By Dr. Matsen
As I noted in Eating Alive II, in the August 2000 issue of the medical journal, Gynecologic Oncology, Dr. Maria Bell of Louisiana State University gave her findings of a study that involved 27 women with cervical cancer, 80 percent of whom cultured positive for HPV. Eight women received indole-3-carbinol (I3C)—a supplement extracted from broccoli—at a dose of 200 mg per day; nine received 400 mg of I3C per day; and the ten women in the control group received a placebo.
Of the women receiving the I3C, 47 percent had their cervical cancer completely disappear! The improvement was generally greatest in the group receiving the higher dose of I3C; this correlated with the improvement in the liver’s ability to break down the estrogen hormones through the C-2 pathway, rather than the 16α pathway. The women in the placebo group showed no improvement in hormone breakdown or in cancer inhibition.
This study shows some remarkable things:
- Elements in your daily diet can aid the breakdown of hormones by your liver in a way that can minimize stress on your reproductive hormones.
- The human papilloma virus is not the cause of cervical cancer, but instead is an opportunist that takes advantage of organs damaged by hormones that are produced by faulty liver function.
- Because I3C can reverse cervical cancer in a significant number of women, cervical cancer should be a preventable disease in virtually all women if their livers break down hormones properly.
The improved liver function with I3C should not be confined simply to preventing cancer of the cervix, but also diseases of the other female reproductive organs, such as the breasts, the endometrium, and possibly the ovaries. In fact, these cruciferous extracts have shown promise in treating lupus and colon and lung cancers, as well.
