If you are troubled with hot flashes and do not want to take an extract of horse urine (Premarin), I’ve got some great news. One of my favorite foods, flaxseed, was just found to curb troubling hot flashes.
Dr. Lorraine Turner reported her findings at the annual symposium sponsored by the Breast Cancer Therapy and Research Center. She took 85 postmenopausal women who experienced at least five hot flashes or night sweats per 24 hours. The women were provided with 40 grams of flaxseed food supplements or placebo for three months. Then they switched to the opposite treatment.
The average number of hot flashes dropped by 38% during flaxseed supplementation. The placebo had no significant effect. Interestingly, the decline of hot flashes correlated with a rise in urinary lignans. Lignans found in flaxseed are a type of phyotestrogen, which reduces hot flashes. These lignans are also associated with prostate health in men.
The researchers also noted that a key pituitary hormone, FSH, fell with flaxseed supplementation. FSH is the hormone that stimulates your ovaries to make estrogen. Less FSH means that the safe flaxseed phytoestrogens are, in part, satisfying estrogen needs. Further, there were no problems with the participants thyroid function. Soy products are used for postmenopausal symptoms. However, many believe soy isoflavones may contribute to hypothyroidism. Flaxseed will spare you of such potential problems.
Be sure to get golden flax from the northern high plains. Its much richer in the valuable omega-3 oils. Golden flax is available in health food stores and on the Internet. My wife, Terri, and I consume lots of ground flaxseed. We toss several tablespoons of flaxseed into a coffee grinder. It grinds it up into a fine powder, which we sprinkle on our salads. While we use the product marketed by Goldenflax4U. There are many outstanding products on the market.