Sulforaphane and Its Effects on Cancer, Mortality, Aging, Brain and Behavior, Heart Disease & More

Isothiocyanates are some of the most important plant compounds you can get in your diet. In this video I make the most comprehensive case for them that has ever been made. Short attention span? Skip to your favorite topic by clicking one of the time points below. Full timeline below the fold...

Chapters
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:03:28 - Isothiocyanates
00:04:37 - Cancer prevention and treatment
00:08:38 - Nothing new under the sun
00:09:16 - Excretion of toxic compounds
00:15:43 - Cardiovascular health
00:18:44 - Aging
00:26:31 - Brain/Behavior
00:32:58 - Neurodegeneration
00:34:42 - Traumatic brain injury
00:38:06 - Summary

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[daxinventor]

My wife has worked on all kinds of cancer studies, and this woman sounds just like her talking. She has helped me stay alive because if it where left up to me, I would eat any and everything that would have killed me by now.
I am extremely grateful to my wife. Knowledge is power.

[biohaker]

It really is hard to belive she's in her 80's! Amazing.

[Erulilum]

Finally a person speaking fast enough on normal speed. Thank you!

[NirvanicSunshine]

I went through treatment for precancerous colorectal lesions for 3 years before I stumbled upon this video. It had gotten to the point in my treatment where my doctor stopped sounding hopeful and had begun sounding genuinely concerned each time she performed the exam and noted that the lesions had returned, each biopsying as precancerous every single time. It was at that point I started searching for videos on YouTube about it and at some point Google suggested this one. Given my science and technical background I am skeptical by nature. I am especially skeptical of nutrition as cure (though I do believe in nutrition as prevention). But the argument she made in this video, backed by very well spoken evidence on the backbone of biological sciences I already well knew to be true had me convinced that this was worthy of personal experimentation. I used to buy broccoli sprouts at whole foods co-ops when I was young and vegan, so I was no stranger to them anyways, but it had been probably a good 14 years since I bought them (usually because the alfalfa/onion sprouts I typically preferred for sandwiches were out of stock). I bought a 1 lb bag of broccoli seeds on Amazon along with sprouting lids for my mason jars and grew the sprouts and put them on every sandwich and salad and in every fruit smoothie I made before my next 3 month appointment that summer. Every 3 months for 3 years my doctor would have to biopsy and then take a blow torch to these purple precancerous lesions inside my rectum. I cannot tell you how literally bloody painful the next month is after each treatment. But that next treatment after putting broccoli sprouts on everything I ate for 1.5 months was THE FIRST time the lesion biopsies returned NOT precancerous. It was absolutely too coincidental not to have some correlation.

[FoundMyFitness]

Howdy, friends! This video took WAY LONGER than I expected! It required an absolutely monumental amount of work in terms of initial research and then finally recording and editing. It's one of my most in-depth videos ever! For that reason, I've also included a "timeline" in the description that shows ALL of the various things talked about in the video. Feel free to skip around... but then go back and watch the whole thing. I encourage you to share this video with your friends and family.

Also, if you LOVE videos like these... they don't come cheap! It requires the whole community that's gotten behind my channel to make it happen. Learn more about that at It only takes a few bucks per month to support the content you love.

[Scootir]

Switched to a whole food plant diet 3 years ago and can’t believe the benefits to my health. Obesity - gone. Hypertension - gone. High Cholesterol - gone. Chronic anxiety - gone. Greatly appreciate you providing the science to help back up this approach. Great video! Thank you!

[gavinhakes]

My Sprouts are on day 4 right now. Im excited to eat them and become immortal.

[FoundMyFitness]

Full timeline:
00:00:34 - Introduction of sulforaphane, a major focus of the video.
00:01:14 - Cruciferous vegetable consumption and reductions in all-cause mortality.
00:02:12 - Prostate cancer risk.
00:02:23 - Bladder cancer risk.
00:02:34 - Lung cancer in smokers risk.
00:02:48 - Breast cancer risk.
00:03:13 - Hypothetical: what if you already have cancer? (interventional)
00:03:35 - Plausible mechanism driving the cancer and mortality associative data.
00:04:38 - Sulforaphane and cancer.
00:05:32 - Animal evidence showing strong effect of broccoli sprout extract on bladder tumor development in rats.
00:06:06 - Effect of direct supplementation of sulforaphane in prostate cancer patients.
00:07:09 - Bioaccumulation of isothiocyanate metabolites in actual breast tissue.
00:08:32 - Inhibition of breast cancer stem cells.
00:08:53 - History lesson: brassicas were established as having health properties even in ancient Rome.
00:09:16 - Sulforaphane's ability to enhance carcinogen excretion (benzene, acrolein).
00:09:51 - NRF2 as a genetic switch via antioxidant response elements.
00:10:10 - How NRF2 activation enhances carcinogen excretion via glutathione-S-conjugates.
00:10:34 - Brussels sprouts increase glutathione-S-transferase and reduce DNA damage.
00:11:20 - Broccoli sprout drink increases benzene excretion by 61%.
00:13:31 - Broccoli sprout homogenate increases antioxidant enzymes in the upper airway.
00:15:45 - Cruciferous vegetable consumption and heart disease mortality.
00:16:55 - Broccoli sprout powder improves blood lipids and overall heart disease risk in type 2 diabetics.
00:19:04 - Beginning of aging section.
00:19:21 - Sulforaphane-enriched diet enhances lifespan of beetles from 15 to 30% (in certain conditions).
00:20:34 - Importance of low inflammation for longevity.
00:22:05 - Cruciferous vegetables and broccoli sprout powder seem to reduce a wide variety of inflammatory markers in humans.
00:23:40 - Mid-video recap: cancer, aging sections
00:24:14 - Mouse studies suggest sulforaphane might improve adaptive immune function in old age.
00:25:18 - Sulforaphane improved hair growth in a mouse model of balding. Picture at 00:26:10.
00:26:30 - Beginning of brain and behavior section.
00:27:18 - Effect of broccoli sprout extract on autism.
00:27:48 - Effect of glucoraphanin on schizophrenia.
00:28:17 - Start of depression discussion (plausible mechanism and studies).
00:31:21 - Mouse study using 10 different models of stress-induced depression show sulforaphane similarly effective as fluoxetine (prozac).
00:32:00 - Study shows direct ingestion of glucoraphanin in mice is similarly effective at preventing depression from social defeat stress model.
00:33:01 - Beginning of neurodegeneration section.
00:33:30 - Sulforaphane and Alzheimer's disease.
00:33:44 - Sulforaphane and Parkinson's disease.
00:33:51 - Sulforaphane and Hungtington's disease.
00:34:13 - Sulforaphane increases heat shock proteins.
00:34:43 - Beginning of traumatic brain injury section.
00:35:01 - Sulforaphane injected immediately after TBI improves memory (mouse study).
00:35:55 - Sulforaphane and neuronal plasticity.
00:36:32 - Sulforaphane improves learning in model of type II diabetes in mice.
00:37:19 - Sulforaphane and duchenne muscular dystrophy.
00:37:44 - Myostatin inhibition in muscle satellite cells (in vitro).
00:38:06 - Late-video recap: mortality and cancer, DNA damage, oxidative stress and inflammation, benzene excretion, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, effects on the brain (depression, autism, schizophrenia, neurodegeneration), NRF2 pathway.
00:40:27 - Thoughts on figuring out a dose of broccoli sprouts or sulforaphane.
00:41:01 - Anecdotes on sprouting at home.
00:43:14 - On cooking temperatures and sulforaphane activity.
00:43:45 - Gut bacteria conversion of sulforaphane from glucoraphanin.
00:44:24 - Supplements work better when combined with active myrosinase from vegetables.
00:44:56 - Cooking techniques and cruciferous vegetables.
00:46:06 - Isothiocyanates as goitrogens.

[mackenlyparmelee]

This is one of those very rare videos that inspires me to actually change my habits for the long term

[SinatraKennedy]

The most trustworthy voice in healthy living. She’s smart, charismatic and absolutely gorgeous. I think I love her.

[markpettus]

Rhonda, sulfuraphane has NEVER had such a comprehensive, elegant narrative! The cruciferous family truly rocks and they would be very proud to have you represent them to the rest of humanity. I can appreciate why this took so long to produce. Grateful thanks for sharing your prefrontal cortex so generously!

[emilianolodges]

This woman deserves the highest accolades for her extremely learned and impressive content. Thank you doctor Patrick – you’re really making a difference in my life and I’m sure in the life of probably hundreds - maybe thousands of other individuals. I just can’t express the depth of my gratitude for your content. It could be life-saving for many people. 💚🙏🏼

[pbetftdi]

How I know this video has good information: Reading the comments - about 30 comments in and no one has blamed Trump or Democrats for anything.

[davidrowe]

I’m a science teacher and love the way Rhonda delivers dense content in a way that rewards concentration. A real work out for the brain✌️

[katm]

Holy crapulence Batman! I can't believe you gave us this info for free. Thank you so much. You rock Doc!

[nelsonbenjamin]

I'm a retired bodybuilder who has been literally living on broccolly, it's one of the most awesome veg to eat contest time, Doc is spot on..

[OgrillaG]

I LOVE THIS WOMAN'S BRAIN! She is one of my favorite academics to follow.

[leeboriack]

She is a wonderful combination of intelligence, enthusiasm, energy and earnestness. Also, she is easy on the eyes.

[americanmambi]

Rhonda you are a leggit badass, bringing such incredible knowledge to the people has no price, God knows how many lives you may have saved by this release. God bless you.

[Surfsailwaves]

This sets the standard for summarising, simplifying and communicating. Far too much health advice is over-simplified (dumbed down). This treats the audience with respect. I’m only sorry that I didn’t discover this excellent channel years ago. Many thanks to the entire production team for life-changing information.