By Dr. Jonn Matsen

In the mid-1990s, two separate women with breast cancer came to see me and both wanted to follow a naturopathic program with the hopes that it would rid them of their disease. Each had breast cancer previously which had been successfully treated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, but neither of them wanted to go through that process again.

I was reluctant to get involved as I had recently seen two other patients with advanced stages of breast cancer try unsuccessfully to reverse their conditions. However, these women were insistent and their cancers had been detected early enough that they could still go for conventional treatment if what we did failed.

Miracle recovery
After a month or so of following my Eating Alive program, one of the women gave into her fears and had her tumor surgically removed. However, the tumor biopsy showed that this once-malignant tumor was now benign. In other words, the cancer of her breast had disappeared.

The other patient’s breast cancer slowly disappeared over six weeks. Her story was featured in the Vancouver Sun newspaper and the interviewer asked me what my miracle cancer cure was? I could only reply that I didn’t actually treat diseases and, as always, my program involved dietary changes and nutritional supplements designed to improve liver function. ‘What does the liver have to do with breast cancer?’ was the next question. I replied by writing a 612-page book called The Secrets to Great Health.

Liver stimulus
In the book I cite numerous factors that were known to be involved in breast cancer, in particular, that when the liver breaks down steroid hormones, they become either C-2 or 16-alpha breakdown products. The C-2 pathway inhibits breast cancer while the 16-alpha pathway stimulates breast cancer.
 
I had always suspected that something in the Eating Alive program enabled these two patients’ livers to break down hormones via the beneficial C-2 pathway rather than the detrimental 16-alpha pathway, but I wasn’t sure exactly what that ‘something’ was.  It is clear now that their cancer reversal most likely came from the addition of indole-3-carbinol into their supplementation. Indole-3-carbinol had just become available as a supplement in the mid-1990s and these two women were among the first of my patients to receive it.

Sulfur compounds to the rescue!
In 1978, a study of indole-3-carbinol showed that it inhibited cancer of the breast and stomach in mice. Indole-3-carbinol is one of more than 100 sulfur compounds found in the cabbage family. In 1982, it was shown that a diet high in cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, mustard greens, kale, lettuce, celery and tomatoes inhibits cancer. Cabbage and brussels sprouts activate the liver’s phase I enzymes while broccoli activates the liver’s phase II enzymes, which may be the most crucial for breaking down hormones through the beneficial C-2 pathway.

Savoy cabbage has twice as many active ingredients as white cabbage, but long-term cooking, especially boiling, reduces their benefits 34 to 44%. Chopping and fermenting the cabbage maintains its active ingredients. Freezing or freeze-drying maintains the medicinal properties and stir-frying is the least damaging form of cooking. The minimum daily dose of indole-3-carbinol required to increase the beneficial C-2 hormones, regardless of age or menopausal status, was found to be 300 mg per day.

Broccoli a day…
Indole-3-carbinol inhibits breast cancer even if the cancer is not estrogen responsive. If the cancer is estrogen responsive, then the cancer cells respond to indole-3-carbinol with tamoxifen better than when either is taken alone. Indole-3-carbinol works on different pathways than tamoxifen. The anti-estrogen effects of indole-3-carbinol were shown to improve cells of the cervix, even inhibiting the human papilloma virus which is thought to be the cause of cervical cancer.
 
These studies clearly show that eating more cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli (sprouted, raw or stir-fried) and cabbage (raw as in coleslaw or fermented as in sauerkraut), should reduce a person’s chance of developing cancers of the breast—as well as those of the cervix, colon, lung, prostate, tongue and bone marrow.
 
Avoiding pesticides and cigarette smoke would further reduce cancer risk, as would adding green tea, soy products and aerobic exercise. Taking 300 to 400 mg of indole-3-carbinol per day may dramatically reduce the odds of getting these cancers (with no side-effects), and may also help those who already have these cancers (with no interference with their other medications). Those who have questionable digestion should take hydrochloric acid capsules with the indole-3-carbinol to make sure it gets activated.

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