PLT Test Blog

This is another post prompted by a comment received on this blog. My 15 year-old daughter has classic regressive type ASD. I started her on an anti-inflammatory, Anatabloc, over a year ago and it allowed me to take her off atypical anti-psychotics ( she was on them for aggression) Do you know anyone else using this dietary supplement?   I found this very interesting and so I did some quick research. Anatabloc was until very recently sold in the US as a supplement, it was withdrawn from sale by the producer following a corruption trial and a dispute with the FDA over approvals.  Nobody is saying the supplement does not work, rather it is a drug. Anatabloc, supplement at center of McDonnell trial, to be taken off the market Anatabloc Anatabloc was sold as an anti-inflammatory supplement based on a substance called Anatabine, found in tobacco and in lower concentrations in green tomatoes, green potatoes, ripe red peppers, tomatillos , and sundried tomatoes. Anatabine has been st...

Regular readers will know that I believe in the value of investigating the comorbidities of autism.   We have a cleaning lady who comes each week to help keep our house in order.   She also understands the value of comorbidities. She is one of my independent observers, in changes in the behaviour of Monty, aged 10 with ASD.   She has a friend, whose husband was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is not autism, but they are both examples of brain damage. Still in his early 50s, the husband does not recognize his children and cannot leave home.   The expert Professor, treating him privately, was not halting the rapid decline. So the cleaning lady asks me about all my investigations and decides that she might as well tell her friend.   She decided to suggest the antioxidant NAC and the cholinergic stimulant nicotine. Well, after NAC, the husband was able to make it to the WC and do his business.   A small step forward. After a day with the nic...

It is good to know that there are some brilliant minds out there, willing to cross disciplines.   A case in point is Professor Stephen Porges, a neuroscientist with particular interests in understanding the neurobiology of social behavior .   He is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of the Brain-Body Center in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago.   He has an equally clever wife who is a world leader in the role of neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin in social cognition. You would want to think twice before inviting this couple round for dinner, unless you had spent the day before boning up on your science.   Porges is best known for his Polyvagal Theory .   The Wikipedia article does not really do justice to the theory.   Here are two highly cited papers:- The polyvagal theory: phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system (2001) The Polyvagal Theory: phylogenetic contributions to social behavio...

Piracetam was first synthesized in 1964 by a Romanian scientist called Corneliu Giurgea, who was highly unusual.  He was educated in then communist Romania, followed by research in Russia and then at the University of Rochester in the US, before ending up in Belgium, eventually as the Head of Research at drug firm UCB and being a Professor at a Belgian university.   How this was possible under the strict form of communism followed in Romania,  I do not really understand. Anyway, Giurgea was clearly very resourceful and he decided to invent a new class of drugs, to be called Nootropic. He stated that Nootropic drugs should have the following characteristics: 1.      They should enhance learning and memory. 2.      They should enhance the resistance of learned behaviors/memories to conditions which tend to disrupt them (e.g. electroconvulsive shock , hypoxia ). 3.      They should protect the brain against var...

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that the key to controlling autism is reducing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.   One of the key drivers of the on-going neuroinflammation are signalling molecules called cytokines ; if you can limit the release of harmful cytokines you can reduce neuroinflammation.   This appears to be easier said than done.   I learnt that some statins limit the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and neuroscientists in the US are researching their use, but not yet in autism.   I did some home research and found a positive effect within 24 hours. It turns out there is an entire field of neuroscience relating to cytokines as a mediator of disease and this is all channelled through the Vagus nerve .  There is an eminent  neuroscientist, Kevin Tracey, who dominates this field; he is credited with discovering that vagus nerve stimulation inhibits inflammation by suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokine production ....