Originally Posted by
Youthful55guy
As previously mentioned, cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage and broccoli are rich in a substance called indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and related compounds. Collectively, they are called Diindolylmethane (DIM, in short). DIM helps to promote the metabolism of Estradiol (E2) to lesser active Estriol (E3), which is also a dead end (irreversible) pathway to leading to elimination from the body.
DIM has 3 main effects in men: 1) To reduce levels of highly active E2, 2) to promote displacement of some T from SHBG because E3 has a higher affinity to binding to SHBG than E2 (but still lower than T), and 3) To lower SHBG levels through the action of lowering E2 levels (E2 promotes SHBG production but E3 does not). The net effect of these 3 mechanisms is to increase Free T and reduce bound T, which we all know is a good thing for guys, particularly as we age.
Lowering E2 levels also is advantageous to reducing the risk of prostate cancer, as it is thought that the ratio of T to E is a much more important driving factor in prostate cancer than levels of DHT. Many experts recommend 250-300 mg of DIM per day to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. in fact, a study demonstrated that 3 or more servings of cruciferous vegetables a week can reduce prostate cancer risk almost by half.
I did play around with DIM in my early days of TRT when I was not as well informed as I am now and was (like a lot of guys) paranoid of E2. I combined it with a number of estrogen lowering compounds (including anastrozole) and ended up crushing my E2 down to <5 pg/mL (lower than the assay could detect). I did not feel all that great and has some bad ED as a result. I ended up stopping all E2 treatment and let my E2 increase to the 35 to 50 range, which is where I feel my best.
This is a timely post bringing up the subject of DIM because up until now, I had not considered adding DIM back into my protocol but with more reasonable (or no) use of anastrozole. I'm going to have to add this to my future experiments in balancing my new TRT protocol. My new protocol calls for slightly higher T than in the past (up to 200 mg/week in an E2D protocol) and no Winstrol (to lower my very high SHBG). Perhaps DIM can effectively lower SHBG so that I do not have to go as high on T as I need to do using anastrozole. Food for thought anyway!
Reply With Quote
I finally figured out why guys keep taking AI's over and over again once they get on gear. they are a psychoactive drug with physical dependence . you really think you should be having mental issues with a drug that is supposed to be 100% physiological and simply blunt aromatization ?
