By Morenike Taire
Joy Odimegwu, a University of Lagos academic in the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, is a senior researcher with over 20 years of international experience with a passion for translating herbal medicine drug discovery from labs to markets to solve some of the world’s most pressing health care challenges, including drug resistant gynecological cancers and pain.
As a fellow of Mujeres Por Africa and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she sits at the intersection between biodiversity and cutting edge technology.
With a PhD in herbal medicine, Odimegwu is a herbal medicine expert who got a grant from Gates Foundation to train African researchers on women’s health. According to her, women’s health has always been regulated because it’s complicated and what is complicating it is the hormones which can be up in the morning, down by afternoon.
“It’s nature. It’s how we’re built, so it shouldn’t cause confusion. I didn’t know that other people were interested in the topic”, she told Vanguard. My area of research is biological patterns and I came across something very interesting. For many years they have been using broccoli to prevent certain gynecological cancers so as a researcher, I wanted to know what was in it. So, broccoli attacks inflammation and some people believe cancer is from inflammation”.
Odimegwu wanted to be sure broccoli that is grown in Nigeria is the same as that broccoli. “My first degree was in Botany so I know about plants. I did some research. I got some in Jos, carried some down to Lagos and carried out the research to find out if broccoli’s Sulforaphane could modulate hormones in animals. The result I got was what I presented in Brazil. I used rabbits, dehydrated the broccoli powder in such a way as to optimise the Sulforaphane. If you feed the rabbit for 30 days, checking the estrogen throughout, we found that type of estrogen stable (there are other types) while the control was all over the place.”
Clinical Studies
Now, her team is preparing for the clinical human studies and all her high school friends have signed up to support her. “Essentially, there’s a solution in our food. Already, Hormone Replacement Therapy is being marketed. They are calling it the gold standard. It’s time for somebody to talk about the contraindications. It’s not for everybody. In Nigeria, the first contraindication is poverty. So many people cannot afford it. The other contraindications are bleeding and many other things that if a woman has she should not take that Hormone Replacement Therapy. I have provided a solution, a natural one from food. We work with consistency because it takes a lot of time to get an effect. I produce it because I got a small grant from TETFUND to be able to produce and have been selling to family and friends because it’s not registered with NAFDAC yet”.
The feedback has been phenomenal, according to her. “I cannot even begin to talk about some of the things I have heard. I know why it’s like that – it’s concentrated. In vegetable, broccoli is 90 per cent water. If I am processing 10 grams, it’s not up to a gram powder so dehydration removes all the water and it concentrates the Sulforaphane. It’s safe in animal studies according to their organs after treatment because it’s food. If you are eating fresh broccoli, it would be hard to get enough amount of Sulforaphane. This person tells me she always feels full and after taking this powder in a week she notices that she’s lighter. If you eat vegetables often enough you will lose weight.
How it works
The Sulforaphane interacts with the estrogen receptors at the cellular level. For Odimegwu, the beautiful thing is that this has the effect of preventing certain cancers.
“So I am building a company to produce our vegetables in powder, concentrated. Because we’re so used to them, we can think, what is in it? There is a lot in it. From that nutritional aspect, I have been talking to a lot of people. I am very passionate about this, I use any opportunity that I am given to tell people that. As we are growing older, we also deal with insulin resistance, prolactin, androgens and testosterone start acting up. In the African context, what happens is, somebody has hormonal symptoms, goes to the hospital and if the doctor is not so experienced because you go through tests and nothing is showing, so it must be village people. But there’s a biological reason for what you are seeing.
“That not being able to see the problem compounds the problem and that is why I am very keen on talking about this to more people, educating people. Our mothers and grandmothers suffered this. Maybe they are chewing one thing, managing themselves. It’s part of ageing, there’s no problem. There’s actually a problem. Women should not suffer this”.
She shares the story of Bill Gates’ wife, one of the richest women in the world who was having menopausal symptoms missed by two doctors. It was the third one that caught it.
“She had suffered so much and this is the richest woman. Imagine someone so educated, well to do had to go through that, what of those that don’t have as much? In my fellowship, we believe that no woman, not even the least woman selling whatever in the village, should be left unsupported. Every woman should be supported”, she said.
The post My research effective for prostate, menopause therapy — Odimegwu, Gates Foundation Scholar appeared first on Vanguard News.
<small>Source: Vanguard News — read the original story there.</small>
