Broccoli Sprouts could help alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia.

Who knew broccoli could be more than just a vegetable kids are forced to eat?

I know as a kid, I always hated broccoli. It was green; it was healthy; it was something my mom wanted me to eat. Exactly the opposite of what I wanted to eat. My mother always said it was good for me, but to what extent, I wondered.

Well… broccoli may have a chemical that fundamentally alters the way scientists and doctors treat mental disorders, specifically schizophrenia!

It turns out that a specific compound in broccoli sprouts has been proven to help with symptoms of schizophrenia, a mental illness for which there is currently no known cure. According to the World Health Organization, more than 21 million people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia, and about one half don’t get treatment for their condition. There is an overwhelming amount of people who do not get the treatment they need because they are expensive and almost impossible to get without a prescription. That means that people in developing countries and those who do not have access to a doctor or large sums of money cannot get the medication necessary for their wellbeing.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis that affects a person’s ability to interpret reality. The disease is usually characterized by delusions, hallucinations, impaired levels of communication, and abnormal motor behaviors, leading to suicide if left untreated. The scientific community widely believes that schizophrenia is caused by a combination of genetics, external environment, and brain chemistry. Medical professionals don’t have conclusive evidence as to what exactly causes the disease; however, there have been studies dating back to the 1980s, which conclude that glutamate, a brain chemical responsible for sending messages between brain cells, plays a significant role in the symptoms of schizophrenia.

So what does it have to do with broccoli?

In a study published by John Hopkins Medicine in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry journal, a group of researchers studied 81 people who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia within two years of the study, and 91 people without psychosis and in their early 20’s. The researchers found that the people with schizophrenia had a four percent lower level of glutamate in the brain's anterior cingulate cortex than the non-psychosis patients. This is the part of the brain that plays a role in many cognitive functions, such as emotions, empathy, impulse control, and decision making. That makes the effects of a brain chemical especially important in this part of the brain.

This study's objective was to use high Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) to observe five parts of the brain in both healthy and schizophrenic patients to see if there was a connection between different brain chemicals and psychosis symptoms. The MRS technology use in the experiment is a machine similar to an MRI that doctors and scientists use to figure out concentrations of different chemicals in the brain and tissues. Although they are similar, an MRI and MRS work a bit differently. When looking at a tumor in the brain, an MRI graphs the location of said tumor. In comparison, an MRS tracks the brain's biochemical changes by comparing healthy tissue to abnormal tissue.

The researchers at the John Hopkins Schizophrenia Center found that schizophrenic people had three percent less glutathione, a chemical which is made up of three separate chemicals, including glutamate, in the anterior cingulate cortex and an eight percent decrease of the same chemical in the thalamus, a part of the brain responsible for relaying motion and sensory messages to separate parts of the brain.

In a study published in February of this year, the same team of researchers focused on glutamate production in the brain and observed whether or not the levels of said chemical affected the symptoms of schizophrenia in rats. They found that they could block a specific enzyme from producing glutathione out of glutamate by using the chemical L-Buthionine sulfoximine. The addition of L-Buthionine sulfoximine, in turn, allowed for an excessive amount of glutamate to be used in the rat brain cells. The unlimited usage of glutamate caused the brain cells to fire signals faster, mimicking the conditions in which brain cells send signals in psychosis patients.

Getting back to broccoli

The addition of L-Buthionine sulfoximine increased the firing speed of nerve cells in the brain; however, the team was looking for a chemical to slow down this firing speed so that the brains of the mice being tested would go back to the state of a healthy mouse brain. When the researchers used sulforaphane, a compound found in broccoli sprouts, they found that the speed at which nerve cells were sending signals to each other had slowed. Sulforaphane enabled a specific enzyme to turn more glutamate into glutathione. Since the glutamate was being converted into glutathione by sulforaphane, there was less excess glutamate in the rat brains. The decrease of freely floating glutamate, in turn, caused the nerve cells to fire slower since less glutamate was being used. Patterns in the rat brains indicated behaviors less like those of schizophrenic patients.

After these results were tested on different groups of rats, the researchers at John Hopkins wanted to test the effects of sulforaphane on human brains. In a study done in the journal Molecular Neuropsychiatry, four women and five men, all healthy, took two 100-micromolar broccoli sprout extract pills a day for seven days. The results showed that after the seven days, there was a 30% increase in glutathione in three different regions of the patients’ brains, including the hippocampus — associated with learning, emotions, and forming new memories, the thalamus, and the anterior cingulate cortex.

This study, concluded by a group of scientists at John Hopkins, does more than just conclude which compounds affect different areas of the brain. The findings in their research could potentially be huge in making medications for psychosis and schizophrenia patients.

Implications on psychosis treatment:

Traditional medications to regulate the symptoms of schizophrenia could cause metabolic problems increasing cardiovascular risk, involuntary movements, restlessness, stiffness, and “the shakes,” involuntary tremors. During the broccoli sprout capsules trial, patients only reported a stomach ache if they took the capsules on an empty stomach. This means that in addition to being more accessible, the capsule also has significantly fewer side effects than traditional medications.

Although scientists say that more studies must be done to find the optimal dosage of sulforaphane and the amount of time someone has to take the capsules to see an effect, the intake of these capsules could potentially spell out a new way of treating schizophrenia without all of the unwanted side-effects. Sulforaphane would not cure schizophrenic patients; however, it would provide a better, more affordable way for them to alleviate their symptoms without ingesting so many antipsychotic drugs.

As of right now, there haven’t been enough tests to properly identify the dosages, concentrations, and areas where sulforaphane must be given, thus, getting this product out on the market will take a significant amount of time. As with all medical products, there has to be a significant amount of testing involved to make sure it is as helpful as possible, without additionally being harmful to the patient. However, this discovery spells out huge implications for how neurologists see how the brain works

Sources:

• Johns Hopkins Medicine. (2019, May 8). Broccoli sprout compound may restore brain chemistry imbalance linked to schizophrenia. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 8, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190508093733.htm
• Sharkey, L. (2019, May 19). Could a broccoli sprout extract help treat schizophrenia? Retrieved October 12, 2019, from Medical News Today website: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325212
• Sedlak, T. W., & Sawa, A. (2018, April). Sulforaphane Augments Glutathione and Influences Brain Metabolites in Human Subjects: A Clinical Pilot Study. Retrieved from https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/487639
• Wang AM, Pradhan S, Coughlin JM, et al. Assessing Brain Metabolism With 7-T Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Patients With First-Episode Psychosis. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online January 09, 201976(3):314–323. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.3637
• Schizophrenia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2019, from World Health Organization website: https://www.who.int/mental_health/management/schizophrenia/en/

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