Broccoli May Help Against Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

I’ve blogged about the health benefits of broccoli several times in the past, including its potential in treating skin cancer and bladder cancer among others. Well, here’s another one: broccoli could help patients with chronic lung disease.

According to recent research from Johns Hopkins Medical School, a decrease in lung concentrations of NRF2-dependent antioxidants, key components of the lung’s defense system against inflammatory injury, is linked to the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in smokers. Broccoli is known to contain a compound that prevents the degradation of NFRP.

That compound is sulforapane, the same compound responsible for broccoli’s reported chemopreventive properties.

At this point, all of these are mere hypotheses. No clinical trials have been done to directly link broccoli consumption to COPD rates, for example.

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