Cancer Prevention with a Cabbage Chemical
During World War II the ladies in Europe experienced a dramatic decrease in breast cancer. When the war was over the rate went up again. This remarkable information has been investigated by scientists in many countries. What caused this cancer prevention? These ladies were eating a lot of cabbage and Brussels sprouts just to stay alive in wartime conditions. What was in the cabbage?
After a lot of work, Leo Wattenberg and his coworkers at the University of Minnesota published proof that indole-3-carbinol (I3C) was the chemical entity in cabbage and related vegetables that could be counted on to lower the likelihood of cancer developing.
So, how does I3C act in the human body to give this cancer prevention? Dr. Leonard F. Bjeldanes and Dr. Gary L. Firestone of the University of California, Berkeley and many associated with them have been unraveling this marvelous ongoing biochemical detective story for a number of years. This fascinating story of cancer prevention has a number of turns and twists for those who are following the unfolding of the results of dozens of highly skilled and highly motivated scientists.
Some years ago Dr. Leon Bradlow and those working with him at the Rockefeller University demonstrated that in about 60-70% of the women they tested by giving them I3C there was a change in the metabolism of estrogenic hormones. Uncontrolled estrogenic hormones are necessary for certain kinds of cell division. Cancer is a wild type of cell division, so if you want cancer prevention, you want to control estrogen metabolism.
However, modification of estrogen metabolism is not the only effect in cancer prevention observed for I3C. As pointed out by Bjeldanes, Firestone, and their coworkers in a number of studies, I3C has both anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects on human breast cancer cells. These workers have also shown that I3C will stimulate interferon responsiveness in breast cancer cells.
From these studies it can be seen that there are many body mechanisms for cancer prevention inherent in the use of I3C, derived from vegetables or widely available as a dietary supplement.
Read how I3C helps prevent cancer in
Cervical Dysplasia.
Are dietary indoles safe for cancer prevention.
Purchase I3C for help with cancer prevention.
References:
Wattenberg, L. W. and Loub, W. D., 1978, "Inhibition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-induced neoplasia by naturally occuring indoles," Cancer Research, 38,, 1410-1413
Sharma, S. Stutzman, J. D., Kelloff, G. J., and Steele, V. E., 1994, "Screening of potential chemopreventive agents using biochemical markers of carcinogenesis," Cancer Research, 54, 5848-5855.
Bradlow, H. L., Sepkovic, D. W., Telang, N. T., and Osborne, M. P, 1995, "Indole-3-carbinol. A novel approach in breast cancer prevention, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., 768, 180-200\
Chatterji, U., Riby J. E., Taniguchi, T., Bjeldanes, E.I., Bjeldanes, L. F., and Firestone, G. L., 2004, Carcinogenesis, 25 (7), 1119-1128