Q: Continuing Jarred Youngers research on neuroinflammation

[Frunobulax]

I wonder if Youngers research on brain inflammation is continued in some way? Personally, I thought this research might identify the root cause of ME/CFS along with all the different symptoms. So I guess among all the research that I've read recently, that one would be in the top 3 of my personal "must keep going and fund this" (along with Ron Davis and Bhupesh Prusty). But I haven't heard anything on this, so I worry that maybe there is no funding.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11682-018-0029-4

If you haven't checked this out, go ahead and watch the video at least. I think it's very, very promising. BTW I do believe that inflammation could be the root cause for ME/CFS, so this research could be the basis for an unifying theory. https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/causes-for-me-cci-vs-inflammation.78586/

 

[ljimbo423]

I wonder if Youngers research on brain inflammation is continued in some way?

I really hope so. I think brain inflammation can explain the wide range of varying symptoms that we have. Personally, I almost always have mild flu-like symptoms, which almost certainly come from the sickness response in the brain. Brain inflammation would explain these symptoms and many or most others.

I think that immune activation from the body, is what's causing the brain inflammation though. I think once researchers find what's causing the immune activation in the body and focus on that. Solutions to ME/CFS will come fairly quickly after.

 

[MonkeyMan]

I wonder if Youngers research on brain inflammation is continued in some way? Personally, I thought this research might identify the root cause of ME/CFS along with all the different symptoms. So I guess among all the research that I've read recently, that one would be in the top 3 of my personal "must keep going and fund this" (along with Ron Davis and Bhupesh Prusty). But I haven't heard anything on this, so I worry that maybe there is no funding.

I agree 100% with all of this.

I really hope so. I think brain inflammation can explain the wide range of varying symptoms that we have. Personally, I almost always have mild flu-like symptoms, which almost certainly come from the sickness response in the brain. Brain inflammation would explain these symptoms and many or most others.

I think that immune activation from the body, is what's causing the brain inflammation though. I think once researchers find what's causing the immune activation in the body and focus on that. Solutions to ME/CFS will come fairly quickly after.

@ljimbo423, to tie in with the recent discussion about larazotide, perhaps what's causing the brain inflammation in some patients are antigenic macromolecules that penetrate through the epithelial barrier of the gut, triggering the immune system and thereby causing the brain inflammation? And thus larazotide could thereby resolve the brain inflammation and reduce or even eliminate many of the downstream symptoms?

 

[PatJ]

@Learner1 has mentioned in other threads that boswellia is useful for brain inflammation.

 

[Frunobulax]

@Learner1 has mentioned in other threads that boswellia is useful for brain inflammation.

There is a gazillion things that is supposed to help. But none has proven to be the miracle cure for ME.
We need more research, not more supplements.

 

[PatJ]

We need more research, not more supplements.

If a supplement can help reduce problems on the way to a cure, without causing even more problems, then I'll happily use it. A supplement might be a crutch but it can allow for a better quality of life for some of us.

 

[Frunobulax]

If a supplement can help reduce problems on the way to a cure, without causing even more problems, then I'll happily use it. A supplement might be a crutch but it can allow for a better quality of life for some of us.

Well, of course. But with dozens of supplements already available, I distinctly prefer research over supplement No. 57

Especially since supplements are typically not thoroughly tested. For example, if supplement X is supposed to help with brain inflammation, typically there is no research whatsoever what it does to our gut microbiome, hormones, leaky gut and whatever. I've recently read a very critical piece about curcumin, which is supposed to lower brain inflammation but apparently can have some nasty side effects (autoimmune issues IIRC).

 

[MonkeyMan]

I've recently read a very critical piece about curcumin

Hi @Frunobulax - I'd very much like to read this piece; do you have a link, please?

 

[Frunobulax]

Hi @Frunobulax - I'd very much like to read this piece; do you have a link, please?

Actually it was a talk by Paul Saladino,

. He makes some good points, even though I disagree in some parts.
He references this article for Curcumin: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.625.4307&rep=rep1&type=pdf
It was cancer, not autoimmune disease.

Let me clarify that I don't have a strong opinion on curcumin, personally. He may be right, or he may be wrong. (I did take Curcumin for a while. No effect, positive or negative. But I haven't dug into research there so far.) But I know that we have little to no research on most supplements, and what little we have is often of low quality. Especially if we're talking about "extract of [whatever]" and not something like vitamin B1.

 

[JES]

If a supplement can help reduce problems on the way to a cure, without causing even more problems, then I'll happily use it. A supplement might be a crutch but it can allow for a better quality of life for some of us.

Let's not make this thread about meds vs supplements argument though, there's another one for that, which got a bit heated. I think "brain inflammation" is ultimately going to end up too unspecific to be of much use, I prefer "neuroinflammation", but even that suffers largely from the same issues. Neuroinflammation has been found in lots of chronic diseases from Alzheimer's to MS to Parkinson's, but we really need to dig deeper to understand the details in order to be able to produces targeted therapies.

Curcumin has anti-inflammatory properties and especially the bioavailable forms could maybe be helpful for some types of neuroinflammation as well. The problem is, when I tried curcumin, it actually made me more wired up and worsened ME/CFS symptoms quickly. For ME/CFS patients, things that could help to reduce inflammation in the average population may actually turn out to be detrimental (and the same is true for pretty much any treatment), so I reckon we are still quite far from understanding how to treat neuroinflammation in ME/CFS patients.