FriendlyCanadian said:
Gonna need some evidence on this one big chief, as a very good bro told me to take flax oil and swears by it, with probably one of the best bodies on the board.
what is SHBG too, I still have soo many acronyms to learn.
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I dont have the more formal references handy, but here's some articles in the meantime on flaxseed and its lignans raising shbg. keep in mind most are breast cancer related so the focus is estrogen, but SHBG has a higher binding affinity for test than it does for estrogen. It will lower the free test to estrogen ratio in your body.
1)
It is worth mentioning that SHBG poses very high affinity for binding to testosterone (...mava note - relative to estrogens). Therefore, changes in the SHBG levels noticeably influence the level of bioavailable testosterone.
http://www.ivannikolov.com/bodybuilding-articles/all/increase-testosterone-bioavailability.htm
2) table 2 on page 4
Increase circulating concentrations of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), thus reducing levels of unbound, active estrogens (mava note - remember these are breast cancer studys - focus is estrogen, but shbg has higher binding affinity for testosterone)
Fiber, lignans (flaxseed), isoflavones (soy, kudzu)
binding globulin (SHBG), thus reducing levels of
unbound, active estrogens
http://www.cabecahealth.com/PDF files/NutrInfluencesEstrogen.pdf
3)
Flaxseeds and flaxseed oil are abundant sources of lignans. .......Lignans also work by stimulating production of sex hormone binding globulin, or SHBG. This protein attaches to molecules of hormone to escort it out of the body.
http://www.doctormurray.com/ask/flaxseed.asp
4) here's one on lignans in general
Sesame ingestion affects sex hormonesWu WH, Kang YP, Wang NH, Jou HJ, Wang TA
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
[email protected].t
Sesame ingestion has been shown to improve blood lipids in humans and antioxidative ability in animals.
Sesamin, a sesame lignan, was recently reported to be converted by intestinal microflora to enterolactone, a compound with estrogenic activity and also an enterometabolite of flaxseed lignans, which are known to be phytoestrogens. Whether sesame can be a source of phytoestrogens is unknown. This study was designed to investigate the effect of sesame ingestion on blood sex hormones, lipids, tocopherol, and ex vivo LDL oxidation in postmenopausal women. Twenty-six healthy subjects attended, and 24 completed, this randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Half of them consumed 50 g sesame seed powder daily for 5 wk, followed by a 3-wk washout period, then a 5-wk 50-g rice powder placebo period. The other half received the 2 supplements in reverse order. After sesame treatment, plasma total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, the ratio of LDL-C to HDL-C, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in oxidized LDL, and serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate decreased significantly by 5, 10, 6, 23, and 18%, respectively. The ratio of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol to TC increased significantly by 18 and 73%, respectively. All of these variables differed significantly between the 2 treatments.
Serum sex hormone-binding globulin and urinary 2-hydroxyestrone (n = 8)
increased significantly by 15% and 72%, respectively, after sesame treatment, and these concentrations tended to differ (P = 0.065 and P = 0.090, respectively) from those after the placebo treatment. These results suggest that sesame ingestion benefits postmenopausal women by improving blood lipids, antioxidant status, and possibly sex hormone status
PMID: 16614415 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
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