Flaxseed Oil

[Lisa68]

Has anyone ever used flaxseed oil to help lower there cholesterol levels? I've heard there are benefits from using this daily.

[zip2play]

Lisa,
Flaxseed oil (commercially known as Linseed oil) is a good souce of polyunsaturated essential oils linoleic(Omega-6) and linolenic (Omega-3).

There are beneficial products called lignans which are desirable and more readily available from the ground seeds.

Today I started grinding flax seeds and taking with Citrus Light for constipation, I'll hope for other benefits as well.

Fish oil I THINK provides the Omega 3's in form more readily useable (as EPA and DHA). The Flax contains the linolenic acid that must be converted to the EPA and DHA and not everyone is able to convert it easily or in quantity.
I could be on shaky ground here!

Thus I feel the Fish Oil (cod liver oil in my case) is the better source.
For a little while, I'll do both.

On the other hand, I just found this:

The first study, published in July 2001 in Urology, demonstrated that a low-fat diet supplemented with flaxseed was associated with slower tumor growth. In this pilot study, 25 men with prostate cancer began adding ground flaxseed to their diets for 34 days. At the end of the study, the men saw a drop in testosterone levels and a trend toward lower prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, a marker for prostate cancer.

While this may not be important to women, I CERTAINLY don't want anything to lower my testosterone....EVER!

[Lisa68]

Originally Posted by zip2play

Lisa,
Flaxseed oil (commercially known as Linseed oil) is a good souce of polyunsaturated essential oils linoleic(Omega-6) and linolenic (Omega-3).

There are beneficial products called lignans which are desirable and more readily available from the ground seeds.

Today I started grinding flax seeds and taking with Citrus Light for constipation, I'll hope for other benefits as well.

Fish oil I THINK provides the Omega 3's in form more readily useable (as EPA and DHA). The Flax contains the linolenic acid that must be converted to the EPA and DHA and not everyone is able to convert it easily or in quantity.
I could be on shaky ground here!

Thus I feel the Fish Oil (cod liver oil in my case) is the better source.
For a little while, I'll do both.

On the other hand, I just found this:

While this may not be important to women, I CERTAINLY don't want anything to lower my testosterone....EVER!

I'm new to the boards and appreciate all the information you gave above. I will look further into things like the fish oils before starting on my trail to lower cholesterol levels.

Thank you!!