How Psychogenetics &
Nutrigenomics Began
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The Kenneth Blum, PhD Life Story: A man seeking truth while reaching for the Stars.
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loving and caring people especially from my sons, my sister Barbara her significant other Craig Johnson, and from her children Gary, Ellen and Hildy and their significant others, Scott, Jane and Jay and children, Sarah Elizabeth, Josh, Lea and Aaron. Life was good but lonely.
For those that know me, one of my greatest pleasures is stimulating my meso-limbic dopamine by listening to music. In fact, I wrote a paper on the subject.72 One night, while listening to some late night cool Jazz, all alone and loving it, my eyes turned to a woman intently moving to the rhythmic trumpet sounds of Gilbert Castelanos. Not realizing it, but from that moment, my life would never be the same. Walking upstairs I bumped into Margaret Madigan, a wonderful Australian lady, who risked her life by accepting my invitation to finish the night dancing. Even to this day, Marg has me programmed into her phone as the Mystery Man (MM). I remember calling Marg who visited her son MO in Hawaii in December, and asking her to spend New Years with me in San Diego. She did, leaving me for a nursing stint in Austin, Texas 70 miles from my old home. The story did not end in Texas for Marg, luckily for me. Following great pursuit on my part, we found our-selves on a Valentines date in New Orleans and all that Jazz. It felt right and we decided to go cross-country to find friendship, music, and best of all love. Today living together on the 38th floor overlooking the San Diego Bay is a treasure of pleasure and stimulating company. Marg is currently my editorial assistant in the day and my date at night.
On one of our trips back to Australia in 2008, late at night, I was working on a paper with Gary Reinl, Ryan Heaney, Wayne Westcott, the famous "boomaritis" Nick DiNubile, and Jim Heaney. I was investigating and writing about an alternative approach to pain control, called the H-wave device and program,73 and was mesmerized by an article in Science by Eric Stice and others. These scientists found that individuals carrying the DRD2 A1 allele compared to the DRD2 A2 allele had a blunted reward response to food as measured fMRI.74 Recently, Stice found that carrying polymorphisms in dopaminergic genes such as the DRD2 and DRD4 is responsible for weight gain as measured by BMI.75
Being very impressed with Stice's work I was delighted to meet him at a Summit Conference at Bainbridge, Washington on food addiction. We had many conversations at that encounter, become friends, and have published together.76 This paper had to do with the neurogenetics of addiction relapse involving Dopamine receptor super-sensitivity. One night in San Diego along with William Downs, we developed the now published concept -Deprivation-Amplification Relapse Therapy (DART).
In fact, we received word that our latest paper with Stice's group about reward circuitry responsively and weight gain will be published in the journal Neuroscience. My interaction with Eric Stice has been quite exciting and most rewarding. During that same meeting, I met Gene-Jack Wang77 a colleague of Nora Volkow also working on the DRD2 gene and obesity, and spent some quality time at the meeting with Ernie Noble and Caroline Davis.78
Sometimes you do something and there is no real logic, but you are compelled. The Bainbridge meeting was just that, because it was there that I met Mark Gold for the first time. Knowing about Mark's great work for years, I was excited to say hello. We talked and subsequently communicated, and I accepted a volunteer Professorship in his department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida Medical College and the MckKnight Brain Institute in Gainesville. This occurred on the heels of ending an adjunct professorship in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, at Wake Forest University College of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina. For years, independently, Gold and I had researched similar topics coming up with similar conclusions. Visiting his department and actually seeing what he has accomplished, and meeting his very impressive faculty, gave me confidence and inspiration. Most of all, it gave me an overwhelming feeling of being at home. Since February of 2009, we have published a number of important papers,72,76 a number of papers are accepted for publication. His department has supported an fMRI study on a variant of Synaptamine, called Synaptose (KB220Z), with Dr. Yijun Liu, a faculty member in China showing interesting preliminary results. Because of that chance meeting, I am also publishing and working on ADHD, Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome, theneurogenetics of addiction and sexual addiction with Drs. John Bailey and Dan Tucker at the school, and Pat Cranes the famous sexologist.
Even though I was aware of a very supportive paper on Reward Deficiency Syndrome by Drs. A. Bowirrat and M. Oscar-Berman in 2005,79 I only started to work with both of these very special scientists recently. Currently there are over 45 papers listed in PUBMED when you do a word search using RDS as a word. Along with David E. Comings,80 we adequately described the ensuing genetics of the syndrome, which has been expanding with serious emerging interest in the field. It is my mission to get RDS listed as a recognized disorder as an umbrella term describing and encompassing all reward dependence behaviors, such as drugs of abuse, smoking, gambling, sex and internet gaming. A mass media appeal for the RDS concept continued with my collaboration with David and Merlene Miller in our popular book "Overload: ADHD and the Addictive Brain.81 The Miller's along with the Menka's of LifeStream, Inc., in Prescott, Arizona, are currently in my life being involved in the development of the Neuroadaptagen Amino-Acid Therapy under a license from LifeGen, Inc (holder of all my intellectual property). The book received a number of accolades. John Ratey, MD, Harvard Professor and author of "Driven to Distraction" and "Shadow Syndromes" said, "This is a brilliant treatment which should sensitize others and educate the ADDer about how to prepare for and avoid overwhelming situations---- there are tons of good ideas, advice for parents, educators, ADDers as well as resources and contacts for continued learning." David Smith, MD, then President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine said, "This is an extraordinary and fascinating book... The bridging of both the clinical and biogenetic aspects is a landmark accomplishment for works on this very complex disorder. This is one of the most important works on this subject in the last ten years".
I have known Carolyn Rubin for many years and was delighted that she asked me to give the opening speech at the 2007 CARA conference in Sacramento, California and then again allowing me to present in 2009. My talk was focused on the important concept that activation instead of blocking mesolimbic dopaminergic reward circuitry is a preferred modality in the long-term treatment of reward deficiency syndrome (RDS). However, more important than the talk was the beginning of a life-long friendship with both John and Michel Giordano. Meeting John in 2007 was a most interesting experience, but it was not until the 2009 meeting that we finally bonded. When John called me and asked me to present at "Foundation's Addiction Conference" in Las Vegas, April 2010, and my on the spot acceptance secured our future. I have joined forces with John and Gerald Goldfarb, his partner at G&G; Holistic Addiction Treatment Center in North Miami Beach, Florida. To date we have published a number of important papers and we areinvolved in at least 15 papers. One paper in particular directed by Siobhan Morse at G &G;, which has been accepted for publication in Post Graduate Medicine,83 shows that just one acute dose of Synaptose [KB220Z] overcomes abnormalities in the Pre-frontal Orbital cortex in protracted abstinent psychostimulant poly-drug abusers. Intake of Synaptose increased alpha and low beta waves, thus inducing synchronization of brain function. Remarkably, Cameron Allen the QEEG expert at Synaptic Connections who collected and interpreted the data, stated, "It usually takes at least 10 biofeedback trials to reach the same level of regularity in alcoholics." This has been also confirmed by Joel Lubar, the past president of the American Society of Biofeedback.
In essence, Joe Ullrich at Omni Public Relations simply explained the results. Synaptose, [a newly formulated combination of Synaptamine coupled with a proprietary metallosaccharide complex] is directed by and designed specifically to address an individuals' genetic predisposition to addiction. The preliminary results clearly show substantial and dramatic improvement. The qEEG scans are bright red and blue with brain activity in areas that just hours before were as black and dead as coal - an overwhelming success. Synaptose also increased the Alpha band activity and low Beta band in one dose; thus having a calming effect and significantly reducing the nearly insatiable cravings experienced by addicts and alcoholics. Perhaps the most significant discovery in this and other tests is that the first natural D2 receptor activator - Synaptose - will help repair specific genetic impairments directed at causing the breakdown of the reward cascade. Recent tests indicate that general cognition and the ability to learn and remember have been linked to brain dopamine function. Specifically, over 2000 Scottish carriers of the DRD2 A1 polymorphism had significantly lower "G" (cognition) scores.84 In 1997, Blum et al85 (our group) showed that a Synaptose variant significantly enhanced brain processing speed and cognitive ability. Moreover, a group in Germany recently showed that carrying the DRD2 A1 allele (low D2 receptors) predicted an impaired ability to make good decisions. Working memory and the ability to recall past negative events is called reverse learning.86 It is thought to be involved in decision-making, which is very relevant to the process of relapse and or re-addiction to psychoactive drugs. That said, coupling of a D2 activator with a cognitive enhancer [like Giordano's Mental Clarity] seems prudent and worthy of further investigation. My company, Reward Deficiency Solutions, LLC and G & G are actively pursuing this idea and looking forward to this aspect of the upcoming research. It is further conjectured that detoxification could include either intravenous or other bolus delivery systems since we also know the benefits associated with these alternate forms.87,88 In response to these benefits, I have a patent issued and pending describing specific formulas on the use of an intravenous solution alone and in combination with specific candidate genes.
One afternoon I was delighted to see the most brilliant work of Stephen Schoenthaler cited in an article in Life Sciences Magazine on the positive effects of nutrients in prisoners. I had picked up the magazine at a national Biotechnology conference held in San Diego, on June 8, 2008. We met at a subsequent conference and are now working together with John Giordano to provide Atlanta Georgia prisoners with a prescreening Genetic Antisocial Risk Score.90-92
Since the awarding of my nutrigenomics patent in 2005, I have been devoted to the development of a number of gene maps and Genetic RDS risk score panels. This has not been an easy task but when finalized and ready for commercialization should have high impact in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of all RDS behaviors. Most recently our paper involving just one of the proposed panels -Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS) has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed International Journal of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology, July issue.93 Our brain reward cascade schematic drawn by Marg Madigan has made it to the front cover of that journal for everyone to see! Once again, life is filled with mystery; never knowing what will happen next. Speaking at a recent US Journal training Conference in Las Vegas on "Science Meets Recovery: Neurogenetics of a Holistic Approach" along with John Giordano, we met executives from Dominion Diagnostic Laboratories. This chance meeting led to the beginning of a strong partnership with Dr. Frank Fornari, President and CEO. Reward Deficiency Solutions, LLC. and Dominion are working together to develop the first ever vulnerability gene test (GARS). An interesting side note is that a recently adopted law called the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (G.I.N.A.), which has been enforceable since November 2009, has approved a prescreening genetic test for Addiction vulnerability. When the test is completed, it will be able to classify patients according to a number of risk alleles based on genotyping of candidate genes showing hypodopaminergic function. The basis of this concept has already been validated by others.94
Well I suppose I have come full circle in detailing certain aspects of my life and it has been quite a journey. I am sure that in everyone's life, if they have lived long enough (in my case seventy plus years), they have been faced with the good, the bad and the ugly. When I reached my 70th birthday August 8th 2009, we had a fantastic celebration at the fabulous Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. We were serenaded by the great saxophone artist, Joe Marillo, at a dinner for about 22 family and friends. If you close your eyes, when Joe plays the sax it sounds like Stan Getz. In fact, I am now producing a CD with Joe as tribute to Stan Getz with the blessings of his son. Even though my mother might not get a kick out this. I suppose we all can't always please the one's we love.
While my life has had its ups and downs and many people have not respected some of the important ideas that I diligently developed or discovered over a life time of dedication, time moves on. Without naming individuals (you know who you are) my patents have been knocked off, my science has been...
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Reward Deficiency Solutions Systems
- Find out if you or your children have a genetic predisposition to RDS
- How to eliminate negative RDS behaviors; Stress, Craving, Depression or Anxiety
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Dr. Blum and Dr. Waite advocated a non-specific "healthy diet" and non-specific regular exercise to accompany a regimen of taking Synaptose
TM
, the nutrigenomic neuroadaptogen they developed based on Dr. Blum's many years of research to increase the endogenous production of Dopamine and reduce negative Reward Deficiency Syndrome behaviors. The scientific evidence they have thus far accumulated, they say, demonstrates that Synaptose
TM
changes the plasticity of the brain synapses while balancing the endogenous neurotransmitters, positively affecting the Brain Reward Cascade.
