We know that cruciferous vegetables are good for us. But most of us cook those vegetables first, which inactivates an important enzyme, myrosinase, and reduces the levels of glucoraphanin. Rather than try to get everyone to eat their cruciferous vegetables raw, we’ve created our new Optimized Broccoli formula to give you the cell-protective and health-promoting benefits, without the leafy greens.

The healthy biology of broccoli

No one thinks of broccoli as "cool." But broccoli’s biochemistry is actually pretty interesting. Broccoli contains several health-promoting compounds, including glucoraphanin. Glucoraphanin is converted by the enzyme myrosinase into sulforaphane, which protects cellular health and encourages healthy cell function.¹

What’s interesting is that broccoli’s physical makeup separates glucoraphanin and myrosinase from each other, so sulforaphane is not produced until it’s needed.

Innovative partitioned encapsulation technique

So why not just pack a softgel full of sulforaphane? Because the compound is unstable. To enjoy the cellular health benefits of sulforaphane, you have to get the myrosinase to metabolize glucoraphanin into as much sulforaphane as possible, and do so inside your digestive system to avoid the premature breakdown of sulforaphane.

Life Extension has separated myrosinase from glucoraphanin in a dual-layered tablet to optimize glucoraphanin-to-sulforaphane conversion. By keeping the two apart until they’re in your stomach, we’ve optimized the amount of sulforaphane you can get from a broccoli extract supplement. We also added additional myrosinase to help boost sulforaphane production even further.

Watercress, cabbage and more

In addition to broccoli, plants like watercress and cabbage provide phytonutrients such as glucosinolates, isothiocyanates, carnosic acid and carnosol—active compounds that promote healthy estrogen metabolism and cell division.^2,3 Cabbage extract packed with benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) also helps maintain cell health.⁴

DIM (diindolylmethane)

Lastly, this formula contains DIM (diindolylmethane), a compound shown to favorably modulate estrogen metabolism and encourage healthy liver enzymes that help inhibit estrogen metabolites and xenoestrogens (estrogen-like environmental compounds).^5-7