) I usually toss in raw walnuts for texture and more omega-3s. I always put a liberal amount of cinnamon in the oatmeal as it helps to regulate blood sugar.

Sorry, Cathy, I saw your name in Althea's post...I guess I was distracted by the phlegm description.

For those on tamoxifen, pomegranate was shown to inactive it just as effectively as grapefruit. The effects last for 3 days.

Holy cow! What next? I didn't know anything about grapefruit juice. I googled it as soon as I read this. Then I checked my bottle of tamoxifen and the four pages of info that came with it and no where does it say anything about foods to avoid. I just read about pomegranate the other day when I was checking on green tea. It also has plant estrogens. I asked my onco about green tea and he said not to drink gallons of it and suggested I meet with the nutritionist that works with his group. I think I will since I am so confused as to what to eat and what to avoid. Speaking of avoiding - have you all read about the safe use of plastic. You should not microwave in it or let plastic wrap touch your food but most importantly avoid number 7 plastic. Number 7 - used in hard plastic water bottles like Nalgeen bottles and the 5 gallons bottles on water coolers - leach Bisphenol A which mimics the action of the human hormone estrogen and causes breast tissue changes in mice that resemble early stages of breast cancer in both mice and humans. Think before you drink and check the bottom of your plastic containers. Nancy