Supplement Therapy-- Sulforaphane

Objective.

Help TsukiMoon have a reduction of ASD symptoms by giving the supplement sulforaphane.

Theory:

A news reported on CBS News on October 13th, 2014 of the study by lead researcher Dr. Kanwaljit Singh, of Massachusetts General Hospital for Children found positive effects of the supplement of sulphorapane derived from broccoli sprouts.  [Here is a link to his paper.]  We decided to try the supplement on Boo. 

Sulphoraphane has negligible toxicity as reported in the study.  

On The Ground:

My mother called me on about two weeks ago to tell be about something that she saw on the CBS morning news about a study where boys and young-men with ASD had a reduction of symptoms by taking a supplement derived from broccoli sprouts.  "I bet you could get it at Costco," she told me.  "Maybe this could be a cheap fix."  Everything is better if it can be a "cheap fix" for my mom.  Who can blame her?  I went to Amazon and quickly found the sulphoraphane supplement.  Could it really be that easy to find something that might promise so much?

Ever being thrifty myself, I took the free-shipping option with a extra dollar off for not needing the item immediately (an Amazon Prime option).  I guess I didn't want to get my hopes up  and seem over eager.  For about 15 bucks a bottle, we had 60 pills of hope.  

After some discussion with Mr. TsukiMoon we decided we would be willing to pay Boo to take the pills.  TsukiMoon had buy-in until he tasted the supplement.  He can't swallow pills and has a strong gag reflex to anything he doesn't like; pills, vegetables, fruit.  He gagged when he tried to swallow the pills.  Up shot-- paying him didn't work.  What to do?

My husband came up with the idea of milkshakes with the pills blended in.  He said that both his cousin and uncle had the same gag response to pills that blending them into food.  Not wild about TsukiMoon having lots of ice cream even if it is coconut or soy ice cream (he is dairy-free).  I mixed the pills with quite a bit of ice so that it would still be thick consistency but had less fat. 

Yesterday I put just ice cream with no ice, turns out ice is key.  The broccoli sprouts supplement strong bitter taste.  He got to the end and didn't finish the shake.  I asked him to finish it up, he took a sip, shivered and said he was full.  I took a sip, it was awful, such a nasty taste of bitter broccoli.  Ice helps freeze taste buds, numbs them out so they can't taste as well.  Ice from now on.

It has been about 4 or 5 days of consistently taking supplements, I'm watching for any changes.  In the study it took about 3 weeks for parents and care-givers to notice any changes.  I see some positive things like he had a conversation with his teacher yesterday.  An ordinary conversation with good long sentences and a true exchange between the two.  Then he went to his OT for an individual and was happy when she mentioned that her house might burn down if she put the project they were working on in her oven.  Ugh, not positive.

Sometimes when he shows a wide discrepancy of behavior I wonder if he feels himself change; language more elaborate, emotions even, which causes a pull back, a regression.  Possibly out of fear?  Or it could be the school lunch he had of pepperoni calzone; dairy, nitrates, nitrites, and gluten-- darn school lunch.  

Note: I will write a piece about school lunches because that has been a whole new issue since attending public school. 

I will keep you updated an any changes as we move towards 3 weeks.

In Practice:  Milkshake Recipe

1 c. Almond milk or coconut milk, unsweetened preferred

1/2 c. soy or coconut milk

1 serving of broccoli supplement.*

1 c. ice

* In the study it talked about serving size in mols.  Not knowing how to correlate that to serving size of the bottle listed as milligrams, I just went with the recommended amount on the bottle.