One of the best ways to prepare for an upcoming football game is to know your opponent. That is part of the reason that October has been named as breast cancer awareness month, it is a time to focus on the opposition and work hard to beat it by finding ways to overcome the adversary. What you are seeing today are many football players that will be wearing pink to draw attention to the fight against breast cancer. In my college days I was the starting left offensive tackle for a nationally ranked junior college team, the Wildcats of North Dakota State College of Science. What you can see in that picture of me blocking with my teammates is a perfectly formed pocket protecting our quarterback. At that time in my life we did not wear pink but today I am a part of the team that protects women against breast cancer with flax grown of our farm.
Our family farm produces award winning Golden Valley Flax and it is North Dakota flaxseed that has proven that the flaxseed health benefits are like the protection provided by a good offensive line in football. Years ago I was the one providing the protection for our team and now I am the farmer providing protection with whole flaxseed and ground flaxseed to fight against breast cancer. We have been long time members of a team that helps in the fight against breast cancer, the Flax Institute of the United States. This organization brings together medical and agricultural scientists from all over the world to meet in North Dakota and review the research that pertains to flax. In this case we are focusing in on how flax helps to fight cancer and it is through this that our farm has provided the flax for several medical studies. You can learn where to buy flaxseed at our website, www.goldenvalleyflax.com and we will help you learn how to be healthy by cooking with flaxseed. The cost of flaxseed in the fight against cancer can be a little as ten cents per day. Join in the fight today with Golden Valley Flax and start enjoying the benefits of flaxseed as you reduce the risk of breast cancer.
I would like to draw attention to one of the studies submitted at the US Flax Institute by Dr. Lillian Thompson from the University of Toronto. Her work looked at flaxseed oil and flax lignan in reducing the growth of estrogen sensitive human breast cancer. She made reference to earlier studies that indicated flaxseed may reduce the growth of established human estrogen receptor positive tumors in breast cancer. Now her study looks at how flaxseed oil reduced the tumor growth which was due to its effect in reducing tumor cell proliferation and increasing tumor cell death. The cause of the cancer cell death was found to be from the alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) found in flax. Dr. Thompson concluded that flax plays a greater role in the anti-tumorigenic effect because of the oil and lignans found in flax. This is one of the flaxseed health benefits we need to be aware of in the fight against breast cancer.
The word from the coach’s locker room is clear, the adversary is breast cancer and we can beat it with flax. We will come back with more after a good week of practice as we plan for victory. I will cover more of Dr. Thompson’s research into how flax fights against cancer. You can also go to our website and look at Flax Facts, in the drop down box you will find several Health Research Articles that can help motivate you into being a part of the winning team. Let’s Go Wildcats!
PS My teammate John Richman is now the president of the North Dakota State College of Science.
