Sulforaphane and Stomach Cancer Prevention
Eating broccoli sprouts (specifically the sprouts) can help keep stomach cancer-causing bacteria at bay, research from Japan shows. This study supports the emerging evidence that broccoli sprouts may be able to prevent cancer in humans.
Broccoli and broccoli sprouts contain glucoraphanin, a substance the body metabolizes into the powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant sulforaphane, Dr. Akinori Yanaka of Tokyo University of Science and his colleagues note in their report.
Sulforaphane can kill Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium strongly associated with stomach cancer.
The researchers had 48 people infected with H. pylori eat 70 grams a day of broccoli sprouts or alfalfa sprouts, which don’t contain sulforaphane, for eight weeks. In the men and women eating broccoli sprouts, markers of gastric inflammation were significantly reduced. Markers indicating the amount of H. pylori in gastric tissue also fell, but neither changed in the people eating alfalfa sprouts.
Once the study participants stopped eating the sprouts, their markers of inflammation and H. pylori levels returned to pre-study levels. Researchers conclude: “The findings in this study strongly suggest that sulforaphane has promise both as an antibacterial agent directed against H. pylori and as a dietary preventive agent against the development of human gastric cancer.”
Dietary phytochemicals, like sulforaphane, have been demonstrated to reduce metastasis and proliferation and safely and effectively target cellular molecules and pathways implicated in malignancy. They particularly have a knack for interfering with cancer stem cell’s self-renewal process.
Our naturopathic doctors are the experts on diet, eradicating H pylori, stomach cancer prevention (and any other cancer prevention) and taking sulforaphane as a supplement. Book an appointment to discuss your health concerns today.
Source: Akinori Yanaka, Jed W. Fahey, Atsushi Fukumoto, Mari Nakayama, Souta Inoue, Songhua Zhang, Masafumi Tauchi, Hideo Suzuki, Ichinosuke Hyodo, and Masayuki Yamamoto Dietary Sulforaphane-Rich Broccoli Sprouts Reduce Colonization and Attenuate Gastritis in Helicobacter pylori–Infected Mice and Humans Cancer Prev Res April 2009 2; 353 doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-08-0192
Singh AK, Sharma N, Ghosh M, Park YH, Jeong DK. Emerging Importance of Dietary Phytochemicals in Fight against Cancer: Role in Targeting Cancer Stem Cells. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2016 Feb 6:0. [Epub ahead of print]