FACTS ABOUT MITOCHONDRIAL DISEASE:
- Mitochondrial diseases can affect any organ in the body and at any age.
- We all have mitochondria - they help us all breathe, speak, hear, talk, and walk.
- Every 30 minutes, a child is born who will develop a mitochondrial disease by age 10.
- 1 in every 2000 babies born will develop a mitochondrial disease.
- Mitochondrial diseases aren't as rare as people think. Research indicates that 1 in 200 people may carry a mutation that may develop into a mitochondrial disease at some point in their life.
- Mitochondria are the “powerhouse” of the cell. They combine oxygen from the air we breathe with the calories from food to produce energy.
- Mitochondrial diseases result when the mitochondria fail to produce enough energy. Organ systems will begin to fail and the life of the individual is compromised.
- Mitochondrial diseases are severely debilitating, often fatal and characteristically complex in nature. They are inherited through the mother, but can also be inherited from either parent. They can also be sporadic or induced by the environment.
- In the United States, more than 50 million adults suffer from diseases in which mitochondrial dysfunction is involved. Mitochondrial dysfunction is found in diseases as diverse as cancer, infertility, diabetes, heart diseases, blindness, deafness, kidney disease, liver disease, stroke, migraine, and the toxicity of HIV and other drugs. Mitochondrial dysfunction is also involved in aging and neuro-degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer dementia.
- It is estimated that of the 4 million children born each year in the United States, up to 4000 develop mitochondrial diseases.
- Many mitochondrial diseases are so new that they have not yet been mentioned in the medical textbooks or in to the medical literature.
- To date, there is no cure for mitochondrial diseases and there are NO real effective treatments for people suffering from mitochondrial disease
- Many patients go undiagnosed for years.