PLT Test Blog

    A microglial cell, labelled in green, contacts and attacks a myelinated axon (in red). In the presence of the pHERV-W envelope protein, this interaction leads to axonal injury. The blue structures are cell nuclei. Credit: HHU / Joel Gruchot / Patrick Küry     It is surprising that only about 2% of human DNA encodes the 20,000 or so genes we all have.   The other 98% used to be called junk DNA. About 8% of your DNA is made up of Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) that have been picked up during evolution and most of which have been inactivated and can indeed be regarded as junk. Some of these old viruses that became part of human DNA remain fully functional, can be activated; they are implicated in disease ranging from Multiple Sclerosis (MS), to cancer, to schizophrenia and ALS (motor neuron disease). The best documented ERV is the one that affects some people with MS, it is called HERV-W  (the H is for Human).   Only in the presence of a protein ...

There have already been several back-to-school posts in this blog and I did wonder if we really need more, but it is good to hear something positive about severe autism. There are many blogs about severe autism on the internet.   They tend to start when the child is very young and the author is upbeat and optimistic about all the challenges ahead.   ABA is wonderful, homeopathy is great, the DAN doctor and the Zyto scan are so impressive and then they usually fade away as the reality sets in of dealing with a child who is no longer a cute youngster anymore and their autism did not go away, it became more evident. If you want to read about the reality of older children/adults with untreated severe autism you can follow the blog of the US National Council for Severe Autism.                 https://www.ncsautism.org This group does indeed share “autism horror stories”, but that is the reality they live in. Those sometimes annoying autism se...

DMF is an inexpensive chemical and was used to stop mould growing on sofas shipped from China to Europe, until it was banned as a skin irritant. It is also an expensive drug, sold by Biogen. DMF was discussed in an earlier post on ketones, because one of the anti-inflammatory effects of the ketone BHB can also be achieved using Dimethyl Fumarate (DMF). In the body DMF is converted to MMF by a chemical reaction with the body’s key antioxidant Glutathione (GSH). Surprisingly, DMF then goes on to improve GSH recycling and actually raise GSH levels. Ketones and Autism Part 3 - Niacin Receptor HCA2/GPR109A in Autism, Colonic Inflammation, Psoriasis and Multiple Sclerosis                         DMF is a very cheap chemical that has been sold as an extremely expensive drug, first in Germany to treat Psoriasis and later Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I did explain in an earlier post ho...