Baby broccoli may help prevent stomach cancer

Baltimore, United States, April 6: Sulforaphane, a natural compound found in baby broccoli, may actually protect your stomach against a common stomach bug hugely responsible for gastritis, ulcers and stomach cancerdefine, the H. pylori bacteria, a new study claims.

Sulforaphane, deemed to be a potent antibioticdefine, triggers the production of body’s protective enzymes in the gut that help combat oxygen radicals, DNA-damaging chemicals, and inflammation, researchers explain.

For the study, the researchers enrolled 50 people infected with Helicobacter pylori. While 25 patients were served 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of broccoli sprouts per day for two months, remaining 25 were served an equivalent amount of alfalfa sprouts, which do not contain sulforaphane.

Upon two month follow-up, patients who ate baby broccoli sprouts recorded a 40 percent reduced levels of HpSA, a marker of H. pylori in human stools, as against those who ate alfalfa sprouts.

However, the benefits derived waned once the patients stopped eating broccoli. “The HpSA levels had returned to pre-treatment levels eight weeks after people stopped eating them.” lead researcher, Dr Jed Fahey, from Johns Hopkins University, highlighted.

“Although the sprouts can dampen down H. pylori, they do not eradicate it,” Fahey emphasized.

“We identified a food that, if eaten regularly, might potentially have an effect on the cause of a lot of gastricdefine problems and perhaps even ultimately help prevent stomach cancerdefine,” Fahey further wrote.

In a separate rodent trail, two groups of mice infected with H. pylori were tested for the broccoli sprout therapy. While one group of mice was merely infected with H. pylori, the other set was genetically engineered to lack the Nrf2 gene that triggers protective enzymes along with being infected with H. pylori.

Both groups were served a broccoli-sprout-smoothie diet for 8 weeks.

While H. pylori infected mice recorded a significantly reduced number of H. pylori bacteria in the gut, the second group (infected with H. pylori and lacking the Nrf2 gene) failed to respond in the same way, researchers marked.

Helicobacter pylori, classified as a carcinogendefine (an agent directly involved in the promotion of cancer) thrives on the lining of the stomach, thus causing inflammation. Chronic inflammation results in upper gastrointestinal tract infections, gastritis, ulcers and stomach cancer. With no known route of transmission, the infection is commonly treated with antibiotics.

The results feature in the current issue of the journal Cancer Prevention Research.