Breast Cancer Prevention Enhanced

Scientific studies have identified various ways in which cruciferous vegetables reduce the risk of breast cancer. Polish women who continue to eat cabbage more than three times a week after moving to the US, for instance, maintain a low risk profile similar to women remaining in Poland. Give up cabbage, it's at your own peril: risk rises to equal that of their US born neighbors. Estrogen sensitive breast cancers are promoted by certain metabolites of estrogen and inhibited by others, and the more favorable ones are enhanced by the cruciferous vegetables. For general purposes, one can decide to eat cruciferous (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, others) on a regular basis, but for high risk women, it's impossible to eat enough to make a difference in an unfavorable risk profile. For these women I recommend capsule extracts of cruciferous vegetables. In my office I carry Standard Process Cruciferous Complex, although there are others available, including various formulations of the extracts, known as DIM or Indole-3-Carbinol.  A new study indicates that these same compounds are useful in triple negative (negative for estrogen and progesterone receptors as well as for HER-2 markers) cancers, one of the clearly aggressive breast cancers. Here's hoping more scientists put energy into this safe, well-tolerated form of prevention and treatment for a serious breast cancer.