A study published in a recent issue of BioMed Central Cancer and conducted by the Pearlman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has once again revealed the radiation protective properties of flax seeds. The researchers noted that the protection offered by flax seeds even included repair of tissues after exposure.
The research focused on the ability of flax seeds to protect lung tissue prior to radiation exposure and the ability of flax to repair damaged lung tissue after exposure. They used mice for their published study, but now they’re doing a clinical study on humans receiving radiation for cancer treatment.
A team of researchers led by Melpo Christofidou-Solomidou fed some mice flax seeds both before radiating them and other mice after radiation. They found that both before and after radiation, flax-fed mice survived even lethal doses of radiation in good health, while many mice not fed flax died.
Not only did the flax-fed mice survive, but they also managed to get healthier. They had higher body weight and minimal lung inflammation, which is common with radiation therapy. The purpose of this study was to find a way for cancer patients to survive radiation.
But there is more to radiation than cancer treatments. Radiation is almost ubiquitous and affects most if not all of us, especially in the northern hemisphere. We are faced with a continuously spewing radioactive Fukushima leak that may go on much longer.
Then there is all that vaporized “depleted uranium” (DU) from armor piercing weaponry used throughout the Middle East. Those vapors formed clouds that managed to drift westward through the air.
Two years ago, it was discovered that radiation poisoning can be cumulative. So add ionizing radiation from medical X-rays or CT scans and TSA airport scanner checks into the above mentioned mix. All this adds up to a significant accumulation of radiation.
Read: Protecting Your Thyroid from Radiation with Natural Iodine
Supplementing with Flax
Even the researchers discovered firsthand the other health benefits of flax: An anti-oxidant, an anti-inflammatory, and a source of abundant omega-3 essential fatty acids. It’s rumored the whole team is now using flax on a daily basis.
Flax seeds can be supplemented by cold pressed flax seed oil, or ground flax seeds directly. Dr. Johanna Budwig, who developed an effective dietary cancer treatment using a basic diet of flaxseed oil with quark or cottage cheese, discouraged the use of flax seed oil capsules. She favored organic cold pressed flax seed oil in its original bottled form and often used ground flax seeds in her cancer treatment diet recipes. How you use flax, though, is up to you.
But the only way to consume raw flax seeds is by grinding the seeds into a powder with a coffee grinder and adding the powder to food or water, or simply eating the powder by the spoonful with a water chaser. Make sure you use inexpensive bulk organic flax seeds, either gold or brown.
Consume them immediately after grinding, within a couple of hours at most. They lose their potency rapidly when ground. Bulk organic flax seeds are very inexpensive. Some health experts recommend two tablespoons of ground flax seeds per day. There are no negative side effects from consuming flax seeds.
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