The smartphone health app Apple A Day RX provides many examples of food and nutrition advice for many common ailments.

1. Why Teenagers should eat
their Broccoli

2.  Individuals suffering from psychiatric
diseases often have accompanying
cognitive impairment. Examples of
psychiatric diseases include;
schizophrenia, autism, major
depression, generalized anxiety, post-
traumatic stress and bipolar.

3.  Several studies (including Carrión et al
2011) conducted on young adults and
adolescents who were deemed to be
at risk for psychosis showed the
presence of cognitive impairment prior
to the onset of psychotic symptoms.
These findings indicate that early
intervention can prevent the onset of
psychosis during adulthood.

4.  So is there any food and nutrition
advice that can help prevent the onset
of these symptoms. As children we
were often told “Eat your broccoli!”
This green vegetable has many
reputed health benefits; see
smartphone health app Apple A Day
RX.

5.  Cruciferous vegetables including
broccoli contain sulforaphane (SFN)
which an isothiocyanate. SFN is
regarded to be a potent activator of
Nrf2 transcription factor. The
neuroprotective functions of Nrf2 have
been well documented.

6. A key finding from a 2015 reserach
study by Sirai et al indicated that
consumption of glucoraphanin (a
precursor of SFN) in juvenile and
adolescence mice prevented the onset
of PCP-induced cognitive deficits as
well as the increase in 8-oxo-dG-
positive cells and the decrease in PV-
positive cells in the brain at adulthood.

7.  Further analysis
of NRF2 and KEAP1 genes was
conducted with 183 patients with
schizophrenia and 385 healthy
subjects. The analysis by Sirai’s team
concluded that there is a biological
interaction between the NRF2 and
KEAP1 proteins.

8.  These findings suggest that the
Keap1—Nrf2 system may play a role
in the cognitive impairment that is
observed in schizophrenia. The
possibility arises that SFN, an
activator of Nrf2, may have preventive
and/or therapeutic effects on cognitive
impairment in patients with psychiatric
diseases such as schizophrenia and
therefore it follows that ‘SFN’ may also
be a viable therapeutic target.

9.  The smartphone health app Apple A
Day RX provides many examples of
food and nutrition advice for many
common ailments. This latest 2015
research study indicates that dietary
intake of SFN-rich broccoli sprouts
during the juvenile and adolescence
may prevent the onset of psychosis at
adulthood.

10. THANKS