Mitochondrial dysfunction

[kim]

Reading thru the PANDAS/PITANDS thread, I thought some here might be interested in reading this

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/...omment_12213955

 

The Next Big Autism Bomb: Are 1 in 50 Kids Potentially At Risk?

 

Apparently, in only two of the 30 cases, or 6%, could the regression be traced directly and temporally to immunizations, and one of them was Hannah Poling. In the other cases, there was reportedly some type of documented, fever-inducing viral infection that occurred within seven days of the onset of brain injury symptoms.

and

 

STEP TWO: Child develops mild, usually asymptomatic mitochondrial dysfunction (though I wonder if the ear infections and eczema so common in these cases might also be symptoms of mito problems).

 

TRIGGER TWO: Child, now with an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction, suffers over-stimulation of the immune system beyond the capacity of his or her metabolic reserves. This stress is either via a viral febrile infection, or from multiple vaccinations, as in the Poling case. This trigger results in:

 

STEP THREE: Acute illness, seizures, encephalopathy, developmental regression, autism.

 

Such a scenario might help explain why autism has increased right along with the addition of more vaccines to the national schedule.

 

And it might help explain why autism rates are not plummeting now that thimerosal levels have been significantly reduced in most childhood vaccines.

 

It's possible that exposures from the flu shot, and residual mercury left over in other vaccines -- perhaps in synergistic effect with aluminum used as an "adjuvant" to boost the immune response - might "contribute to the toxic mix that causes childhood mitochondrial dysfunction in the first place," one of the doctors said.

 

But like many hypotheses, this one has competition. Some researchers believe that the modern American diet is largely to blame for an increase in the number of children whose underlying mitochondrial dysfunction is "triggered" into autism by febrile infections.

 

The answer, they hypothesize, is corn.

 

Another mito article

 

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/573004

 

Study subjects were children aged 2 to 16 years who had a confirmed diagnosis of ASD and were referred for investigation of possible mitochondrial dysfunction due to the presence of markers for mitochondrial dysfunction, including increased lactate, pyruvate, and/or alanine.

 

Significant Numbers of Affected Individuals?

 

According to Dr. Shoffner, previous recent research has reported that up to 20% of children with autism have hyperlactacidemia and increased ratios of lactate/pyruvate.

[pmoreno]

in response to the hypothesis that corn could be causing the problem with autism in our kids - that's pretty far-fetched to me -unless I see some evidence or that our corn has been genetically altered. Mexico, whose people eat tons of corn every day in the form of tortillas and other dishes have almost no autism to mention - so how can corn be blamed?

 

There is so much speculation about this and that - thimerosol to blame - or the number of vaccines at one time (which is more likely) and now the food factor. What needs to be done are some serious studies, using controls, so that once and for all we can have some answers - the mainstream medical community just wants to dismiss the vaccine connection because, according to them, there are not enough reliable studies out there that prove this (usually not enough subjects or uneven ratio of target groups and control groups). I think there need to be studies done comparing kids from countries where no is relatively no autism to the kids in our country and size up the differences. Pat

[lss]

Pat,

 

Funny you should mention corn. Corn was about the only thing my son was NOT allergic to. Did you read my post under NeuroScience. Also, the Kavanice has been working great on my son, however the tics are back this morning, but I think its because one of the kids at school is sick with a temperature and his mom specifically told me he and the rest of the family were coming down with something, which leads me to believe Pandas/Pitands. Hopefully this is short lived (the tics). Have you gotten the results from NeuroScience yet?

 

Linda

[kim]

Pat,

 

I couldn't agree that there is enough speculation about this and that to drive you insane and that honest studies from people outside the realm of criminal prosecution should be conducted in many areas ie vaccines, environmental pollutants, pesticides, GM foods etc.

 

I largely posted that article because of the mito dysfunction and viral info but....if you search genetically modified corn in US, you might be surprised. The FDA decided that we were too stupid to decided for ourselves if we wanted to eat genetically modified crops, so many times you have no idea. The search I mentioned will turn up an article about how Mexico didn't want our genetically modified corn invading their crops (cross breeding in their field) or being sold to them.

 

I didn't save that article, but you might want to read thru these

 

http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2008/11/ge...n-found-to.html

 

It's easy to eat GM corn (and GM soy) in America, since:1

 

81-86 percent of all corn planted in the US is genetically engineered.

 

88-90 percent of all soybean planted in the US is genetically engineered.

Some argue that most corn in this country has been affected by genetic engineering since GM strains have cross-pollinated with wild, non-GM strains.

and near the bottom

 

 

Update: Another new study is reporting not-so-good effects on mice fed GM corn. See: Mice Fed Genetically Modified Corn Suffer Immune Disturbances.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food

 

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/BiotechCrops/

[pmoreno]

having read the link, now I understand that they're referring specifically to corn oil and not necessarily to just "corn". I suppose that's a possibility, but on a personal note, I've always cooked with olive oil exclusively and am not aware of using any food product that has a high content of corn oil and yet my daughter has PANDAS.

 

the theory about the mitochondrial dysfunction makes a lot of sense, though. It would explain why some kids react negatively to the vaccines and others don't. There has to be some underlying genetic predisposition or else all children would have some disorder related to the vaccines. It also makes sense that with the mitochondrial dysfunction a child could develop such a disorder (autism, PANDAS, speech delay, PDD, etc) from a variety of environmental triggers ie., live viruses in vaccines, herpes viruses, strep infections, etc. Possibly the reason that it is most evident after the vaccines (particularly the multiple vaccines and after being vaccinated with several vaccines over a short period of time) is because obviously the immune system is overloaded at that time. Again, why do some kids get strep or other infections repeatedly and then one day develop PANDAS? Maybe it's the particular strain, maybe its a cumulative effect, or just the straw that broke the camel's back. My daughter's PANDAS started immediately after a particularly lengthy and severe viral infection which culminated in an unbelievably large number of herpes simplex lesions inside and outside of her mouth. It would be no surprise that such an assault on her immune system would trigger something (if she had an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction). Does anyone know if there is an easy way to test children for mitochondrial dysfunction? Pat

[pmoreno]

Pat,

 

Funny you should mention corn. Corn was about the only thing my son was NOT allergic to. Did you read my post under NeuroScience. Also, the Kavanice has been working great on my son, however the tics are back this morning, but I think its because one of the kids at school is sick with a temperature and his mom specifically told me he and the rest of the family were coming down with something, which leads me to believe Pandas/Pitands. Hopefully this is short lived (the tics). Have you gotten the results from NeuroScience yet?

 

Linda

 

Linda, I still don't have the results because I was not able to successfully collect her urine until last Saturday. I believe it takes at least 5 days for the sample to ship and then another week to get the results, so I assume I have another week to wait. I am very interested to see the results for more than one reason. I still believe the kavinace could be helpful in having an overall calming effect, but I am more interested now in finding out more about LDN (low dose naltraxone) This may be the answer for some of us. It supposedly is a new but very effective treatment for autoimmune disorders. It blocks some of the opioid receptors in the brain and causes increased production of endorphins which regulate the immune system. It has been found to be effective in some cases of autism, MS and other immune related diseases. There apparently are no side effects, no toxicity - the efficacy is related to the dose - in other words if you use too little it doesn't work and if you use too much it doesn't work. In adults it has been found to be effective at about 3 to 4 mg. daily. A leading researcher and doctor who uses this exclusively with all of her patients recommends 1 1/2 mg for smaller children to 3 mg for average children. She has it formulated by a compounding pharmacy into a cream that is applied topically, but it can also be given orally, although it has a bitter taste, and for that reason, she finds that there is more compliance in children with a topical patch. It has been used for many years at higher doses for other illnesses and is approved by the FDA. In higher doses there have been no negative side effects reportred even over the long term, but there is not much evidence out yet about the low dose uses because this is relatively new. Although the kavinace does help (kind of a bandaid effect - since it calms down the situation but doesn't exactly do anything to reverse immune dysfunction), but the LDN could actually reboot the immune system & regulate it which gets to the root of the problem. I'm not sure, at this point, if you can use the two together (kavinace & LDN), or if it would even be necessary to do that. When I get my results back for Gaby, I will be talking to the doctor in Florida about all of these issues and I'll keep you informed. By the way, this medication is very inexpensive in the low dose formula (which is probably the reason that the drug companies don't go out of their way to promote it - they make more revenue from other illnesses). Look it up in Wikipedia. Pat

[kim]

Pat,

 

This is another area that I'm not real up on because I don't think it applies to my boys. They do not have the symptom of low muscle tone or low energy in my estimation. My youngest, who's diet is really yucky due to his limited food choices, has more energy than I can fathom.

From the above quote, I'm assuming these are good markers for determining?

 

Study subjects were children aged 2 to 16 years who had a confirmed diagnosis of ASD and were referred for investigation of possible mitochondrial dysfunction due to the presence of markers for mitochondrial dysfunction, including increased lactate, pyruvate, and/or alanine.

 

Regarding the corn thing, I missed the info that you're referring to regarding corn oils. I really didn't get that impression at all, unless it was one of the studies within the article that you read?

 

And it's potentially not good news for most Americans who regularly eat GM corn and its derivatives, via livestock fattened on it, tortillas and grits, or the corn syrups that sweeten everything from soda pop and breakfast cereal, to ketchup, relish, mayonnaise, pickles, and the bun that houses the whole corn-infused lot.

 

One of the links referred to corn genetically modified for specific use in anti biotic production. It made it sound like this particular kind was more concerning. I'm going to see if I can find that part.

[kim]

Ok, it was in the "Mexico" article. It didn't say anti biotic use, it says Pharmaceuticals.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...2-2004Nov9.html

 

U.S. Genetically Modified Corn Is Assailed

NAFTA Report Calls Grain a Threat to Mexico; Administration Disputes Study

 

 

The NAFTA report concluded that the modified corn does not pose a health risk, but it did say that the environmental consequences are less well understood. It also raised the possibility of the spread of potentially more hazardous types of modified corn -- such as varieties grown in the United States to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial products.

 

"If those types of corn ever made it to Mexico and got planted, then yes, there would be a health and safety problem that would be very hard to solve," Ellstrand said.

Also, from the immune system study...(My son tested positive to "corn pollen" with reg IgE allergy testing )

 

http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2008/11/mi...ified-corn.html

 

Results

 

"There were significant differences in the percentages of T and B cells, and of CD4+, CD8+, gdT+, and mbT+ subpopulations in both weaning and old mice that were GM-fed for 30 and 90 days respectively compared with controls. These changes appeared in the gut, spleen and blood, and were accompanied by increase in blood cytokines IL-6, IL-13, IL-12p70, and MIP-1b, all involved in allergic and inflammatory responses. These changes were not detected in the mice fed the commercial non-GM pellet diet."1

[kim]

Pat,

 

A little back on topic here with mito dysfunction . When I said it wasn't really a concern here, I guess that's not completly true.

 

I thought there might be some useful explainations here for people who are waiting for test results.

 

We have recently added carnitine to our supplements. I love the diagram at the bottom of this. Shows the way these things feed into each other. Seems numerous blocks in pathways can result in altered ATP/mito function. Maybe not a full blown genetic alteration, but altered function

 

http://www.metametrix.com/DirectoryOfServi...-BloodUrine.pdf

[michele]

After reading the article it got me fired up on the vaccine issues and I ranted off to the ped nurse today. Of course her comeback was the American Academy of Pediatrics backs the use of vaccines and says they are completely safe. Bla Bla Bla. From my perspective, it has to be something in the vaccines that tips this off. Mytochondrial dysfunction from the vaccine injury may be it. Keep searching on it. You may find the culprit and then write lots of books and get famous and rich but at the same time save alot of kids from the same misfortune! Seriously Kim, thanks for the searching you are a gem. I don't know how you find this stuff. Anything else you know about this MD and immune issues or herpes sores. My son gets them often too. Is that tied too?

 

having read the link, now I understand that they're referring specifically to corn oil and not necessarily to just "corn". I suppose that's a possibility, but on a personal note, I've always cooked with olive oil exclusively and am not aware of using any food product that has a high content of corn oil and yet my daughter has PANDAS.

 

the theory about the mitochondrial dysfunction makes a lot of sense, though. It would explain why some kids react negatively to the vaccines and others don't. There has to be some underlying genetic predisposition or else all children would have some disorder related to the vaccines. It also makes sense that with the mitochondrial dysfunction a child could develop such a disorder (autism, PANDAS, speech delay, PDD, etc) from a variety of environmental triggers ie., live viruses in vaccines, herpes viruses, strep infections, etc. Possibly the reason that it is most evident after the vaccines (particularly the multiple vaccines and after being vaccinated with several vaccines over a short period of time) is because obviously the immune system is overloaded at that time. Again, why do some kids get strep or other infections repeatedly and then one day develop PANDAS? Maybe it's the particular strain, maybe its a cumulative effect, or just the straw that broke the camel's back. My daughter's PANDAS started immediately after a particularly lengthy and severe viral infection which culminated in an unbelievably large number of herpes simplex lesions inside and outside of her mouth. It would be no surprise that such an assault on her immune system would trigger something (if she had an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction). Does anyone know if there is an easy way to test children for mitochondrial dysfunction? Pat