An Iowa State University research team is studying how a field-grown food affects people's health.
A team led by Suzanne Hendrich, a professor in food science and human nutrition, is studying how eating flaxseed affects blood cholesterol levels. The new study focuses on flaxseed components, called lignans, on blood cholesterol in men ages 40 to 65 and women ages 50 to 65.
Several earlier studies demonstrate that the lignans in flaxseed can reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels in animals. This is one of the first studies to measure the effects of flaxseed on humans, Hendrich said.
"We should be able to get a better idea as to which people are more or less likely to respond to lignans based on their gut microbes," Hendrich said. "These populations have been identified as having high cholesterol ... Because of the number of people in the study, it should give us a conclusive idea as to whether the lignans lower cholesterol or not in this particular population."
Some of the human subjects will receive doses of lignans and others will ingest placebos over three and a half months. Hendrich plans to fully test at least 90 subjects by June.
Hendrich's research team, which includes Sun-Ok Lee, a postdoctoral research associate, and undergraduate and graduate students from dietetics and nutritional science, are conducting the experiment at the Iowa State University Nutrition and Wellness Research Center (NWRC) at the Iowa State research park. The center provides a collaborative place for testing and research.
"The NRWC offers facilities where you could do a combination of exercise, monitored eating and other general things related to human studies testing," Hendrich said. "The students will have the opportunity to help us out with detailing subject visits, assisting in subject food recall information, measuring of the blood pressure, height and weight of subjects and doing check-ins with them."
After the study is completed, Hendrich said the subjects will learn whether their cholesterol levels changed as a result of the lignans. Hendrich is optimistic about the final outcome.
"Based on some of the literature, we think it is likely that at least one of the doses (of lignans) will significantly lower cholesterol levels," Hendrich said. "It's going to be a major effort in advancing our understanding of lignans and the response in gut microbes."
For more information on the flaxseed lignan study, contact Suzanne Hendrich at 515-294-4272 or shendric@iastate.edu.
