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Source Extracts from these vegetables, such as diindolylmethane can be taken supplementally, allowing a therapeutic dose to be achieved without consuming large amounts of the vegetable. The amount of active ingredients in brocolli, for example, is unpredictable based of freshness or whether it is grown organically or not. Sprouting brocolli seed can reliably produce 50 times the amount of active ingredient by weight as the vegetable. Function One of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables, sulforifane, induces a range of detoxifying enzymes. Another compound, called indole-carbinol, works synergistically with tamoxifin in fighting breast cancer. Indole-3-carbinol is the only compound known that shifts the type of estrogen that predisposes one to cancer (16-hydroxy-estrone) to the 2-hydroxy-estrone which is a biologically less powerful estrogen metabolite. A number of studies in animals and humans show this effect is readily demonstrable by eating broccoli. These vegetables also contain diindolylmethane, a much more powerful phytochemical which is actually just two indole-3-carbinol molecules attached chemically to each other. It is perhaps 10 times more effective. These agents seem to stimulate the production of protective enzymes such as glutathione that detoxify carcinogens. |
| Cancer, General Colon Cancer Gastric/Peptic/Duodenal Ulcers Lung Cancer |