PLT Test Blog

One of the most interesting concepts I have come across writing this blog is the idea of treating people with mental retardation (MR) / intellectual disability (ID). I do keep using the term MR, because 90% of the world has no idea what ID means. MR is a very precise description, which is increasingly rare these days. I still recall several years ago going to a French-speaking neighbour’s barbecue. The French are generally very family-oriented, but quite traditional when it comes to parenting, (hence their low rates of ADHD diagnosis). At that time, Monty aged around 8, could act strangely and was rather obsessed with fire, matches and cigarette lighters. Our neighbour introduced us to his French friends and explained Monty with a brief use of the word “retard é ”, which did not prompt any comments or requests for clarification. In the English language this might have been regarded as a big faux-pas; it did not bother me.   It seemed to work very well to forewarn people not to over...

Source: https://images.nature.com/full/nature-assets/nrd/journal/v15/n6/images/nrd.2015.17-f2.jpg Today’s post is complicated, but may be of interest to those people interested in Nitric Oxide therapies (Agmatine, Cocoa Flavanols, Beetroot, Taurine, Citrulline etc) and those who think they are treating earlier hypoxia/ischemia. As usual, I am making simplifications, but the science behind the general ideas already exists. When it comes to the details regarding VEGF and autism, there are big gaps in the science.  We have already seen that something as simple as improving blood flow appears to be therapeutic in some people with autism. Perhaps there should even be a post called “cold feet and autism”.  One reader of this blog, Seth, has commented before that he sees autism as essentially vascular in nature.   Today’s research suggests it does indeed include microvascular abnormalities. Rather than simply reduced blood flow, the problem, in at least some autism, appears to b...

Endothelial dysfunction is not something people associate with autism. It is something I have covered previously in this blog and if you search on Google my post is about all you will find. Endothelial dysfunction is acknowledged to be very important in diabetes, which is characterized by ROS (reactive oxygen species), reduced NO (nitric oxide) , reduced eNOS (endothelial nitric oxide synthase) and too much Arginase. There is also Peroxynitrite (ONOO − ), an ion we have encountered before. In autism we do already know from the research that VEGF ( Vascular endothelial growth factor) is disturbed and there will be a post on that. So when you put it all this together, it is odd that nobody has researched endothelial dysfunction and autism.   When I find something like this, my fallback is always schizophrenia. What about Endothelial Dysfunction and Schizophrenia? Sure enough, there is plenty of research on the subject, like this paper. Microvascular dysfunction in schizophrenia...