Hot Flashes
ironjustice
12/11/2007 -
A daily supplement of lignan from Norway spruce (picea abies) could
reduce the incidence of hot flushes by over 50 per cent, suggests a
new clinical trial from the US.
The pilot study studied the effects of 25 or 50 milligram doses of
Linnea's 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMR) lignan on the number of hot
flushes amongst 20 post-menopausal women, and found that the higher
dose led to a reduction from an average of 4.3 hot flushes per day to
2.2 after eight weeks.
Moreover, Donald Brown told NutraIngredients.com at Linnea's booth at
last week's SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas that only one
adverse event was documented during the study, with no drop-outs from
the study.
"Contrast this with a recent study using flax in which half the women
complained of side effects with abdominal bloating and gas being the
most common," he said.
Lignans have a weak oestrogen-like activity and in humans HMR is
converted into a mammalian lignan called enterolactone.
Epidemiological studies have linked enterolactone to a reduced risk of
certain hormone-related health conditions including breast cancer and
cardiovascular disease.
The randomised, double-blind, single dummy, parallel group, pilot
study, led by Jay Udani from Medicus Research in Northbride,
California, also included a pharmacokinetic study to quantify blood
levels of HMRlignan and enterolactone.
The results will be submitted for publication in a peer-review journal
next year, said Brown. NutraIngredients.com has not seen the full
data.
For the pharmacokinetic study, 12 women aged 50 to 75 took a 25
milligram dose of the plant lignan HMR. Blood samples were drawn after
30 and 60 minutes, and then every hour for 24 hours, then after 36, 48
and 72 hours. According to a release from Linnea, serum enterolactone
levels increased three-fold, peaking after 24 hours. Levels were
sustained over 72 hours.
For the parallel group study, 20 women were randomised to receive
either 25 or 50 mg of HMR ever day for eight weeks. Supplementation
with the high dose was associated with a 37 per cent reduction in the
incidence of hot flushes after four weeks, and a 53 per cent reduction
after eight weeks.
The lower dose (25 mg) did not produce statistically significant
decreases in hot flush incidence after four weeks. After eight weeks,
a statistically but not clinical significant reduction was observed,
said Brown.
"This pilot study nicely sets the stage for a larger placebo-
controlled study," he said.
A hot flush, or hot flash in North America, is often described as a
flush of intense warmth across much of the body that may be
accompanied by sweating, reddening of the skin, or, occasionally, cold
shivers.
Different lignans are metabolized differently. The main lignan from
flaxseed, secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), is metabolised by
microflora in the human gut into the mammalian lignans, enterodiol
(END) and enterolactone (ENL).
However, 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMR), is metabolised to form mostly
enterolactone (ENL) and some 7-hydroxyenterolactone (HENL), but no
enterodiol.
"This is an important distinction," said Robin Ward, vice president
for Linnea, "because a large number of studies have shown that high
circulating enterolactone levels are associated with lower risks of
hormone-mediated cancer such as breast cancer, as well as with
cardiovascular health."
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http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/lignan.php
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