PLT Test Blog

Turmeric powder, only in food, modified the SLC6A15 gene I know that most readers of this blog want to treat autism with supplements and/or diet. Many supplements and herbal medicines do show promise in the laboratory, when tests are conducted in vitro, but very often when tests are made in humans the results are much weaker, or just not present.   Turmeric/Curcumin is a perfect example; in the test tube it has a wide range of potent benefits, but due to low absorption into humans (bioavailability) it does not show such conclusive results in human studies. One researcher a while back did send me a study that reviewed all the turmeric/curcumin trials and it concluded that curcumin has no beneficial effect in humans. In modern medicine anecdotal evidence does not count. Some anecdotes are genuine, but some are coincidence and some are placebo.   Mini trial of Turmeric at three UK Universities There is a remarkably good medical program produced by the BBC in the UK, called Trust ...

People keep telling me that my blog is too complicated; compared to the literature it really is not. If your child has a disabling condition you really should be willing to invest all the time needed to learn about it, rather than be a passive bystander. I think you can investigate even complex sounding genetic disorders without being an expert, which is what happens in today’s post.   Are there 20,000 types of jeans? As readers may recall, humans only have about 20,000 genes, far less than originally was thought. Each gene provides the instructions to make one thing, usually a protein. For the great majority of genes we have two copies, one from Mum and one from Dad. Mitochondrial genes all come from Mum. These genes are stored on chromosomes (like recipe books). For 22 of these recipe books you have two copies, so if one page got damaged at least you have an undamaged version from the other book. The 23rd pair of books is special because while females have two copies, males do ...

One medical researcher, who reads this blog, sent me a recent article about the vast amount of research that has been carried out on curcumin, which is widely used as a supplement. Many apparently interesting natural substances suffer from low bioavailability and the arguments put forward in the paper do apply to many other supplements.   On the other hand, there are natural substances that do have useful medical properties in humans; it is just very hard to identify which ones, without making your own research.   Chemists warn against deceptive molecules Inside the golden-yellow spice turmeric lurks a chemical deceiver: curcumin, a molecule that is widely touted as having medicinal activity, but which also gives false signals in drug screening tests. For years, chemists have urged caution about curcumin and other compounds that can mislead naive drug hunters.   Now, in an attempt to stem a continuing flow of muddled research, scientists have published the most comprehens...

I expect many readers of this blog have a list of things to trial in 2016; I certainly do. Monty’s older brother, codenamed Ted, did say to me recently, “I thought you said you’d be all finished with this, in a couple of years”; that was indeed the intention.   A medicine cabinet to be proud of, but not mine It has now been three years.  I never really intended to go so deeply into the science, and I never expected there to be so many “obvious” things un/under-investigated by researchers. Most people diagnosed these days with “autism” are fortunate to be relatively mildly affected.  Parents of those kids likely find this blog rather shocking; how can so many pills be needed and still you want more? Some other people also diagnosed with autism, face really big challenges, not limited to:-          ·         Unable to talk ·         Unable to walk ·     ...