>For several years, I used to use 3 tablespoons of freshly >ground flaxseed
daily because at the time it was  (and still is) >being touted as a breast
cancer preventative.
due to the cyanogenic glucosides? they can be be obtained from pawpaw seeds
or almond/peach seed. it comes down to a question of dose, since the
glucosides accumulate if given in high doses. high may mean >6 grams in case
of peach seed.  who knows what the safe dose is for flax.


>Although pro-flax literature says that flax is excellent for your >skin, my
skin problem never cleared while on flax and in
>fact, it seemed to worsen a bit.
flax has never been eaten as food, and its use in medicine is confined to
short-term acute situations.  suprising things happen when you use suprising
things.


>I never made any connection with the flaxseed until I stopped >using it
completely after reading that some people such as >hypothyroids and
diabetics have trouble converting fax's alpha
>linolenic acid to Omega-3.
the conversion rate of w-3 to DHA [or is it EPA?] is from memory around 11%.
Elizabeth posted a study on this sometime ago.  there are now thousands of
studies done on the benefit of DHA especially. it's one area where
conventional science has overtaken 'alternatives' on their own ground.

> I believe that the skin problem was caused by overload of >Omega-6 and/or
far too little Omega-3.  Even though I thought I >was getting plenty of
Omega 3 via flax, I obviously was not >converting the alpha linolenic acid
to Omega-3.
you were also getting lots of omega-6 from flax. the content of flax oil is
40% omega-3 and 20% omega 6. taking more omega-6 to reduce your omega-6
intake does not make sense to me.


>Subsequently, on occasion, I have used 1-3 tablespoons of >freshly ground
flaxseed to prevent contsipation when going >very low carb in my diet.  Any
thoughts on whether this would >this counteract any benefit of the fish oil
and sardines, etc I >regularly eat?
yes, since the presence of omega-6 retards the already inefficient
conversion.

>Much of the pro-flax literature claims it is high in alpha linolenic >acid
and characterizes this as an Omega-3.  In fact, some flax >sites claim
there's more Omega-3 in flax than salmon. Isn't this >a gross
mischaracterization because in reality, alpha linolenic >acid is just a
precurser to Omega-3 which is EPH and DHA?

yes and maybe no. omega-3 is polyunsaturated, DHA/DPA/EPA are
super-unsaturated.  what we want is the 3 super-unsats. whether linolenic in
and of itself done anything is worth knowing more about.

DHA/EPA/DPA is formed in plankton and lichen. unless you eat reindeer [who
eat lichen] this is why the principal sources of these 3 are. and always
have been, marine foods. the fact that modern cows/sheep have a lot less
omega-3 than they used to means diddly squat.  you have to eat oily fish or
marine mammals to get your DHA etc.

andrew