More about the Effects of Flaxseed Oil
Commenting on an earlier post, Jack Rusher reports:
Like Anonymous, I’m an MMA [Mixed Martial Arts] enthusiast. My experience with 3 T/day of flaxseed oil have been more or less identical to his. Before: high doses of NSAIDs [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs] just to survive training, constant soreness and fatigue, etc. After: no joint pain at all, complete discontinuation of NSAIDs, lower frequency and severity of injury.
Dental results: my hygienist made strong comments regarding the improvement of my gums on my first post-flax visit, attributing it to changes in my oral care behavior . . . of which there were none.
September 13th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Is this re: oil pulling, or actually drinking the stuff?
September 13th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Seth, here’s more anecdotal evidence about the effects of flaxseed oil, but on a different aspect. Before taking flaxseed oil, I rarely would catch things I had knocked over or as they were falling.
Now, after several months, usually taking 2-3 tablespoons per day, my reflexes seem significantly better.
Here are 2 typical examples, from yesterday: 1. I brushed a partially full wine glass, sending it wobbling on it’s way to shortly careening off the table. I reached out, calmly, but with what in retrospect seemed like preying mantis-like reflexes, grabbing hold of the glass just before disaster, with only a drop of wine spilling from the incident. 2. I was driving and talking to someone in the passenger seat at the same time. Some folded papers began to fall off the dashboard due to the acceleration. They were not floating but falling like most any solid object. I calmly and casually caught them mid-fall, and placed them in the back seat.
In both cases, there was a ‘happening in slow motion’ aspect to it, where it seemed I was seeing things happen slower than it would usually be processed.
September 13th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Anthony, I noticed the same thing. I catch stuff that pre-flaxseed-oil would have fallen.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I’ve already mentioned to Seth the improvement in my pinball scores mere minutes after eating a couple of tablespoons of flaxseed oil. The effect occurs much too quickly to be a metabolic consequence, i.e., conversion from 18-base to 20-base fatty acid, incorporation into membranes. It seems to me it must be interpreted as a drug-like effect, more akin to taking caffeine than tocopherols. I have no idea whether it’s actually the n3 fat involved; flaxseed oil has lots of components.
November 16th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Is it okay to take the flaxseed oil capsules?