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HMRlignan™ Questions & Answers
 


What are lignans?

Lignans are phytonutrients, a class of plant compounds beneficial to human health but not classified as vitamins.   Lignans are a normal part of a healthy diet and widely distributed in foods and plants in small amounts. Lignans are found in unrefined grain products, fruits and vegetables and seeds, such as flax and sesame.



 


Where does 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMRlignan™) come from?

7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMRlignan™ ) is sourced from the Norway spruce (Picea abies), which is abundant in the Nordic countries.   The Norway spruce is used extensively in paper manufacturing, one of the primary industries in Finland and has led to a strong national industrial and academic interest in the study of wood chemistry.   Sesame seeds is another abundant source of the lignan, 7-hydroxymatairesinol.

Finland, where HMRlignan ™ was developed, is a center of excellence for the study of phytoestrogens.   It was researchers at the University of Helsinki who uncovered the connection between the human health benefits of the lignan 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMRlignan™ ), and lower incidences of breast and prostate cancer and cardiovascular and cardio heart disease.   Hormos Medical Corporation of Turku, Finland, which played a lead role in the development of HMRlignan™ , has solid academic relationships with the centers of excellence for wood chemistry research (Abo Academi University in Turku) and for xenoestrogen/phytohormone research the University of Turku, Medical School.



 


What do lignans do in the body?

Upon ingestion, lignans make their way into the gastrointestinal tract whereby the microflora convert them into "human lignans," primarily enterolactone, which exerts a weak estrogen-like activity.   The   gentle hormone like action of enterolactone is desirable in peri-menopausal and post-menopausal women, as well as middle-aged men due to its reported potential in long-term cardiovascular protection and protection against gender-related hormonally induced cancers (e.g., of the breast and prostate).



 


How does HMRlignan™ (7-hydroxymatairesinol) differ from flax and other commercially available lignans?

As HMRlignan™ is not in a food matrix it has a superior bioavailability.   Other lignans, such as flax, are glycosides - bound to sugar molecules - that must first be cleaved in the body before they can be metabolized into the target molecule enterolactone. HMRlignan™ is a pure lignan in the aglycone form (not bound to sugars) and upon arrival in a healthy intestinal tract, is more efficiently transformed into enterolactone.   HMRlignan™ is the industry's first and only direct enterolactone precursor.



 


What is the significance of enterolactone as it relates to cardiovascular health?

There is strong epidemiological evidence linking cardiovascular mortality and plasma enterolactone levels in both men and women.  

In 2003, the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study looked at the associations between serum enterolactone levels and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in middle-aged Finnish men.  The conclusion was that high serum enterolactone level is dose-dependently positively associated with reduced CHD- and CVD-related mortality in this population.

A 2002 cross-sectional study (Framingham Offspring Study) in the United States investigated whether dietary estrogens have similar beneficial effects on metabolic cardiovascular risk factors as estrogen therapies in 939 post-menopausal women.   In the highest quartile of isoflavone intake, the mean cardiovascular risk factor metabolic score was 0.43 lower than the lowest quartile. The difference in this score between the extreme quartiles of intake of lignans was 0.55 points.   The study concluded that high intake of lignans in post-menopausal women was associated with a favorable metabolic cardiovascular risk profile.



 


How is enterolactone associated with protection of the breast and prostate?

Breast cancer is considered widely by the medical community to be a hormone-regulated disease with the female sex hormone estrogen known to increase the risk of development, through a complicated series of pathways. Anti-estrogens are commonly used as a secondary preventative measure.

Enterolactone binds weakly to the estrogen receptors, and as a weak estrogen, appears to block overt estrogen activity in specific selected tissues.   In addition, enterolactone stimulates the synthesis and circulating levels of a biochemical called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG).   Through this activity, enterolactone appears to reduce the free bioavailable pool of circulating estrogen, thereby reducing estrogen penetration in tissues and diminishing risk for adverse estrogen balance.   Third, there is evidence that enterolactone may also inhibit biosynthesis of estrogen by blocking aromatase, a key enzyme in biosynthesis of estradiol.   Collectively through multiple mechanisms of action, lignans appear to positively influence optimal estrogen balance in the body.

In prostate health, an increasing body of evidence points to the benefits of lignans in the maintenance of prostatic wellness, and suggests that enterolactone may have direct inhibitory effects associated with cancer cell growth and signaling.   Research has shown that enterolactone may compete with E2 for the type II estrogen receptor, induce sex hormone binding globulin and may also play a role in steroid metabolism and synthesis, thus reducing proliferation of hormone-dependant prostate.   A 2005 study investigated the effect of 7-HMR on LNCaP human prostate cancer xenografts in mice.   Results showed that a 7-HMR diet significantly inhibited the growth of LNCaP tumors.   Mice that ingested 7-HMR had smaller tumor volume, lower tumor take rate, increased proportion of non-growing tumors and higher tumor cell apoptotic index compared with controls.


 


Are there other promising areas of health application for HMRlignan™ as a direct enterolactone precursor?

Definitely. Lignans like 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMRlignan™) can make a contribution to the management of menopause.   Enterolactone, by binding the estrogen receptor in different target tissues, may bring about either agonist or antagonist type   response, depending on the availability and recruitment of tissue-specific co-regulatory proteins to the estrogen receptor signaling complex. When estrogen levels decline, enterolactone may exert a weak estrogen-like effect, mimicking the presence of estrogen.   When estrogen levels are high, enterolactone occupies and blocks estrogen receptors, thereby acting to smooth the peaks and valleys.   During the climacteric (the several-year period when estrogen levels are in flux, leading to cessation of menstruation) estrogen levels are in flux, so a formula that addresses the body's own production of enterolactone may indeed help lessen symptom severity and frequency.

Bone health is also an emerging area where lignans are being shown to play a positive role. Here too, estrogens are known to play an important role in bone maintenance.   Recent studies have shown a link between lignan consumption and bone reabsorption. A 2002 Korean study showed a link between low excreted enterolactone and incidence of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women.  


 


Does HMRlignan™ exert any other activity in the body?

Apart from being an efficient and direct precursor of enterolactone, HMRlignan™ is also a powerful antioxidant.   In vitro tests have shown HMRlignan™ to be a strong free-radical scavenger more or equipotent than the standard reference compound Trolox.   HMRlignan™ has also been shown to incorporate into isolated low-density lipoprotein fractions, and to protect from copper-induced LDL oxidation in vitro.

An exceptional feature demonstrated in the research into HMRlignan™ is the capability of the molecule to scavenge up to four peroxyl radicals, one of the most common agents that cause cellular damage, per one molecule of HMRlignan™.  Proprietary research has discovered also that enterolactone (and to some related extent, HMRlignan™) inhibits the oxidative burst from activated lymphocytes, suggesting that it may also modulate inflammatory reactions. Keeping inflammatory reactions at bay is also conducive to promoting cardiovascular health.



 


What is the approximate dosage of HMRlignan™ necessary to achieve healthy circulating enterolactone levels?

A single dosage of only 10 to 30mg daily is sufficient to elevate clinically protective blood enterolactone levels. The consumer does not have to mix large volumes of powders in water, swallow a multiple or oversized tablets or capsules pills, or eat handfuls of flax seed on a daily basis to obtain their recommended daily intake of lignans.   This is great news for dietary supplement marketers, as HMRlignan™ is more bioavailable, lower dosage and also has a clear cost advantageous in the formulation and manufacturing environment.