DIM Supplements
Diindolylmethane
Diindolylmethane (pronounced dy-in-dow-luhl-meh-thayn), or DIM, is a plant nutrient that comes from cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli. The process of getting DIM from these vegetables is fairly complex.
When these vegetables are chewed, enzymes like glucobrassicin are released. Glucobrassicin in turn breaks down into several different compounds like indole-3-carbinol (I3C) in your stomach acid. I3C then breaks down further into DIM.
The reason these compounds are so important is because they have been shown to be chemopreventive. Chemoprevention is the use of a medication, vitamin or supplement to stop cancer from happening.
Because of its chemopreventive properties, DIM is also being studied as a way to prevent certain cancers like breast cancer.
DIM Supplement for Women
DIM has been studied as a compound that could regulate the hormone estrogen. While everyone needs some estrogen for cognitive, bone, and cardiovascular system health, having too much estrogen can be harmful and even promote some estrogen related cancers.
Too much estrogen can result in estrogen dominance, which can lead to symptoms like headaches, bloating, cold hands and feet, fatigue, difficulty sleeping and others in women.
Estrogen dominance could also increase the risks of thyroid diseases, strokes, heart attacks, blood clots, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.
Taking DIM supplements could help women (and men!) who are prone to estrogen dominance.
Rajoria and team found that DIM helped metabolize estrogen in patients with an estrogen related thyroid disease called thyroid proliferative disease (TPD).
Acne Treatment Hormonal
Hormonal acne is acne that is genetic or hormonal in nature and occurs well past puberty. Though DIM has been studied as a way to regulate estrogen, there is anecdotal evidence that it could work to regulate testosterone levels, which in turn could lessen hormonal acne.
Supposedly, DIM works similarly to Spironolactone, which is a pharmaceutical drug commonly used to treat hormonal acne. Normally, male hormones like testosterone bind with hormone receptors (cells that translate hormones into messages the body can understand). When these hormones are translated, they can sometimes create changes in the skin that lead to acne.
Spironolactone works by preventing testosterone from binding to hormone receptors and making these changes in your skin.
However, there have been no clinical trials on DIM as a treatment for hormonal acne.
DIM Dosage for Bodybuilding
Bodybuilders are careful to control the amount of estrogen in their bodies as too much estrogen can slow muscle growth and in men, this can lead to infertility and the development of “man boobs", or gynecomastia.
Reed and team found that DIM is best in doses up to 200 mg per day. Side effects like headaches and nausea have been recorded, though none were severe.
How To Get DIM in Your Diet
There’s lots of great ways to get cruciferous vegetables in your diet, like fresh produce from the farmer’s market or freeze dried broccoli microgreens if you don’t want to worry about cooking or spoilage.
