Nerve Root Irritation

can promote and stimulate it, and natural, bioidentical progesterone cream supplementation can slow and stop it.’ Progesterone cream restores balance with estrogen levels by reestablishing normal physiologic levels (what your body would normally make) of bioavailable progesterone.’ Select a product that contains a total of 9001,000mg of progesterone in two ounces, or approximately 20 mg in ¼ teaspoon‘, ideally from one of the companies that Dr. Lee recommends, such as Products of Nature, Emerita, or LifeFlo.

I3C (indole-3-carbinol)/ DIM (diindolylmethane)

Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) from cruciferous vegetables is especially effective at simultaneously detoxifying and blocking activation of dietary and environmental carcinogens. It switches on protective genes while switching off factors that contribute to inflammation and cancer formation. I3C converts to a compound known as diindolylmethane (DIM), which many scientists believe is responsible for many of I3C’s protective effects. For example, numerous lab and animal studies have established DIM’s ability to block angiogenesis and dramatically increase the rate of programmed breast cancer cell death.

Sulforaphane

Molecules known as free radicals can damage cells and cause cancer by wearing down the immune system. Several studies have documented the cancer-preventive activity of sulforaphane, a chemical in cruciferous vegetables (including broccoli sprouts), which combats the injurious effects of free radicals by switching on a set of antioxidant genes and enzymes in specific immune cells. Sulforaphane thus can control many cancer-related events, including carcinogen detoxification, promoting cancer cell death, blocking the cell cycle required for cancer cell replication, preventing tumor invasion into healthy tissue, and battling metastasis.

Resveratrol

Found in more than 70 plant species, including red grapes, many reports have shown that resveratrol can prevent or slow the progression of cancer. Resveratrol specifically appears to be a promising chemopreventive agent for both hormonedependent and hormone-independent breast cancers. It has displayed antioxidant activity and the ability to prevent gene mutation that can lead to cancer. In fact, it provides greater protection against DNA damage than vitamins C, E, or beta-carotene, restores glutathione levels (which some consider to be the most essential antioxidant), and greatly reduces inflammation, which is linked to tumor promotion. Dosage, delivery method, tumor origin, and other components of the diet could all contribute to the efficacy of resveratrol treatment.

Curcumin is a polyphenol in turmeric that has been used in traditional Indian medicine for more than 3000 years. Hundreds of studies have shown that this potent, safe antioxidant protects against cancer-causing inflammation, and is particularly chemopreventive in hormoneindependent breast cancer (the most difficult to treat). In fact, curcumin targets ten causative factors involved in cancer development.

With respect to curcumin and cancer data she reviewed, Razelle Kurzrock, M.D., professor at the well-respected University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, stated, “It was clear that this agent was just as potent at killing tumor cells in the lab as any experimental drug I’d seen from pharmaceutical companies.”

Human clinical studies have shown that a patented curcumin formulation (BCM-95) greatly enhances the bioavailability of this nutrient, which is generally difficult to absorb. This form not only delivers up to 7 times better absorption than ordinary 95% standardized curcumin, but also remains in the bloodstream for 8-12 hours, almost twice as long as conventional supplements.

Conclusion

According to a 2010 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study, Con-