Lorenzo's Adrenoleukodystrophy

health, human diseases, medical technology avenue, adrenoleukodystrophy, Lorenzo's Oil
I know that most of you have already seen Lorenzo's Oil. It's a movie about a child having Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). ALD or Addison-Schilder Disease or Siemerling-Creutzfeldt Disease is a rare disease passed through by the mother. The patients with X-linked ALD are all male.

In this disease, an essential protein, called a transporter protein, is
missing in sufferers. This protein is needed to carry an enzyme which is used to
break down very long-chain fatty acids found in the normal diet. Lack of this
protein can give rise to a build-up of very long-chain fatty acids, (VLCFA) in
the body which can damage the brain and the adrenal gland.
–en.wikipedia.com

Most scientists are still skeptical about the effectiveness of Lorenzo's Oil and up to now, it is still under investigation.

On the other hand, Lorenzo died on May 31, 2008. According to HeraldSun.com:

Lorenzo Odone's battle with the rare Adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD, a
genetic disease, died one day after his 30th birthday - 20 years longer
than doctors expected him to live.

He died of pneumonia after getting food stuck in his
lungs.

I could not get an accurate figure of ALD cases in the Philippines, but I find aldfoundation.org as a very informative site.


Related Topics: Health (Parkinson's Twitch), Human Diseases (13's Huntington)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was such a sad, but inspiring movie! It is odd that there isn't conclusive data on the effectiveness of Lorenzo's Oil by now.

Anonymous said...

Such a classic movie, I hope that there is more research done for this rare disease. I would find the research very interesting.

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