Glucoraphanin, Sulforaphane & Heart Health
Heart and circulatory diseases (together called cardiovascular disease, or CVD) includes conditions such as heart attacks and strokes. Damaged heart health causes a quarter of all deaths in the UK – or a total of more than 160,000 deaths each year.
The best way to look after your heart is to adjust your lifestyle – for example by avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol intake, altering your diet, losing weight and getting more exercise. But there’s now an exciting and growing body of research indicating that through its effect on our metabolism, sulforaphane can act to help protect and maintain our heart and circulatory system.
Since glucoraphanin is converted into sulforaphane in our bodies, scientists have suggested that that eating a glucoraphanin-rich diet alongside making other lifestyle changes could help support people who are looking to maintain their heart health and thus reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
The Evidence for Glucoraphanin & Sulforaphane in Maintaining Heart Health
A large population study into the risk of stroke has reported that eating a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, and particularly a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables is associated with a lower risk of stroke in both men and women. In addition, there is a growing body of evidence that a diet rich in glucoraphanin may help reduce cholesterol levels, which helps to protect the health of our cardiovascular system.
We’ve summarised a key research paper in this area below, along with a link to the full-text published papers.
Diets Rich In Glucoraphanin Reduce Heart Disease Risk In Healthy People
In a long-term observational study involving over 110,000 people, researchers looked at whether different levels of fruit and vegetable intake affected the likelihood of people developing heart disease. They found that those regularly eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables (more than 5 portions per day) were significantly less likely to suffer from a stroke, when followed over a period of more than 8 years. In particular, a high consumption of glucoraphanin-rich vegetables like broccoli was shown to confer the greatest level of protection for all groups in the study, with those reporting a crucifer-rich diet showing a 32% lower risk of developing serious cardiovascular disease (ischemic strokes) than those who ate very few.
A Soup A Week To Stay At Your Peak
It’s not just cancer. Glucoraphanin & sulforaphane have also been extensively researched for their effects on: