Fight Cancer with the Help of Garlic and Broccoli

If you don’t use much of garlic and broccoli in your cooking, you should. Scientists have discovered that garlic and broccoli help improve the treatment for cancers, especially melanoma and prostate cancer. Both these ingredients slow down the body’s immune system’s over response.

Melanoma, prostate cancer and certain types of leukaemia often weaken the body by over-activating the natural immune system. The University of Copenhagen team found selenium to decelerate the process. Selenium is a compound naturally found in garlic and broccoli.

The function of our immune system is to remove things from our body that aren’t a part of it. But, certain cancer cells possess mechanisms to block the immune system’s ability to recognise them, so they can freely continue to multiply and spread to other parts of the body.
Stimulating molecules of certain cancer cells over-activate the immune system and cause it to collapse, when it is most needed in some phases of cancer treatment.

“We have now shown that certain selenium compounds which are naturally found in garlic and broccoli effectively block the special immuno-stimulatory molecule that plays a serious role for aggressive cancers such as melanoma, prostate cancer and certain types of leukaemia,” said professor Soren Skov of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

In the long term, consuming garlic and broccoli may improve cancer treatment, he added. “If we can find ways to slow down the over-stimulation, we are on the right track. The new results are yet another small step towards better cancer drugs with fewer adverse effects,” Skov said.

The findings have been published in the latest Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Source: M F Monitor
Image: Getty

Read more Health News.