The bad news for the "happy hormone" keep streaming into the public consciousness, despite the gargantuan effort to censor such information and double-down on serotonin (just like estrogen) as the best thing our bodies can get. The study below discovered that the development of polyps anywhere in the GI tract is driven by 5-HT and, as most of my readers know, GI polyps are a precursor condition to the dreaded intestinal (mostly colon) and gastric (GI) cancers. The rates for those cancers have not only been skyrocketing over the last 10-15 years but are know diagnosed mostly in young people, despite being considered "old people cancers" since their discoveries. The good news is that the study also found that inhibiting 5-HT synthesis can prevent such polyps from developing or potentially even treat already established ones. Serotonin receptor antagonists were also found by other studies (see study below with PMID 22609381) to have a similarly inhibitory effect on polyps. Yay!
Now, I showed this study to a few doctors I correspond with and their immediate reaction was that this finding about 5-HT's causative role in polyps (and potentially GI cancer) formation was only in regards to a specific condition known as Cronkhite-Canada syndrome. However, as my readers know well by now, the word "syndrome" is simply a medical euphemism for either fraud or incompetence, and this seems to be the case for this specific "syndrome" as well. Namely, it has no specific diagnostic test(s) and its symptoms almost perfectly overlap with symptoms seen in obesity, diabetes, and aging in general - nail atrophy and skin pigmentation - with aging, obesity and diabetes being known risk factors for polyps and GI cancers. Hhmm, I wonder (not!) if 5-HT may also be capable of causing obesity, diabetes and aging...
Cronkhite–Canada syndrome - Wikipedia
"..There is no specific test to diagnose Cronkhite–Canada syndrome. Diagnosis is based on symptoms and features of the disease.[8]"
In other words, the GI polyps seen in people with this "syndrome" are the exact same kind as the ones diagnosed through routine colonoscopies/endoscopies and aggressively excised with the hope of preventing them from turning into cancer.
"...Polyps are found throughout the GI tract (most frequently in the stomach and large intestine, followed by the small intestine) though typically avoid the esophagus.[6] A biopsy will reveal them to be hamartomas; the possibility that they progress to cancer is generally considered to be low,[7] although it has been reported multiple times in the past."
So, the evidence from this study and the lack of any substantive difference between this "mysterious" syndrome and the polyps found in the general population during screenings, seems to me to suggest that 5-HT can once again be labelled as a villain in yet another devastating epidemic - the GI cancers, which are now targeting the youngest segment of adults (and even teens). The fact that SSRI drug prescription rates have also been skyrocketing in the same time period of skyrocketing GI cancer rates is a good corroboration of the pathological role 5-HT has in those cancers. And if this is not enough to convince a person of just how dangerous 5-HT is, here is another study demonstrating the pathological effects of serotonin, and specifically SSRI drugs on GI health and especially on polyp development.
Neuronal serotonin regulates growth of the intestinal mucosa in mice - PubMed
You see, the "funny" part in this story is that 5-HT used to be considered a very dangerous endogenous amine up until the SSRI drugs hit the market. The role of 5-HT in GI cancers was well-known due to studies of people with the so-called carcinoid tumors, which have the uncanny ability to generate secondary, non-endocrine tumors elsewhere in the GI tract, and the patient would usually die not from the primary of secondary tumors but from the massive disseminated fibrosis the chronically elevated 5-HT levels would cause in such patients. So, the fact that medicine knew for a fact that 5-HT was very, very dangerous and now only was this knowledge "lost" but turned onto its head, is hard for me to chalk off to stupidity. I think it is fair to say that SSRI drugs would probably go down in history as one of the most evil and globally-devastating medical intervention ever designed.
JCI - Human intestinal organoids from Cronkhite-Canada syndrome patients reveal link between serotonin and proliferation
blogs.bcm.edu
"...More than 90% of serotonin in the body is produced by the enteroendocrine cells in the intestinal tract. Although serotonin is best known for its role as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, it also affects a variety of functions in other organs, including some tasks of the intestinal epithelium. “Supporting the novel role of serotonin in intestinal epithelial proliferation, we found that treating non-Cronkhite-Canada syndrome organoids with serotonin increased their proliferation and inhibiting serotonin production in the Cronkhite-Canada syndrome organoids decreased proliferation, suggesting a link between local serotonin production and control of epithelial intestinal cell proliferation,” said Blutt, associate professor of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor and corresponding author of the work....The findings suggest the potential benefit of serotonin inhibitors to treat this condition.”"
"...5HT was inhibited using L-DOPA, or 3,4-Dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (Sigma-Aldrich). L-DOPA inhibits 5HT synthesis by blocking the function of TPH1, the critical enzyme for conversion of tryptophan to 5HT. L-DOPA was diluted to a concentration of 600 ng in 1 M Tris HCl (78) and was added to the matrigel at plating and the media every day for 3 days. Cells were pulsed with EdU 24 hours before organoid harvest."
Now, I showed this study to a few doctors I correspond with and their immediate reaction was that this finding about 5-HT's causative role in polyps (and potentially GI cancer) formation was only in regards to a specific condition known as Cronkhite-Canada syndrome. However, as my readers know well by now, the word "syndrome" is simply a medical euphemism for either fraud or incompetence, and this seems to be the case for this specific "syndrome" as well. Namely, it has no specific diagnostic test(s) and its symptoms almost perfectly overlap with symptoms seen in obesity, diabetes, and aging in general - nail atrophy and skin pigmentation - with aging, obesity and diabetes being known risk factors for polyps and GI cancers. Hhmm, I wonder (not!) if 5-HT may also be capable of causing obesity, diabetes and aging...
Cronkhite–Canada syndrome - Wikipedia
"..There is no specific test to diagnose Cronkhite–Canada syndrome. Diagnosis is based on symptoms and features of the disease.[8]"
In other words, the GI polyps seen in people with this "syndrome" are the exact same kind as the ones diagnosed through routine colonoscopies/endoscopies and aggressively excised with the hope of preventing them from turning into cancer.
"...Polyps are found throughout the GI tract (most frequently in the stomach and large intestine, followed by the small intestine) though typically avoid the esophagus.[6] A biopsy will reveal them to be hamartomas; the possibility that they progress to cancer is generally considered to be low,[7] although it has been reported multiple times in the past."
So, the evidence from this study and the lack of any substantive difference between this "mysterious" syndrome and the polyps found in the general population during screenings, seems to me to suggest that 5-HT can once again be labelled as a villain in yet another devastating epidemic - the GI cancers, which are now targeting the youngest segment of adults (and even teens). The fact that SSRI drug prescription rates have also been skyrocketing in the same time period of skyrocketing GI cancer rates is a good corroboration of the pathological role 5-HT has in those cancers. And if this is not enough to convince a person of just how dangerous 5-HT is, here is another study demonstrating the pathological effects of serotonin, and specifically SSRI drugs on GI health and especially on polyp development.
Neuronal serotonin regulates growth of the intestinal mucosa in mice - PubMed
You see, the "funny" part in this story is that 5-HT used to be considered a very dangerous endogenous amine up until the SSRI drugs hit the market. The role of 5-HT in GI cancers was well-known due to studies of people with the so-called carcinoid tumors, which have the uncanny ability to generate secondary, non-endocrine tumors elsewhere in the GI tract, and the patient would usually die not from the primary of secondary tumors but from the massive disseminated fibrosis the chronically elevated 5-HT levels would cause in such patients. So, the fact that medicine knew for a fact that 5-HT was very, very dangerous and now only was this knowledge "lost" but turned onto its head, is hard for me to chalk off to stupidity. I think it is fair to say that SSRI drugs would probably go down in history as one of the most evil and globally-devastating medical intervention ever designed.
JCI - Human intestinal organoids from Cronkhite-Canada syndrome patients reveal link between serotonin and proliferation
Human mini guts reveal new insights into Cronkhite-Canada syndrome and potential new therapies
The work also highlights the value of human organoid technology to improve the understanding of any disease and identify potential clinical applications.
blogs.bcm.edu
"...More than 90% of serotonin in the body is produced by the enteroendocrine cells in the intestinal tract. Although serotonin is best known for its role as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, it also affects a variety of functions in other organs, including some tasks of the intestinal epithelium. “Supporting the novel role of serotonin in intestinal epithelial proliferation, we found that treating non-Cronkhite-Canada syndrome organoids with serotonin increased their proliferation and inhibiting serotonin production in the Cronkhite-Canada syndrome organoids decreased proliferation, suggesting a link between local serotonin production and control of epithelial intestinal cell proliferation,” said Blutt, associate professor of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor and corresponding author of the work....The findings suggest the potential benefit of serotonin inhibitors to treat this condition.”"
"...5HT was inhibited using L-DOPA, or 3,4-Dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (Sigma-Aldrich). L-DOPA inhibits 5HT synthesis by blocking the function of TPH1, the critical enzyme for conversion of tryptophan to 5HT. L-DOPA was diluted to a concentration of 600 ng in 1 M Tris HCl (78) and was added to the matrigel at plating and the media every day for 3 days. Cells were pulsed with EdU 24 hours before organoid harvest."
