ANOTHER GOOD NUTRICEUTICAL. FLAXSEED OIL

It is a public holiday today ( are we not having too many holidays?), and my golf is 12 noon, I did some reading.
At the recently concluded American Heart Association Annual Scientific meeting, there was an interesting, small paper presented from Cuba. Dr Delfin Rodriguez presented his study on the use of milled Flaxseed to lower blood pressure. Dr Rodriguez, runs a clinic for peripheral vascular disease at the University Hospital Holguin. He noticed that many ( about 70-80% ) of his paients with peripheral vascular disease also has hypertension. It appears that milled Flaxseed is commonly consumed in Cuba. Flaxseed is know o contain omega-3-fatty acid, and has claims of anti-atherogenic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-arrhythmic properties. So, he undertook a study to see the effects of flaxseed oil on BP.

He enrolled 110 patients, whose BP were not well controlled despite their medication. They were equally matched. About half of them were fed 30gms daily of milled flaxseed in the form of bagels, buns and muffins, in addition to their usual BP pills, and the other half had their usual diet, pills and a milled flaxseed like-placebo. After 6 months of follow-up, he noticed that there was a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic BP, up to 10mmHg ( sounds as good as some of our anti-hypertensives ). What Dr Rodriguez did not mention was how many of them had diarrhea, the most common side effects of flaxseed oil if too much is consumed.

In Malaysia, flaxseed oil is available. I do not know how much it cost. Beware of diarrhea.