Veggie News...

[Guest guest]

drmikethompson(Dr. T's Health Tips)

 

A chemical in vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, as

well as another one found in soy, can increase DNA repair in cells. This

could prevent them from becoming cancerous.

Links have already been established between eating certain vegetables

and a reduction in cancer risk. These findings suggest a mechanism for

why that might be the case.

 

Vegetables such as broccoli contain a compound called I3C, and one

called genistein is present in soy beans.

 

These two chemicals increase the amount of BRCA proteins present in

cells. These proteins prevent damaged genetic material from being passed

from one generation of cells to the next.

 

Cancer cells typically contain low amounts of BRCA proteins, and faulty

BRCA signaling heightens one's risk of some cancers, including prostate,

breast and ovarian.

 

British Journal of Cancer February 13, 2006; 94(3): 407-426

http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?D0VmFyXLYZ283yJq10fu8A

 

BBC News February 7, 2006

http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?18SHWChp2IN5onErQmpBaQ

 

In recent years, medical researchers have been battling a top killer of

women -- breast cancer. One study may have found answer in a component

of broccoli.

 

Indole-3-carbino, which is found in broccoli, interferes with the breast

cancer cell's life cycle in a way that hints at a totally new signaling

pathway in the cell.

 

The chemical seems to be working by a very unusual mechanism. It turns

off a gene for an enzyme important in the cell's growth cycle.

 

The chemical Indole-3-carbino (I3C) is a component of broccoli and other

members of the Brassica family, such as brussels sprouts, bok choy,

kale, chard and turnips.

I3C has low toxicity but seems to be very effective in fighting breast

cancer cells. According to the study, it is an effective agent at

blocking tumorigenesis in rats.

 

When fed to them, I3C can block 95 percent of all breast cancers in

rats. The compound also works independently of the hormone estrogen,

unlike breast cancer treatment drugs like Tamoxifen.

I3C would be a good candidate for use in combination therapy with drugs

that do interfere with estrogen.

 

In fact, research shows that I3C does not act on estrogen at all.

Instead the chemical actually stops the cell cycle.

 

When I3C reacts with stomach acid, the byproducts are the ones

responsible for the anti-estrogen and certain toxic effects of the

broccoli compounds. I3C initiates a sudden drop in the generation of the

enzyme CDK6, or cyclin-dependent kinase 6.

Nutrition and Cancer 2004;48(1):84-94

 

Bad news for those who can't stomach broccoli: New research suggests

that broccoli is especially good for the stomach.

 

A compound found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts appears to be more

effective than modern antibiotics against the bacteria that cause peptic

ulcers. Moreover, tests in mice suggest the compound offers formidable

protection against stomach cancer -- the second most common form of

cancer worldwide.

 

If upcoming human tests confirm the findings, a daily snack of tangy

broccoli sprouts could become a medically indicated staple -- especially

in Asia, where the ulcer bacteria and stomach cancer occur in epidemic

proportions.

 

The new work, led by scientists at Johns Hopkins University, is the

latest in a 10-year series of studies on the cancer-fighting potential

of broccoli.

 

It started in 1992, when Hopkins pharmacology professor Paul Talalay and

his colleagues showed that sulforaphane -- a substance produced in the

body from a compound in broccoli -- could trigger the production of

phase II enzymes. The enzymes can detoxify cancer-causing chemicals and

are among the most potent anti-cancer compounds known.

 

Scientists had known for years that cancer is less common in people who

eat more vegetables, but the broccoli studies were among the first to

point to a particular chemical that might account for much of that

protection.

 

Subsequent studies found that sulforaphane could prevent the development

of breast and colon cancer, as well as other tumors, in mice. Then

Talalay's team found that the key protective compound in broccoli (a

chemical called glucoraphanin, which the body turns into sulforaphane)

is at least 20 times more concentrated in three-day-old broccoli sprouts

than it is in broccoli.

 

A single ounce of sprouts has as much glucoraphanin as a pound and a

quarter of cooked broccoli, offering a simpler -- and less flatulent --

means of consuming potentially healthful quantities of the protective

agent.

 

Talalay and co-worker Jed W. Fahey founded a company to make the sprouts

for grocery stores. So it was as economic stakeholders (limited under

Johns Hopkins's conflict-of-interest rules) that they and their

collaborators began testing the effects of sulforaphane on the bacterium

Helicobacter pylori. The microbe, found globally but especially in Asia,

causes ulcers and increases a person's risk of getting gastric cancer

threefold to sixfold.

 

Fahey said the study arose after he learned that two employees at a

broccoli sprout facility with longstanding ulcers had apparently been

cured after they took up snacking on the sprouts.

 

Working with researchers from the National Scientific Research Center in

Nancy, France, the team found that sulforaphane easily kills H. pylori,

a microbe that is notoriously difficult to eradicate even with

combinations of two or three antibiotics. In test tube studies, it even

killed H. pylori that had burrowed inside human stomach lining cells, as

the microbe often does to escape attack.

 

In separate studies involving mice that were dosed with a chemical known

to cause stomach cancer, mice pre-treated with sulforaphane had 39

percent fewer tumors.

 

The findings, published in today's online edition of Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences, doesn't mean broccoli can cure ulcers or

prevent stomach cancer in people.

 

" One question is, would you have to eat a ton of broccoli a day to get

enough of this to be effective? " said Frank Gonzalez, a scientist at the

National Cancer Institute.

 

But Fahey said he is optimistic. " The levels that are effective [in test

tubes] are levels that could be achieved by eating a serving or so of

broccoli sprouts, based on the chemistry we know, " Fahey said. " This

isn't one of those rat studies in which you need 400 times the maximum

amount a human could handle. "

 

Talalay said the group is preparing to start a clinical trial in Japan

to test the sprouts' effectiveness in people infected with H. pylori.

About 80 percent of Japanese adults harbor the microbe in their stomachs

-- one reason that gastric cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in Japanese

women and No. 2 after lung cancer in Japanese men.

 

The microbe is similarly common and deadly in many parts of the world

where antibiotics are unavailable or unaffordable, Talalay said.

 

" Gratifyingly, this is a dietary approach, " he said, " which is the only

approach feasible or practical if you want to knock down the incidence

of this very serious disease in the parts of the world where it is most

prevalent. "

 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May

2002:28;99(11):7610-7615

Washington Post May 28, 2002; Page A04

*****************************************

Broccoli sprouts sure seem like an inexpensive alternative to eating the

whole vegetable.

 

Broccoli sprouts are now being grown commercially. That has not always

been the case. I suggest that you consider growing them.

 

Although you can purchase the seeds in a store, growing them yourself is

easy and less expensive. You can purchase organic brocolli seeds from

Johnny's (207) 861-3901. Reference item #148, four ounces are $9.00, or

a pound for $26.15.

 

For sprouting instructions call Jaffe Brothers at (619) 749-1133. Your

local library or health food store may also have some instructions on

sprouting seeds.

The other major benefit is that the sprouts don't smell as you don't

have to cook them. They are eaten raw, usually as an addition to salad.

Surely there are similar benefits for many of the other vegetables when

eaten as sprouts.

 

I sure hope that you will include broccoli in your list of foods to eat

regularly. I would say raw or lightly steamed would be the best way to

go about it.

 

Until next time...

 

In Service,

Dr. Mike

www.BioTruth.com

 

The Doctor of the Future will give NO Medicine, but will interest his

patients in diet and nutrition, exercise and the care of the human

frame. He will teach them about the cause of ALL disease.

-Thomas Edison

**************************************

Health Solutions, P.O. Box 121271 Arlington, TX. 76012, USA