An Imperial College London team has potentially found new ways to prevent heart disease, by using a chemical that’s in green vegetables (the ones Mom always insisted you finish) works to boost a natural defense mechanism our bodies use to protect arteries from disease.
The details of the work suggesting that green vegetables provide protection against heart disease appears in Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
You might remember from your biology class that our arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. When they’re healthy, arteries are flexible, elastic yet strong.
Over time too much pressure can cause artery walls to thicken and stiffen. This can restrict the flow of blood to organs and tissues – a process known to the medical community as atherosclerosis, or more descriptively, hardening of the arteries. Atherosclerosis can lead to angina, stroke and heart attack.
What this new work out of the U.K. shows is that arteries don’t get clogged with these plaques in the same way – bends and blood vessel branches where blood flow is disrupted are more prone to buildup.
And while nature has given us a protein (called Nrf2) that’s supposed to protect against this sort of buildup, the team found that this substance isn’t active in the places in arteries more vulnerable to disease – those bends and blood vessels.
Straight sections appear to have adequate levels of Nrf2 that help prevent inflammation, one of the earliest stages in the development of atherosclerosis.
What’s really encouraging about this particular study is that treatment with a naturally occurring chemical found in green vegetables (gardeners often call these brassicas) seems to switch on the Nrf2 in the disease-prone areas.
While the subjects used here were genetically engineered mice, the discovery that the arteries were vulnerable in different places, and this vulnerability could be addressed was important.
More work is needed on human subjects diagnosed with hardening of the arteries to see if ingesting this natural compound helps improve their condition.
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Healthy Greens Protects Your Heart Continued…
Dr. Paul Evans, who led the research explains, “We found that the innermost layer of cells at branches and bends of arteries lack the active form of Nrf2, which may explain why they are prone to inflammation and disease. Treatment with the natural compound sulforaphane reduced inflammation at the high-risk areas by switching on Nrf2″. The team believes that this will allow the disease-prone regions of the arteries to stay healthy and perhaps even slow the progression of existing disease.
Sulforaphane is a natural compound in broccoli and other cruciferous veggies – cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, bok choy, rocket and kale. Once inside the body sulforaphane appears to be able to reactivate Nrf2, which restores the cells’ ability to keep themselves from becoming inflamed.
Officials from the British Heart Foundation, who funded the research, are pleased with the discovery of benefits from such good-for-you-foods. “As well as adding evidence to support the importance of eating ‘five-a-day’, the biochemistry revealed in this research could lead to more targeted dietary or medical approaches to prevent or lessen disease that leads to heart attacks and strokes.”
So, although this research points to natural ways to prevent heart disease, it is yet another example of research proving what Mom knew all along – eat up those green, leafy veggies, they’re good for you!
To your good health,
Daily Health Bulletin Editor
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