Lignans - Nature, Body and Balance

Lignans are natural plant compounds locked in the cell matrix of certain seeds, beans, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Lignans bear a strong resemblance to estrogen in shape, structure, and some functionality. While lignans resemble estrogen, they are much gentler to the body.

The resemblance of certain and specific lignans to estrogen is highly relevant because estrogen can instigate mutations in cellular DNA that may result in breast cancer. To add insult to injury, estrogen may further fuel these cancers once developed.

The strong resemblance between lignan and estrogen enables lignan to compete against estrogen for estrogen receptor sites on breast cells. It is through estrogen receptor sites that estrogen may inadvertently cause cancerous mutations in DNA. In effect, the milder dietary lignans may block the receptor site, displace estrogen and thus reduce the likelihood of harmful mutations. Once displaced, excessive or bad estrogens are harmlessly flushed from the body as waste. The interaction between lignans, estrogen, and estrogen receptors has occurred throughout time immemorial, purportedly to buffer and balance the more powerful human hormones.

Estrogens have a strong attraction for their receptor sites (think of a magnetic pull). Lignans have a much weaker attraction and must significantly outnumber estrogen molecules in order to effectively compete for, and block, these receptors. A high-in-lignan diet, or supplementation with Brevail, can raise the percentage of lignan to estrogen to a protective 10,000/1 ratio. Despite the significant numerical advantage with a high-in-lignan diet, or Brevail supplementation, it is impossible to fully occupy estrogen receptor sites with lignan. This appears to be the body's way of self-regulating plant lignans and related compounds in concert with estrogens and other hormones produced by the body. The result is a gentle balance between body and nature, just as nature intended.

Modern Diet Lacks Lignans

Unfortunately, researchers believe that the western world's digression from a lignan rich diet, abundant in quality whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruits, to a refined "Standard American Diet" may be a contributing factor in the escalation of breast cancer.

Most women are not getting an appreciable amount of lignan in their everyday diet. The quantity of lignans in most food sources is fairly small, and the food sources highest in lignans are often missing. Even the most lignan rich foods (flax for example) can vary up to 300% in lignan content. Furthermore, because lignans pass through the human system within 24-48 hours, it is important to ingest adequate quantities of lignan daily to maintain their protective effect.

Prior to the industrial revolution, mankind had consumed a lignan-rich diet through natural and unrefined foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Such a diet had assisted in the natural elimination of excess estrogens, decreasing the possibility for health consequences related to these hormones.

With the industrial revolution came the processing of natural foods, with the resultant reduction of lignans in the food chain. Compound this with a shift in dietary patterns away from whole foods to refined and processed shelf-stable foods, and the result is a diet significantly lacking in lignans compared to approximately 100 years ago. Is it any coincidence that breast cancer has been on the rise ever since, and continues to escalate?

A decrease in the consumption of food sources containing lignans has left women without the protection nature intended. Women have safely consumed lignans for centuries (through foods), and have benefited from their ability to balance and buffer the potential harmful effects of too much or bad estrogen.

Lignans in Supplemental Form

Brevail is the world's first and only commercially available lignan product, making it easy for women to raise their physiologic concentration of lignans with a single daily nutritional supplement.

Brevail is concentrated, standardized, and purified from natural food sources to provide a guaranteed potency product at exacting dosages. The proprietary manufacturing methods used to produce Brevail significantly concentrate lignans and additional phytochemicals, as well as accessory and antioxidant nutrients into a single capsule per day.

Though Brevail is many hundred fold higher in lignan concentration than most lignan bearing natural foods, it has no known adverse side effects. Brevail is the first and only product of its kind to have undergone stringent human, oral-dosing, pharmacokinetic studies to determine the optimal dose range to meet or exceed lignan concentration in women consuming a high-in-lignan producing diet and with a traditionally very low incidence of breast disease.

Based on mounting scientific research and prevailing wisdom, we should aspire to ingest high in lignan foods and/or consider dietary supplementation with an enriched lignan-bearing product, such as Brevail, in order to achieve lignan concentrations similar to individuals on a very conscientious or vegetarian diet.