A few years ago, before I retired from active teaching and research at Johns Hopkins University, I got a call from Dr. Albert Wright, a retired research chemist in Grenoble France. Albert was 78 years old at the time and had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). He had many of the classic symptoms, including some that most people don't realize are due to PD. Prior to talking with me he had become familiar with our work using broccoli seed extracts to ameliorate symptoms of the neurodevelopmental condition, autism spectrum disorder (ASD or autism). He reasoned that perhaps this approach would also work with his neurodegenerative condition, Parkinson's. To him, both of them seemed rooted in cellular energetics, and much of the scientific community agrees with that assessment. He started talking with world-class scientists about the science thought to be associated with Parkinson's Disease.
Then Albert began self-experimenting by boiling broccoli seeds, treating them with mustard seeds to convert the inactive glucoraphanin precursor to the biologically very active sulforaphane, and drinking the beverage daily. As a chemist, he did dose-ranging experiments, and as a scientist, he documented what happened.
He found a dose-dependent response which rapidly relieved many of his symptoms. When he stopped, the symptoms came back.
He and I then had many conversations in which I tried to guide him and provide whatever sage advice I could. He explained his methods to a number of friends in a Parkinson’s support group, some of whom attempted to replicate the same thing. There was no arm-twisting, these people experimented in their own kitchens, with broccoli seeds they obtained for themselves, but they reported their observations using a common list and scale of symptoms that Albert proposed. He collated their results.
The results are impressive, and exciting as hell for scientists like me. These experiments will probably will probably never be part of a peer reviewed scientific publication because they were not done with traditional institutional methodology, oversight and approvals. Furthermore, they were not funded by drug companies, supplement companies, or national research institutes. No money was provided by anyone, to anyone. Certainly these were not double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trials, the gold standard for this sort of stuff.
It is my hope that this work will stimulate such trials, and more controlled and detailed trials that will look at a variety of biomarkers (blood, urine, biopsies, etc.) and other measures to complement the reported behavioral and physical improvements. With that in mind, if you’ve read this far I implore you to open the link below to Albert’s blog.
After an introductory few paragraphs he shares with his readers a presentation, his "Reflections of a Scientist with Parkinson's Disease".
