First Bubble of the year!
Ya know, the news on flaxseed continues to be less than stellar, at least in so far as its effect (or lack thereof) on hot flashes. And while the flaxseed story continues to build on benefits in terms of bone health and even breast cancer reduction (see these links), you may want to seek alternatives when those flashes start taking over.
In fact, results of a well-designed, scientific, controlled study in which women ingested a daily flaxseed bar or a placebo bar failed to show much benefit at all. The study, published in this month’s Menopause journal, analyzed the effects of flaxseed (containing 400 mg of the estrogen like antioxidant, lignan, 6 gm of protein and 20% fiber) in 188 women in menopause who reported having anywhere from 4 to more than 10 hot flashes a day over a period of 9 months or more. Participants ate flaxseed or a placebo bar (containing 2 gram of protein and 20% fiber) for six weeks. The bars were eaten all at once or throughout the day and the women were asked to record the frequency and severity of their hot flashes in a personal diary.
The results? Regardless of whether or not the women ate flaxseed or placebo, their hot flashes were reduced fairly equally, with about about a third of the women in each group reduced their hot flash scores by 50% or more. Another third of women in each group noted that they didn’t experience any effect at all. Moreover, both types of bars caused gastrointestinal problems, namely bloating, gas and diarrhea, most like due to their considerable fiber content.
Meanwhile, if you like flaxseed, there is absolutely nothing wrong in eating it. It may help your bones, fight cholesterol and keep you regular. But in so far as the flashes go, you definitely want to look elsewhere.
[Evidently, this study first appeared online in September. Thanks to Ivan Oransky over at Reuters Health for the heads up. And if you want to read more, here’s their piece on the same study.
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I also wrote about this same study in October. A significant number of study participants did, in fact, see an improvement: More than a third – in both groups -had a 50 percent reduction in frequency or severity of their hot flashes. But the lead researcher concluded that there’s little compelling information to try flaxseed for hot flashes. I disagree. It’s certainly worth a try if hot flashes are compromising your sleep and making life miserable and you don’t want (or can’t) try HRT (which will definitely help) . Flax seed has other nutritional benefits, so it certainly can’t hurt to give it a try. As I wrote on my blog, if you think it will help, it just might.
With all due respect, I disagree. There are a lot of data disputing the benefit of flaxseed for hot flashes and there are many other options that are much more effective, such as black cohosh. The point of the post was not to discourage flaxseed but to point out that its benefits as far a flashes go are minimal. From a scientific standpoint, which is my basis for writing about anything, if the results between an active group and a control group are the same, then you can safely assume that the benefit is not so great.