My mother tried drinking flaxseed oil. She measured her balance by standing on one leg; the measure was how long she could do that. She did ten of these measurements per day.
Here is what happened:
When she started taking the flaxseed oil, her balance suddenly started to improve.
Are injury-causing falls “the new scurvy,” I wondered — that is, caused by an easily-preventable nutrient deficiency? These results support that idea. However, I can’t explain the decline in balance during the pre-flaxseed baseline period. Perhaps she had eaten food high in omega-3 and the effects were wearing off.
Here are precautions about flaxseed oil. If you are 70 years old or older and would like to find out if flaxseed oil improves your balance, please contact me.
Directory of my omega-3 research.
Thanks for posting this, especially the precautions. Most old people take lots of drugs. I hope I can try this.
There are exercises to improve balace but I think Omega3 would help.
Seth, or anybody else who has a helpful link or information, it would be great if you posted a flaxseed oil buying guide.
I had a frustrating experience trying to buy flaxseed oil today. Target, Kroger, and Meijer didn’t have it. then I went to walmart (probably not a good idea). the pharmacist advised me against buying flaxseed oil not stored in a refrigerator. Next I went to GNC, which also didn’t refrigerate their flaxseed oil. tired, I gave in and bought it.
It taste awful. i thought it would milder and nuttier. I’m concerned it’s spoiled. although maybe i’m just not used to it.
You should be able to find flaxseed oil at upscale supermarkets such as Whole Foods. They store it in a refrigerated case.
I started with flaxseed oil capsules from Long’s Drugs (house brand) that were not refrigerated. They produced the effect. However, I agree with your pharmacist, although I hope to study the question experimentally.
I now use flaxseed oil in liquid form because I use much larger doses. I think flaxseed oil goes bad quickly but until it comes into contact with oxygen it can’t go bad. So be sure to store it in the refrigerator.
thanks for the help.
its probably a good idea to cut my losses and head for Whole Foods. Keeping flaxseed oil refrigerated must lessen the chance of it spoiling.
Flax oil tastes bad for me too. I don´t hink it can be used in salads as some advertisements claim. Do not think bad taste means the oil is in bad condition. If it is rancid you will notice.
I see bottles are not kept in the refrigerator in shops, but I think this is important after opening. Bottles shold be dark to protect from light.
I think it’s neat to look at an older population, and wonder if it would work, but what it looks like to me is like your mom’s balance improved with practice as her ankle muscles strengthened since the improvement didn’t go away when she stopped the flaxseed oil.
A practice explanation doesn’t explain why the improvement started exactly when she started the flaxseed oil. It should have started after the very first trial. The persistence of improvement with zero flaxseed oil occurred with me too — it takes a week or two for the improvement to go away when the flaxseed oil is stopped.