Breast Cancer Diet and Broccoli

With the breast cancer diet, women will have another weapon in their arsenal against the dreaded disease that had claimed the lives of thousands of women around the world. Aside from skin cancer, it is the most common cancer in American women and although better treatments and early detection techniques have made the survival rate to go up since 1990, a method is yet to be discovered to prevent it. With most major diseases, science has given us the power to defend ourselves such as lowered blood pressure to prevent stroke, vaccines to stop flu, or safe sex against AIDS. But with breast cancer, women are practically powerless.

But finally, there is hope. Leading scientific researches in Europe and North America have shown that nutrition could be the most important factor to prevent breast cancer. Years of research and investment are finally revealing new discoveries that are still unknown to most people. With a breast cancer diet, a victim would have a sense of being the one in charge. Thus she would have a more positive outlook in her condition and help herself better. The premise seems to be that the food you eat is a big part of what you are, and it has an effect on how you live and what makes you sick.

One of the components of the breast cancer diet that has shown a lot of potential is broccoli. A new research uncovered that a natural compound found in this leafy green and delicious vegetable can be a valuable weapon against the dreaded disease. The study has been done with human breast cancer cell cultures, lab mice, and a natural compound called sulforaphane, which occurs naturally in broccoli. Although there was already a study on the substance before, the ability of sulforaphane to target and destroy breast cancer stem cells has not been shown until the most recent research. Thus, the vegetable could be a major addition to the breast cancer diet.

The team of researchers administered different amounts of sulforaphane to mice who had cancer of the breast, and used established measures to keep track of the number of stem cells in each tumor. The treated mice had a marked decrease in stem cells, and were unable to generate new tumors, though normal cells remained unharmed. While positive results are still limited to the lab, the findings have significant importance since it is the stem cells that are responsible for the growth of breast cancer tumors. Targeting and killing them are deemed to be potential approaches to treating and eradicating breast and other forms of cancers.

But before filling your refrigerators with broccoli, you should know that the amount of sulforaphane used on the experiments was higher than what you can get from eating the vegetable itself. A study on the effects of high amounts of sulforaphane in your body is yet to be done, so you may have to hold off adding a supplement in your breast cancer diet. At least until clinical trials move past the early stages.