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Remarkable Breast Defense with Lignans
by Christine Horner M.D. – Doctor’s Prescription for
Healthy Living Article
If you were to select just one food to include in your
diet every day, your wisest choice may be flaxseeds. These tiny seeds are
packed full of so many extraordinary health-promoting and protecting
properties that the World Health Organization has declared them a superfood.
Many of their health benefits can be attributed to two facts: Flaxseeds
contain more omega-3 fatty acids (the healthiest type of fat) and over 100
times more lignans than any other known edible plant.
Lignans—also found in the all-natural supplement called
Brevail — have been the subject of hundreds of
studies that reveal their ability to protect against several serious chronic
disorders is nothing short of astounding. For instance, they prevent
blockages in arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes in several
different ways, including promoting healthy, lower levels of blood pressure,
total cholesterol, and the “bad” kind of cholesterol (LDL), while raising
the “good kind” of cholesterol (HDL). Lignans also protect against another
killer, diabetes, by improving blood glucose and insulin resistance. Even
more impressive, there is another deadly disease that lignans protect
against better than any other: breast cancer.
Lignans and Breast Health
When it comes to enhancing breast health, it would be hard
to find a natural substance that is more effective than lignans. Research
has documented over a dozen different ingenious ways that lignans lower the
risk of breast cancer. To more clearly understand several of the tactics
that lignans employ to deflect this horrendous disease, it is important to
know a little bit about estrogen and how it circulates in our bodies.
Estrogen
Before menopause, the ovaries are the primary sites of
estrogen production. But, there are other structures in the body that
produce estrogen too; it is also manufactured by the adrenal glands and fat
cells. In fact, after menopause, fat cells are the main location where
estrogen is made, which is why obesity is a significant risk factor for
postmenopausal breast cancer.
There are several types of estrogen naturally produced by
the body, each with varying strengths. Estradiol is the strongest and most
abundant form, and the one most associated with a risk of breast cancer.
Estrone—made by fat cells—is less strong but also promotes breast cancer.
Estriol is the weakest form, and unlike the other types of estrogen, it
seems to have a protective effect against breast cancer. It is produced in
high amounts during pregnancy. The more of the two stronger forms of
estrogen a woman is exposed to over her lifetime, the higher her risk of
breast cancer. So anything a woman can do to lower her production of them or
to diminish their effects in her body will decrease her risk of breast
cancer.
The Estrogen Pathway
After estrogen is manufactured in the ovaries or fat, it
is released into the blood. In the blood, it may travel alone and is called
“free” estrogen, or it may travel bound to a protein—sex hormone binding
globulin (SHBG). Estrogen circulates in the blood until it finds an estrogen
receptor on a cell, such as breast cells, which have a high concentration of
them. It fits into the receptor like a lock and key and “turns it on.” Only
“free” estrogen is available to attach to estrogen receptors. Therefore, the
more SHBG that there is in the blood that can bind to estrogen, the less
free estrogen will be available to attach to the estrogen receptors, and the
lower the risk of breast cancer will be. When estrogen turns its receptor
on, it causes breast cells to grow and divide. The faster that breast cells
grow and divide, the higher the risk of breast cancer. Breast cancer is cell
division out of control. Estrogen eventually lets go of the receptor and
proceeds to the liver where it is broken down into either a “good”
non-cancer-stimulating type of estrogen (2-OH estrone) or a “bad”
cancer-promoting type (4-OH estrone and 16 alpha-OH estrone). These estrones
either go back to the breast tissue, or flow into the intestines or kidneys
to be eliminated from the body.
Lignans and the Estrogen Pathway
Several of the ways that lignans lower the risk of breast
cancer are through an effect on the estrogen pathway. In a study published
in 2005, researchers at the University of Toronto found that lignans inhibit
an enzyme called aromatase needed to produce estrogen in the fat cells. The
anti-breast cancer drug, Arimidex, also works by blocking the aromatase
enzyme. Lignans also increase the blood levels of SHBG according to a 2003
study conducted at Vanderbilt University. In addition, these amazing
substances block the estrogen receptor and prevent estrogen from attaching
to it and turning it on just like another anticancer drug called tamoxifen.
Finally, in the liver, lignans cause estrogen to break down into more of the
good protective kind of estrogen and less of the bad.
Other Anticancer Effects
There are many other ways that lignans defend against
breast cancer, including helping women with breast cancer fight their
disease more effectively—whether their tumors show estrogen sensitivity or
not. For example, three studies published in 2002 point out different ways
that lignans thwart tumor growth. In the first study, researchers at the
University of Florida found that lignans directly stop the growth of breast
cancer cells. The second study published in Nutrition and Cancer discovered
that lignans decreased the risk of breast cancer metastasizing or spreading
to the lungs by 82 percent. The journal Cancer Letters published the third
study, which showed that lignans stopped new blood vessel growth into
tumors. Blood vessels deliver oxygen and nutrients that are essential for
the growth of tumors. Without new blood vessels, tumors can’t grow larger.
Yet another way lignans help women with breast cancer is
by making the drug tamoxifen more effective. World-renowned flax researchers
Lilian Thompson and J. Chen at the University to Toronto published a study
in 2003 that found that lignans enhanced the ability of tamoxifen to stop
breast tumors that are estrogen receptor negative from growing and spreading
to other areas of the body. Specifically, lignans helped tamoxifen to stop
tumors cells from sticking together (something they must be able to do to
form a tumor), invading surrounding tissues and migrating to other areas of
the body.
Getting Enough Lignans
Because our bodies do not store lignans, it is important
to consume plenty of them every day. The best way to get enough of them is
to eat two to three tablespoons of ground flaxseeds daily (a coffee grinder
works best) or to simply take one capsule of the flax lignan supplement
Brevail.
Resources
Brevail is
distributed by Christine’s Cleanse Corner, Inc
Click here for Brevail product or ordering
information. Or visit us on the web at
www.TransformYourHealth.com
or call us toll-free at 877-673-0224.
About the Author Christine Horner, M.D., is a
board-certified and nationally recognized surgeon, author, professional
speaker and a relentless champion for women’s health. She spearheaded
legislation in the 1990s that made it mandatory that insurance companies pay
for breast reconstruction following mastectomy. She is the author of the new
book, Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner’s Program to
Protect Against and Fight Breast Cancer.
References
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Chen J et al. Dietary flax seeds inhibit human breast cancer growth and
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