Healthy Food Broccoli, Processes Depressant-Like Property

By Kyle J. Norton

Depression is a common and serious psychological illness, affecting physical and mental functions of patients, including the patients feeling, thinking and acting.

Some patients with depression may feel sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed.

There is no exact cause of depression. Changes in hormone levels, medical conditions, stress, grief or difficult life circumstances that initiate the change of brain chemistry in inducing depressive syndrome are some of the most prevalent factors found in patients with depression.

Most common symptoms of depression include sadness, hopelessness, guilt, change of mood, loss of interest in friends, family, favorite activities, and sex.

In severe case, some patients with depression also experience cognitive symptoms of trouble concentrating, making decisions, remembering and thoughts of harming his or herself.

According to the statistics provided by the Anxiety and Depression of Association of American, major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for ages 15 to 44.3, affecting more than 16.1 million American adults, or about 6.7% of the U.S. population age 18 and older.

Conventionally, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is the primary medication for the treatment of depression due to its relatively lower side effects comapred to depressants. Other types of antidepression medication may include serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), typical antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).

Dr. Steven S. Clevenger and colleagues in examining the role of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the relapse risk of major depressive disorder wrote, "According to the included studies, the relapse risk in adults was lower when SSRIs were combined with psychotherapy".

And, " the combination of SSRIs and cognitive behavioral therapy may effectively reduce relapse. Escitalopram appeared to yield better results and fewer side effects than did other SSRIs or SNRIs".
On finding a potent compound which process depressant-like activity, researchers examined the effects of Sulforaphane (SFN), an isothiocyanate compound derived from broccoli on inflammation-related depressive symptoms.

On lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 0.5 mg/kg) induced depression-like behavior in mice, pretreatment SFN showed a significant effect in the blockage of the increase in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokine (tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)) level and an increase in microglial activation of the brain associated with the inflammatory response by increasing the expression anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10.

Activation of microglia is a hallmark of brain diseases.

In the tail suspension test and forced swimming test, immotility caused by LPS of the tested mice was also attenuated by the injection of SFN.

Degeneration of the cognition in the brain caused by the alternation of the density of the proteins associated with the brain functioning due to the LPS was also restored by the SFN.

More importantly, dietary intake of 0.1% glucoraphanin (a glucosinolate precursor of SFN) food in the juvenile and adolescence has been found to prevent the risk of LPS-induced depression-like behaviors and dendritic spine changes in the brain regions at adulthood.

In other words, SFN isolated from the rich broccoli sprout exhibited depressant-like activity was attributed to the anti-inflammatory property.

Based on the findings, researchers said, "supplementation of SFN-rich broccoli sprout could be a prophylactic vegetable to prevent or minimize the relapse by inflammation in the remission state of depressed patients".

Taken altogether, broccoli sprout with rich of SFN may be considered a functional food for the treatment of depression, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Natural Medicine for Fatty Liver And Obesity Reversal - The Revolutionary Findings To Achieve Optimal Health And Lose Weight

How To Get Rid Of Eye Floaters 
Contrary To Professionals Prediction, Floaters Can Be Cured Naturally 

Ovarian Cysts And PCOS Elimination
Holistic System In Existence That Will Show You How-To
Permanently Eliminate All Types of Ovarian Cysts Within 2 Months

Back to Kyle J. Norton Homepage http://kylejnorton.blogspot.ca


Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Prophylactic effects of sulforaphane on depression-like behavior and dendritic changes in mice after inflammation by Zhang JC1, Yao W1, Dong C1, Yang C1, Ren Q1, Ma M1, Han M1, Wu J1, Ushida Y2, Suganuma H2, Hashimoto K. (PubMed)
(2) The role of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in preventing relapse of major depressive disorder by Steven S. Clevenger, Devvrat Malhotra, Jonathan Dang, Brigitte Vanle, andWaguih William IsHak. (PMC)