Emerging evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction may not be rare at all among children with autism. In the only population-based study of its kind, Portuguese researchers confirmed that at least 7.2 percent, and perhaps as many as 20 percent, of autistic children exhibit mitochondrial dysfunction. While we do not yet know a precise U.S. rate, 7.2 percent to 20 percent of children does not qualify as “rare.” In fact, mitochondrial dysfunction may be the most common medical condition associated with autism.
Although unlikely, if the Portuguese studies are incorrect and mitochondrial dysfunction were found to be a rarity occurring in less than 1 percent of all autism, it would still impact up to 10,000 children (250,000 worldwide), based on current estimates that 1 million people in the U.S. (25 million worldwide) have autism. If, on the other hand, the research showing that 7.2 percent to 20 percent of children with autism have mitochondrial dysfunction is correct, then the implications are both staggering and urgent.
Autism researchers do not currently understand whether mitochondrial dysfunction causes autism or is simply a secondary biological marker. Autism clearly has many different causes, and should really be separated into multiple autism(s). I propose that we clearly identify and research the subpopulation term of “mitochondrial autism,” which is distinguished by its unique biological, but not genetic, markers.
Dr. Poling also calls on the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics to reaccess the current schedule of vaccines being given to children, and notes that the government’s concession in the case of his daughter Hannah has opened up a sort of “Pandora’s Box” of questions and concerns about the safety of that current vaccine schedule, and of a causal link to autism.
From a statement issued by the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation on the connection between mitochondrial disease and autism:
“Recent published reports about the potential links between mitochondrial disorders and autism demonstrate the urgent need for more research into mitochondrial disease, a devastating and often fatal illness.
“Mitochondrial dysfunction has also been implicated in Alzheimer’s Dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, heart disease and diabetes.
“Mitochondrial disease is not rare. Researchers estimate that every 15 minutes a child is born with mitochondrial disease or will be diagnosed with mitochondrial disease by the age of 10. Most affected children do not live beyond their teenage years.
While my son Charlie has struggled to talk and communicate and with his academics and behavior, it has never seemed that he had some sort of “fatal illness,” or that he would not make it into his teenage years. We have repeatedly asked Charlie’s pediatric neurologist about the possibility of him having seizures and, so far, Charlie does not seem to have these. Our concern has been about how to help Charlie achieve his full potential into his teenage years and beyond—-because whatever the causes of autism, and whatever questions (or woes, or evils, in keeping with the Greek myth) unleashed by the case of Hannah Poling, there is always hope about what our children can do and learn as they grow up.
Because, in the myth, that’s what is at the bottom of Pandora’s Box: Hope, and hope thanks to our kids themselves.