Another piece of Humphrey's wellness/recovery has been introducing lignans to his diet.
You're probably already consuming some - since they are present in a lot of plant-based foods, especially flax and sesame. They are part of seeds (or other plant matter - more on that in a minute). When you consume them, gut bacteria metabolize them and the output is absorbed into the bloodstream where it travels and binds to estrogen receptors. This helps to regulate hormone activity, and appears to be linked to reduced instances of hormonal-based cancers (breast, ovarian, etc.).
University of Oregon has a very comprehensive page on lignans and research on them that summarizes many studies, most of them in Europe. Researchers there have followed tens of thousands of people for over 10 years to see the outcomes of different levels of lignans in their diets.
In the past 20 years, researchers learned to extract lignans from Norwegian Spruce, which offers more lignans with less fibre (flax lignans are very high in fibre). These HMR lignans don't seem to be readily available in the Americas except for dogs, but are in Europe. In the Americas, flax lignans are widely available.
Humphrey started on lignans about a month ago, and he tolerates them very well, the extra fibre is beneficial!
Many veterinarians recommend a combination of lignans and melatonin to treat Cushings (which seems to be based on University of Tennessee protocols and also this from Tennessee). Anecdotes of this protocol's effectiveness exist all over the Internet, wherever dog people gather to share their stories.
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