1

Caesar Tin-U

Mrs. Jackson

Health Science

Dec 7, 2004

Lorenzo's Oil

In the movie, Lorenzo's oil was mainly about a boy who contracted Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) which is a rare, inherited metabolic disorder that affects Lorenzo’s brain and body. In this disease, the fatty covering (myelin sheath) on nerve fibers in the brain is lost, and the adrenal gland degenerates, leading to progressive neurological disability and death. Also, Lorenzo's full name is Lorenzo Michael Murphy Odone.

Adrenoleukodystrophy is a disorder that affects the nervous system's white matter and the adrenal cortex. In males there are three main phenotypes; in childhood the cerebral form of ALD it manifests, most commonly, between the ages four and eight years. The second phenotype, adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN), manifests most commonly in the late twenties as progressive paraparesis, sphincter disturbances, and varying degrees of distal sensory loss; it progresses slowly over decades. The third phenotype, "Addison Disease", only presents with primary adrenocortical insufficiency between two years of age and adulthood and most commonly by 7 1/2 years of age, without evidence of neurological abnormality; however, some degree of neurological disability usually develops later. Approximately 20% of females who are carriers develop neurological manifestations that resemble adrenomyeloneuropathy, but have later onset (35 years or later) and milder disease than do affected males.

Adrenoleukodystrophy is an X-linked disease that affects only males between the ages of 5-10. The only possible way that Lorenzo has contracted this disease is by his mother giving birth to him, thus making Adrenoleukodystrophy becoming an inherited disease. Although Adrenoleukodystrophy is X-linked, it only affects males, but the carrier, the female mother, can have an increased concentration of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFA) in plasma.

The firs signs of the disease resemble a total different disorder, an attention deficit disorder. Following that, the impairment of cognition (The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.) declines and worsens. This results in drastic changes in the subject's behavior. Vision, hearing, and talking, (motor skills) follow after the initial symptoms and often lead to total disability within two years. During the process of the disappearance of abilities, the subject starts to see red or black, which is a sign of blindness. Also the subject may have temper tantrums, which shows the start of brain's degradation.

The kinds of trail treatments a subject, such as Lorenzo, with Adrenoleukodystrophy would receive at first are the usual, normal kinds of tests that a physician would test on a person coming in for a check-up. They are as follows; T-bar, eye examination, scoping of the ear, breathing tests, etc… Following the basic trial treatments are CAT scan, MRI imaging of the brain, chemotherapy, and/or bone marrow transplant after chemotherapy. The final treatment for this disease is the giving of the subject a strict diet of foods that contain non-saturated fats, which totally abstains from VLCFAs in order to lower the VLCFA in the brain to normal levels so that the VLCFA will not corrode the myelin and white matter. (This diet was proved ineffective by the Adone family from their research into the body’s anti-acid reflex aka, biosynthesis.) Instead of the normal strict diet of foods that contain non-saturated fats, the Adones fed Lorenzo a supplement, which is oil made from extracting and combining two fats extracted from olive oil and rapeseed oil.

Lorenzo’s parents went though a lot in order to find a treatment that reduced the collection of VLCFAs in the brain. His father did an equivalent of years of research, he mortgage their house 2 times over. They did fundraisers to fund research and experiments with myelin. Lorenzo’s mother also did research in which she found out about how the body produces its own enzymes and fatty acids. Lorenzo’s dad also while researching, presented his data to scientists from around the world, and in order to present his data, he had to go through the effort of bringing the scientists together. For all his efforts he received an Honorary Degree in Medicine.