Prof. MICHAEL CRWFORD
Mental health, neurodevelopment prenatally, and its dependence on specific, highly conserved brain-specific nutrients. Mechanism of neural signalling.
Crawford MA, Hussein I, Nyuar K, Leigh Broadhurst C The Global Crisis in Brain Nutrition and the Rise Mental-Ill Health. J. Human Evol. . 29; ( 1-3) 207-227.
Ogundipe E, Johnson M, Wang Y, Crawford MA (2016) Peri-conception maternal lipid profiles predict pregnancy outcomes, PLEFA, 114, 35–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plefa.2016.08.012.
Crawford MA, Schmidt WF, Broadhurst Leigh C, Wang Y. Lipids in the origin of intracellular detail and speciation in the Cambrian epoch and the significance of the last double bond of docosahexaenoic acid in cell signaling. (2020). Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids 166 (2020) 102230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plefa.2020.102230.
Spiller P, Hibbeln JR, Myers G, Vannice G, Golding J, Crawford MA, Strain JJ, Connor SL, Brenna JT, Kris-Etherton P, Holub BJ, Harris WS, Lands B, McNamara RK, Tlusty MF, Salem N Jr, Carlson SE.(2019) An abundance of seafood consumption studies presents new opportunities to evaluate effects on neurocognitive development. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2019 Dec;151:8-13. doi: 10.1016/j.plefa.2019.10.001. PMID: 31669935.
M.A. Crawford, Y. Wang, D. E. Marsh, M. R. Johnson, E. Ogundipe A. Ibrahim, H. Rajkumar, S. Kowsalya, K.S.D. Kothapalli, J.T. Brenna, Neurodevelopment, nutrition and genetics. A contemporary retrospective on neurocognitive health on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India, PLEFA, 180, (2022). 102427, ISSN 0952-3278, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plefa.2022.102427.
Crawford MA, Sinclair AJ, Wang Y, Schmidt WF, Broadhurst CL, Dyall SC, Horn L, Brenna JT, Johnson MR. Docosahexaenoic Acid Explains the Unexplained in Visual Transduction. Entropy (Basel). 2023 Nov 6;25(11):1520. doi: 10.3390/e25111520. PMID: 37998212; PMCID: PMC10670429.
Michael Angus Crawford PhD, CBiol, FRSB, FRCPath Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Royal Society of Biology. PhD from the University of London, thesis “Influence of pH on the excretion of some weak acids and bases”1960 at the Royal Post Graduate Medical School, Hammersmith, London. Then head Department of Biochemistry, Makerere University Medical College, Kampala, Uganda till 1965 but with continued research laboratory until 1972. Wellcome visiting fellow to Prof Ernst Baranay, Pharmacology, University of Uppsala, head, biochemistry at the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine till 1990. Director Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human, Nutrition, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Hackney, and London Metropolitan University. 2011-2019 was Chief Investigator for FOSS1, an RCT at Imperial College, London, UK where he is now a visiting Professor. Their research career started with the identification of the genetic cause of Hartnup Disease in 1961. Published the reason for the striking contrast in cancer and heart disease types in Europe and East Africa. Provided evidence for the role of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in the evolution of the brain and the essentiality of omega 3 in the 1970s. His laboratory was a WHO collaborating center, 1978-86 for an international study on chemical contraceptives and human milk lipids. He was a WHO consultant for the Joint WHO/FAO reports on the role of lipids in human nutrition in 1976, ’94, and 2010. Described the overriding importance of maternal health and nutrition before conception and lipid nutrition in relation to neuro-development and disorders. Published over 300 peer-reviewed papers and written 3 books. Two papers are currently submitted for publication (i) on lipid nutrition specifics in human reproduction and (ii) on the mechanism of action of docosahexaenoic acid in visual transduction and signaling visual information to consciousness in the brain. Frequently invited to give Keynote lectures. Received many international awards including the Order of the Rising Sun, for his contribution to science and culture, from the Emperor of Japan and was elected a Freeman of the City of London in 2015. 36 Regents Park Rd., London NW1 7SX, Office/laboratory Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Campus of Imperial College, Room H 3,34, 369 Fulham Road, London SW10 9NH, UK. [email protected]: www.imperial.ac.uk/people/michael.crawford
Prof. MICHAEL CRWFORD
Population growth will outstrip demand for an equable supply of food for all as the limit of arable land is reached. With people in hunger and death from malnutrition, the present food system does not reach all. The answer is not simply a better supply of the present system as it is questionable if the present system is fit for purpose. Mental ill-health and related brain disorder is now the leading burden of ill health. The paradigm governing food and agricultural policies has been dominated by the requirement for protein and calories for body growth. Although it was the evolution of the large brain which made us different from other animals no government has prioritized the nutritional needs of the brain which is largely made of specialized fats.
As an example of the misleading focus on protein, human milk has the least protein content of all large mammals. It is, however, rich in the essential fats needed to finalize brain development and growth.
The brain evolved in the sea 500 million years ago using marine nutrients, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) employed for its signaling systems and is still used and required today. There is robust evidence for the essentiality of DHA for brain growth and health. Naturally rich in the marine food web, there is little of it in the land-based, intensive food production system.
The falloff in fisheries and seafood intake is behind the escalation of mental ill-health and declining intelligence which if allowed to continue will be the greatest threat to the sustainability of humanity.
The marine food web is both rich in DHA and vital trace elements including iodine, the deficiency of which induces mental retardation. Currently, about 2 million are at risk to iodine deficiency disease.
Identified by the Declarations of Muscat, Oman in 2008 and Yoesu, Korea in 2012, there is a need to “save the oceans” by reversing the pollution of the rivers, lakes, estuaries, and oceans, restoring the man-made marine deserts, and developing mariculture starting around clean coastlines.
Mariculture not only provides brain-specific nutrients to stop the escalation of mental ill-health but also helps address ocean acidification and CO2-driven climate change by marine photosynthesis. We cannot grow any more rain forests but can do so with kelp forests which also provide food and fertilizer.
Precedence for this type of development is demonstrated by the Shiraishijima Island’s Marine Ranching Project in Okayama, Japan, which was started in 1991, has tripled fish production, added varieties of shellfish in an ecologically, sustainable manner. There are increasingly a number of other similar developments. The brain-specific nutrients need to be brought into food policy with the means of provision, developed on a global scale. This would arrest the fall in IQ, escalating mental ill-health and provide for brighter and healthier children.