No visit to your local Trader Joe's or Whole Foods is replete without a leisurely stroll down flax-seed lane. This natural grain, originally used in the making of cloth and paint (!), now comes in many edible forms: whole seeds, ground seeds (for sprinkling on your corn-flakes or baking), tablets, cereals, breads, power bars, and even muffins. I was first introduced to ground flax-seed ten years ago when my college friend, a devout health-nut, poured it into blueberry-pancake mix. It was part of a Suzanne Summers diet recipe, because of its ability to control satiety and curb hunger, while keeping calories to a minimum. The two main types of flax-seed, brown and yellow, contain equal amounts of short chain omega-3 fatty acids. You have heard countless tales about the beneficial effects of omega-3 fatty acids on the heart, blood pressure, immune system, and mental health, but did you know omega-3's are great for your eyes as well? Blepharitis, or eyelid inflammation, can benefit from this oil's anti-inflammatory action. Treating eyelid inflammation leads to improvement in dry eye disease (see my post "A Dry Subject," 2/16/10). A large study conducted at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has shown a 30-36% reduction of blepharitis symptoms in subjects who consumed omega-3 fatty acids as compared with placebo. Dry eye specialists often recommend tablets of flax-seed oil or its aquatic counterpart, fish oil, as part of a dry eye treatment regimen. Italian researchers obtained similar findings (pescatarians that they are). The advantage of flax-seed over fish-oil is apparent to vegetarians as well as those suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease, otherwise known as fish-burp syndrome. Flax-seed is one of the only non-animal sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
But there are other salubrious benefits to flax-seed. Lignans, a lesser famed but equally loved oil family, have been shown to lower the incidence of cancer (particularly breast cancer) and heart disease. Also, the high fiber content of flax-seed helps to regulate bowel movements in the constipated and presumably lower rates of colon cancer.
Just how much flax seed is enough? Experts recommend supplementing your diet with 1000 to 2000 mg a day of flax-seed. This is most easily accomplished with tablets. You may want to titrate your exact dosage based on the gastrointestinal side-effects. There is some controversy about whether flax-seed causes prostate cancer, but evidence in either direction is scant. If you want to give flax-seed a shot at improving symptoms of dry eye, take it for at least a month and give it a chance to kick into your system.
For some flax-seed recipes, check out: http://www.flaxmatters.com/recipe.home.php
Pinna A et al. Effect of oral linoleic and gamma-linolenic acid on meibomian gland dysfunction. Cornea. 2007 Apr;26(3):260-4.
what do you think about Hydroeye? My doc gave me a bottle for pre/post op supplements.
ReplyDelete-dan
what about carrots?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Dan. I was not familiar with Hydroeye, so I looked up their website and list of ingredients. It looks like there are only 160 mg of Omega 3 fatty-acids in there (the recommended dose is 2000 mg daily, and the Northwestern study administered 6000 mg daily -- wowzers). Hydroeye contains some other vitamins and supplements, including Lactoferrin, which helps boost the tear film's immune response. I looked up the study they reference on the Hydroeye website to see if oral lactoferrin actually does increase lactoferrin levels in tears. I read the study (non peer-reviewed journal) and I thought it was a little on the weak side: conducted in a private clinic in rural PA with n=20 subjects. That said, I am sure your doctor has a good reason for recommending Hydroeye, and perhaps she has some good personal experience with it. I would love to hear more about it. Do your eyes feel better on the tablets? Any discomfort?
ReplyDeleteSalty Eric,
ReplyDeleteDisappointingly, Carrots (full of beta-carotin, a source of vitamin A) are not all they are hyped up to be. Vitamin A is very important for the the integrity of the cornea and conjunctiva, and for processing of visual pigment in the retina, but we get so much vitamin A here in the western world, carrots don't make much of a difference in our diet. Carrot latkes, however, are another story.
iDoc,
ReplyDeleteI think my eyes have been a bit more dry after finishing and discontinuing the Hydroeye tablets. I'll try to up my flax dose to see if my morning dryness goes away.
-anonadan.