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Friday 13 February 2015

Broccoli soup at school – washed down with a little grapefruit juice

A growing number of readers have discovered the remarkable effects of a specific preparation of broccoli sprout powder.  It was my suggested method to match the Sulforaphane, made in the lab at Johns Hopkins, and recently trialed with great results in young adults with autism.

I did mention to therapists working with Monty, aged 11 with ASD, what a surprise there would be at the local special school if they served up some extra-potent broccoli soup for lunch one day.  There would be some very bemused teachers and parents.  It would also be the world's cheapest randomized trial on 100 people and the fastest. (you would just have to note down who actually ate the soup, but I think it would be obvious later)

Since another reader stumbled upon the anti-oxidant capability of grapefruit juice the other day, I would add some of that to the school lunch.  Preferably pink grapefruit, since they also would have a dose of lycopene, another potent antioxidant.

As fate would have it, a trial is underway with a jar of the aforementioned broccoli powder.  It is not at the local special school, but at a private center for speech & behavioral therapy.  

A reader of this blog has told someone else, who then tried it on their child and now someone else has bought a jar to try on the children at the center.

Of course, in a litigious country, nobody would dream of doing this; but in some countries, common sense still prevails.

I do hope the center keeps a note of who tried it and what the effects were, so we can have some statistics.  The good thing is that because it is so fast-acting, the therapist will observe the effects unfolding within the very same session.

Since the main effects are on mood and speech, a speech therapist is probably the best person to observe and quantify the effect.

In the kind of children who attend such centers, where autism is a disability rather than a difference, I think the response rate with be really high.  I would guess 70+%.  If they want to write up a report, I will be delighted to post it on this blog.

Anyway, I give them 10 out of 10 for initiative.









14 comments:

  1. Great to hear, wishing them all the best! Will it be blinded?

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  2. That school is fantastic! Bravo!
    But, considering your PolyPill, I must add this:
    There are several studies about grapefruit and statin interaction, and recent ones suggest that moderate grapefruit consumption can be compatible with taking lovastatin and other statin drugs.
    Even so, I wouldn't mix them together, Peter.

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    1. Good advice, Maja. We do avoid grapefruit because of the interaction with many drugs.

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    2. On grapefruit a particular reaction to note is clonazepam, grapefruit juice potentiates it significantly, which is something many readers of this blog would want to avoid..

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  3. Congratulations Peter! It’s so good to hear about the school's initiative and in fact this is how the things should look like for ASD kids in my opinion. I wish all the best to them.

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  4. Hi Peter,

    Great story!

    We also want endorse the positive effects of broccoli sprouts in terms of improving language / sociability / irratibilty. Together with pharmaNac we have been able to get our child off Risperdal (thank God). To date, this combo has demonstrated to be the most effective.

    We still believe the I/E ratio in our child is unbalanced. He still demonstrates high anxiety. We would like to compliment the above with either low dose Clonazepam or Buteminide. We're unsure if our doc will prescribe Buteminide.

    Peter, any thoughts on how you can separate .025mg Clonazepam from 2mg tablets. Our doc might not prescribe Buteminide and my wife already takes Clonazepam.

    Regards,
    D&G

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    1. You can crush a clonazepam tablet, place in a 100ml medicine bottle, add water and then measure out a precise dose using a syringe. Since it forms a suspension, you need to shake very well each time.

      Print out the clinical trial of bumetanide in autism and give it to your doctor, this might help.

      Another way to modulate GABAa is via the neurosteroid binding site. One modulator is allopregnanolone. This is produced by pregnenalone and progesterone. I will add a post on this very soon. You can buy progesterone cream and some people with Asperger's/ADHD are using it to reduce anxiety. You just rub it on your skin. There may be better methods for long term use, but for a trial lasting a few days I do not see a big risk.

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    2. Peter, what do you do with the residual Clonazepam? Refrigerate or not?

      Also, Bumetanide (sorry for the dyslexic spelling above) is branded 'burinex' in Aus and comes in 1mg tablet. What would be the required trial dosage for a tall 57kg - 9 year old?

      Unfortunately, the progesterone cream in Aus is prescription only. Is this a commodity product or is there specifics that it must have? Brand names?

      Thanks Peter.

      Regards,
      D&G

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    3. I keep it in the fridge. Due to the long half life, it will take about 3 days to reach a stable level, so do not expect anything visible straight away.

      I would give 1mg of bumetanide at breakfast and 1 mg again in late afternoon. I will cause extra visits to the WC, so you need to anticipate this. You also need to make up the loss in fluid, ie drink more water. The effect takes a while to be visible, In would allow at least 2 weeks. The researchers suggest 2 months. To avoid any problems with low potassium, eat an extra banana, drink orange juice or add a potassium supplement.

      There are lots of progesterone creams for women, and even men. You can buy in Australia from BIOVEA, but they are out of stock. I expect there will be other suppliers as well.

      http://biovea.net/au/product_detail.aspx?PID=1673&OS=244

      The prescription version is more potent.

      I did not try it, but we do not have an anxiety problem.

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  5. Interesting results on antinflammatory effects of sulforaphane, which (if this still holds true in vivo) could easily be related to its effects in autism http://www.fasebj.org/content/28/1_Supplement/830.5.short

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    1. Interesting, in which case it would share the effect with low dose naltrexone:-

      "LDN, which is known to antagonize the Toll-like Receptor 4 pathway and attenuate activated microglia"

      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23546884

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  6. Could you please advise on which B.Sprout powder or a source in the US for Sulforaphane? We have had the most success with Bumetanide and Clonidine, Probiotics in high doses and Multivit supp. I enjoy following your blog. Very useful.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Veronica. As Peter mentioned below, how did you obtain your Bumetanide? I am trying to convince my son's psychiatrist to try it but have not been successful. Interestingly, she prescribed Clonidine for my son for hyperactivity, which is just as "off label" as Bumetanide.

      Any advice or tips on how you convinced your physician to prescribe it would be much appreciated.

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  7. This is the brand of broccoli powder that does work:-

    http://www.supersprout.com.au/broccoli-sprout.html

    They do ship worldwide. One 150g tub will last you about 3 months.

    How did you obtain your bumetanide in the US. Others from the US have been unable to get their doctor to prescribe it? Maybe you can help them.

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