We know that cruciferous vegetables are good for us. But most of us
cook those vegetables first, which inactivates an important enzyme,
myrosinase, and reduces the levels of glucoraphanin. Rather than try to
get everyone to eat their cruciferous vegetables raw, we’ve created our
new Optimized Broccoli formula to give you the cell-protective and
health-promoting benefits, without the leafy greens.
The healthy biology of broccoli
No one thinks of broccoli as "cool." But broccoli’s biochemistry is
actually pretty interesting. Broccoli contains several health-promoting
compounds, including glucoraphanin. Glucoraphanin is converted by the
enzyme myrosinase into sulforaphane, which protects cellular health and encourages healthy cell function.
What’s interesting is that broccoli’s physical makeup separates glucoraphanin and myrosinase from each other, so sulforaphane is not produced until it’s needed.
Innovative partitioned encapsulation technique
So why not just pack a softgel full of sulforaphane? Because the
compound is unstable. To enjoy the cellular health benefits of
sulforaphane, you have to get the myrosinase to metabolize glucoraphanin
into as much sulforaphane as possible, and do so inside your digestive
system to avoid the premature breakdown of sulforaphane.
Life Extension has separated myrosinase from glucoraphanin in a
dual-layered tablet to optimize glucoraphanin-to-sulforaphane
conversion. By keeping the two apart until they’re in your stomach,
we’ve optimized the amount of sulforaphane you can get from a broccoli
extract supplement. We also added additional myrosinase to help boost
sulforaphane production even further.
Watercress, cabbage and more
In addition to broccoli, plants like watercress and cabbage provide
phytonutrients such as glucosinolates, isothiocyanates, carnosic acid
and carnosol—active compounds that promote healthy estrogen metabolism
and cell division.
Cabbage extract packed with benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) also helps maintain cell health.
DIM (diindolylmethane)
Lastly, this formula contains DIM (diindolylmethane), a
compound shown to favorably modulate estrogen metabolism and encourage
healthy liver enzymes that help inhibit estrogen metabolites and
xenoestrogens (estrogen-like environmental compounds).