Chickens, Flaxseed & Ovarian Cancer

Photo by Keith Skelton
www.keithskelton.com

Is it true that studies on chickens may provide the "golden egg" in understanding how flaxseed may decrease the severity of ovarian cancer in women?

According to Science Daily (May 2010),  University of Illinois researchers have discovered that a diet rich in flaxseed-- known for its omega-3 fatty acids-- actually "decreases the severity of ovarian cancer" in chickens. For hens, this is a very important matter because, by the age of four, nearly 50% of hens have ovarian cancer.

"The chicken is the only animal that spontaneously develops ovarian cancer on the surface of the ovaries like humans," said Dr. Janice Bahr, one of the nation's leading poultry researchers and professor emerita of University of Illinois Department of Animal Sciences.

A study conducted by researchers Johnson and Giles, Use of Genetic Strains of Chicken in Studies of Ovarian Cancer," (Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, 2006), cited that ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death from all cancers in women. In fact, nearly 25,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year or 1 in every 57 women. Most ovarian tumors are not diagnosed until  Stage III or IV, where survival rates are only 5% to 40%. In citing Bahr's research, Aces News--a University of Illinois publication, stated that hens fed a flaxseed-enriched diet for over one year experienced a significant reduction in late stage tumors.

What makes hens another basis for study is that they ovulate nearly daily for one or two years. Researcher M. F. Fathalla hypothesized in 1971 that "frequent ovulation contributes to the risk for ovarian cancer." (A study of Fathalla's hypothesis by the National Cancer Institute in 1997 neither supports nor refutes his hypothesis.) Some studies showing that multi-year birth control use and full-term births significantly reduce the risk of ovarian cancer seem to support Fathalla's theory.

Flaxseed is also known to decrease weight in women, which is a benefit as obesity is another risk factor for ovarian cancer; and, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research, flaxseed is an excellent source of magnesium, manganese, fiber, thiamin, and selenium and also provides copper and protein.

Bahr suggested that the success of flaxseed in reducing the severity of ovarian cancer in chickens, "may provide the basis for a clinical trial that evaluates the efficacy of flaxseed as a chemosuppressant of ovarian cancer in women."

Let's hope that future studies prove that flaxseed, the "golden egg" that decreases the severity of chicken's ovarian cancer, has the same effects on women.

For more information: visit Dr. Dale Buck Hales blog, CancerChix, http://cancerchix.blogspot.com/.


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Formerly "Ginger" - My First "Pet"

"Don't let your chickens become your pets," my mother warned when I spoke with her on Christmas Day. It's not that my Mom has chickens. In fact, she has a vendetta of sorts against any kind of animal. (Brought on, I am sure, by a vicious dog bite she received as a child.) Yet, my mother enjoys any new kind of endeavor, especially ones that are out of the norm of daily living. So, when I told her I had chickens, she decided to start asking friends and family about raising chickens.

It was during a conversation with my brother-in-law's mother who has raised chickens in Oregon for years...years and years...more years than I can even imagine, that my mother received her first chicken raising warning. "Jaki said not to make pets of your chickens." 

My immediate reaction was, how could they not become pets? The raccoons that sidle up to the back screen door and peer in with their masked eyes are nearly pets. How could the chickens that I've raised since days old not become pets, especially, chickens like Ginger?

"Ginger" (pictured above), a Golden Spangled Hamburg, was the first of my "pets." Her ginger-colored feathers, tinged with dark cinnamon tones, were immediately attractive to me. Coming from a long-line of ginger-heads, I dubbed her Ginger in honor of my Great-Aunt, a Great Aunt that I never knew but whose name and stories had filtered down through the lineage. This little, feathered Ginger was not only a striking new member of my family but also the only one that let me reach deep into the chick box and pull her out from under the warmth of the heat lamp and pet her. She nested her head up against my chest and gently rested there while I stroked her.

It was about two months into her life, that I noticed that she was emitting sort of a choked noise. It was as if she was trying to dislodge a rather large cricket caught in her throat. Ever the one to question my observations, I decided I must not be hearing what I thought I was even though I swore there was a bit of a cockle-doodle-doing going on. 

Three months into the game, it is unquestionably evident that my little darling Ginger is a rooster--a medium-sized preening rooster with extravagant tail feathers and a fearless attitude that clearly says "male."

I would love to keep this rooster, but at this end of the Central Coast, the city has a strict noise ordinance against owning a rooster. Thirty hens I can keep on my property, but a rooster? No way.

As luck would have it, some more rural Santa Ynez Valley living resident was advertising for a young roo to mate with her hens. Carole came over yesterday to "check Ginger out" and will be picking up our rooster in a couple of days.

It's going to be hard to say goodbye to 'Ginger." He was, after all, the first "hen" I loved. But, as I coddled him up into my arms yesterday, and looked amber eye to amber eye with him,  I assured him he was getting the better of the deal. He soon would have six hens to strut his stuff around, more property upon which to scavenge, and, best of all, the dream for all men, he would soon be getting laid. 

Just like when he was young, he pressed his head up into my chest and gently rested there, as if to thank me.