Broccoli sprout compound may restore brain chemistry imbalance linked to schizophrenia -- ScienceDaily

Eat your broccoli, it's good for your brain.

In a series of recently published studies using animals and people, researchers say they have further characterized a set of chemical imbalances in the brains of people with schizophrenia-related to the chemical glutamate. And they figured out how to tweak the level using a compound derived from broccoli sprouts.

They say the results advance the hope that supplementing with broccoli sprout extract, which contains high levels of the chemical sulforaphane, may someday provide a way to lower the doses of traditional antipsychotic medicines needed to manage schizophrenia symptoms, thus reducing unwanted side effects of the medicines.

"It's possible that future studies could show sulforaphane to be a safe supplement to give people at risk of developing schizophrenia as a way to prevent, delay or blunt the onset of symptoms," adds Akira Sawa, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center.

Schizophrenia is marked by hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking, feeling, behavior, perception, and speaking. Drugs used to treat schizophrenia don't work completely for everyone, and they can cause a variety of undesirable side effects, including metabolic problems increasing cardiovascular risk, involuntary movements, restlessness, stiffness and "the shakes."

In a study described in the Jan. 9 edition of the journal JAMA Psychiatry, the researchers looked for differences in brain metabolism between people with schizophrenia and healthy controls. They recruited 81 people from the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center within 24 months of their first psychosis episode, which can be a characteristic symptom of schizophrenia, as well as 91 healthy controls from the community. The participants were an average of 22 years old, and 58% were men.

According to the World Health Organization, schizophrenia affects about 21 million people worldwide.

Sulforaphane is found in a variety of cruciferous vegetables and was first identified as a "chemoprotective" substance decades ago by Paul Talalay and Jed Fahey at Johns Hopkins.

The scientists say further research is needed to learn whether sulforaphane can safely reduce symptoms of psychosis or hallucinations in people with schizophrenia. They would need to determine an optimal dose and see how long people must take it to observe an effect. The researchers caution that their studies don't justify or demonstrate the value of using commercially available sulforaphane supplements to treat or prevent schizophrenia, and patients should consult their physicians before trying any kind of over-the-counter supplement. Versions of sulforaphane supplements are sold in health food stores and at vitamin counters, and aren't regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

IBM's AI can predict schizophrenia by looking at the brain's blood flow.  And it does so with 74 percent accuracy

Function biomedical informatics research network recommendations for prospective multicenter functional MRI studies












Broccoli sprout compound may restore brain chemistry imbalance linked to schizophrenia -- ScienceDaily:

Fantastically Wrong: The Strange History of Using Organ-Shaped Plants to Treat Disease

Eat a Walnut and treat your brain







According to the doctrine of signatures, plants and nuts and vegetables that resemble a human body part or organ must be divined by God to treat said limb or organ. Thus should a walnut fix your brain if it gets too wrinkled ... or something. Original Images: Getty

IT’S HARD TO imagine being the first human being to look at a plant like, say, a stinging nettle and think, “I probably shouldn’t eat this, on account of the general agony it would cause me. But what if I cooked it first?” So you prepare it and nervously drop it down your gullet—and luckily enough, it turns out to be edible. But what if it hadn’t been? And what if there wasn’t a decent gastroenterologist nearby?

Fantastically Wrong

It's OK to be wrong, even fantastically so. Because when it comes to understanding our world, mistakes mean progress. From folklore to pure science, these are history’s most bizarre theories.

Browse the full archive here.

For tens of thousands of years before modern medicine, choosing plants that not only wouldn’t kill you, but could cure you of ills was an exercise in trial and error. So wouldn’t it be nice if nature (or God, who I guess would also be nature in a way) dropped hints as to which ones were good for the human body? Such thinking, known as the doctrine of signatures, actually developed with remarkable frequency all around the world from culture to culture. Plants meant to heal certain organs and body parts, like the liver or the eye, must show a certain “signature” by resembling the thing they treat.

The 16th Century  physician, Paracelsius wrote extensively on the doctrine of signatures in a tiny notebook.

This may be the first example of  "Precision Medicine." 

The Fear about IPABs in the Affordable Care Act

The fear of 'death panels' may be overaggerated but do pose an ominous warning to us all. The concept of an IPAB (Independent Patient Advisory Board) looms in an uncertain way during these perilous times of intertwining and complex changes to a complex health system.

The very recent experience of a child who was declared 'brain dead' exemplifies the problem of determining 'what is death' ?

The LA Times Headlines on Januray 21, 2014  read:

McMath attorney: Jahi's family aren't fools; they deserve better than ignorant attacks

Brian Franklin, left, attorney for Children's Hospital Oakland, and Christopher Dolan, attorney for Nailah Winkfield, mother of Jahi McMath, speaks during a court hearing to discuss the treatment of Winkfield's daughter in Oakland. Among those in the courtroom were Martin Winkfield and wife Nailah Winkfield, behind the attorneys.

"I am the attorney who answered a call for help from Jahi McMath's family in December. I have represented them for free — starting 10 hours before the first order to turn off Jahi's ventilator at Children's Hospital Oakland — as they have fought for their right to make medical decisions for a beloved child."

Despite the incendiary, hateful public rhetoric that has surrounded this case, I believe that self-interest alone should lead most Americans to thank Nailah Winkfield, Jahi's anguished mother, for her courage..............

I applaud Mr McMath who so eloquently discusses the conundrum of family vs a medical system stressed financially and the importance of medical providers and hospitals to act as fiduciaries of their patients.