Flaxseed and a Low-Fat Diet Offer Protection Against Prostate Cancer

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http://www.sciam.com/news/071101/1.html

Flaxseed and a Low-Fat Diet Offer Protection Against Prostate Cancer

 

Prostate cancer is the leading cancer among American men. Now a pilot study

suggests that flaxseed, in conjunction with

a low-fat diet, may have a protective effect against the disease. The report,

from researchers at Duke University

Medical Center, appears in the July issue of the journal Urology.

 

Twenty-five men with prostate cancer who were awaiting surgery ate a low-fat

diet and consumed three tablespoons (about

30 grams) of finely-ground flaxseed a day. The researchers took blood tests at

the outset of the study to measure the

subjects' prostate-specific antigen (PSA), testosterone and cholesterol levels.

The men then followed the diet for an

average of 34 days before undergoing surgery, at which point they were tested

again and compared to an historic cancer

case roughly matched in age, race and progression of the disease.

 

The scientists found that both the testosterone and cholesterol levels of the

men decreased over the course of the

study. And, although PSA levels in the general sample population did not

decrease, when the men were classified

according to the severity of their cancers, those with early-stage prostate

cancer did show a decrease in PSA levels as

well.

 

" It's not surprising that a diet therapy that was only taken for an average of

34 days had little effect on men with

aggressive disease, " lead author Wendy Demark-Wahnefried says. " But what we did

see was that for the men on the diet,

their tumor cells did not divide as quickly and there was a greater rate of

apoptosis (tumor cell death) in this group. "

 

The authors caution that the study's data " must be interpreted with caution "

because it is impossible to determine if

the benefits seen in this small, short trial were due to the flaxseed, the

low-fat diet or a combination of the two.

Randomized controlled trials are needed, they say, to reduce bias and error, as

well as investigate the flaxseed and

diet elements independently. -Sarah Graham

 

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Good Health & Long Life,

Greg Watson,

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gowatson

gowatson