Thursday, 21 January 2010
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A new name for what we are treating: mitochondrial disease
The Journal of Child Neurology published an article a week ago linking autism to the combination of mitochondrial disease and fever. Among other things, the abstract says, “Autistic spectrum disorders encompass … many genetic causes. A subgroup of these individuals has mitochondrial disease.” I am interested to find the words “mitochondrial disease.” I am understanding that this is exactly what I have been treating my son Mike for–enzyme deficiencies and so on that are simply genetic, and can be remedied at least somewhat using food and vitamin supplements. Interesting to have a name for it now! As I have supposed, not all people with autism suffer from this.
In the study, 28 patients were identified who were both autistic and suffered from mitochondrial disease. Seventeen of these had suffered an autistic regression (where a once healthy and happy child becomes autistic, often at the age of 2 or 3). Of those 17, 70 percent regressed in the presence of fever, often from vaccination. The other 30 percent regressed “without identifiable linkage to fever or vaccinations.” The authors conclude that individuals with mitochondrial disease “may be at risk of autistic regression with fever.” It recommended fever management in these cases, but not avoiding vaccines. Strange conclusion if you ask me.
I looked up “mitochondrial disease” and found a Web site with plenty of information. The treatment listed is just what we have been doing. However, the authors have not made a link between mitochondrial disease and autism yet. They are thinking that mitochondrial disease is rare: “About one in 4,000 children in the United States will develop mitochondrial disease by the age of 10 years.” I expect it’s plenty higher than that.
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About the Author
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- From: curingautism
- About Me: I am Phyllis Wheeler, mother of two kids with Asperger's: "Mike" and "Shannon."
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Comments (1)
Well, the factor here that seems to be increasing risk is the fever,
not the vaccine --the study notes that no vaccinated individual showed
autistic regression without fever. So when we look at the 17
individuals in the study who actually had an autistic regression, we
see a breakdown like this:
5 regressed without vaccination and without fever
8 regressed without vaccination and with fever
0 regressed with vaccination and without fever
4 regressed with vaccination and with fever
If there was an interaction effect of some sort between fever and
vaccination that increased risk (or if vaccination itself increased risk), we'd expect to see the most regression in the vaccinated groups --but this isn't the case. So that's why
the authors still recommend vaccination, just with careful management
to avoid fever/dehydration as would be the case when dealing with
patients that have mitochondrial disease.
I do think this is really interesting though! Mitochondrial dysfunctions have been uncovered in a number of illnesses now.
(also, I don't know why the formatting of my comment is so screwy!)