Lorenzo`s Oil Full Movie
According to the movie and the account of the parents, Augusto and Michaela Odone of Fairfax, Va., they refused to accept doctors' advice that there was no hope for their son, Lorenzo, after they were told in 1984 that he was suffering from a rare hereditary disease known as adrenoleukodystrophy.The disease, passed from symptomless mothers to their sons, relentlessly destroys the sheath around nerve fibers, impairing their ability to conduct signals. After the onset of the disease, children lose the ability to walk or talk, and death usually follows soon afterward.Although the Odones had no medical training - he was an economist and she was an editor - they defied the medical establishment's pessimism, read obscure medical journals and figured that a mixture of two natural oils, known as erucic and oleic acids, would correct an important symptom of the disease.
This mixture, they and the movie assert, proved to stabilize and partly reverse Lorenzo's otherwise inevitable decline.But their claim to have invented the oil is disputed by Dr. Rizzo, a researcher at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, who suspected that oils might suppress certain fatty acids that build up in the blood of patients with Lorenzo's disease. He tested a variety of oils, one by one, in laboratory studies, showing that a certain class of oils, including erucic acid and oleic acid, could largely prevent cells from making long-chain fatty acids, the biochemical hallmark of adrenoleukodystrophy.' The idea that monounsaturated fatty acids could be used therapeutically was derived entirely by me,' Dr. 'It was not Mr. Odone's idea. To be honest, this whole thing started with that finding.
Everything else was jumping off from that.' The Odones, stressing their own role, said they developed the rationale for combining oleic and erucic acids, found companies to produce the oils, tested the oil immediately in Lorenzo and in Mrs.
Odone's sister, and demonstrated that it could lower the amount of fatty acids in the blood. 'We saw he had made an interesting observation about what happened in the laboratory,' Mrs. 'But the consensus was that it would not work in vivo. The scientists said, 'We know it cannot work.' This was from Mount Olympus. The Odones, Dr. Rizzo said, 'have to deserve credit for not only finding companies that would synthesize both oils but also for pushing for oleic and erucic acid for their son.'
'They get my accolades for sure,' he said. The Crucial QuestionBut no matter who actually discovered the oil, the real question is, does it work? Rizzo and other scientists say that although the oil does bring down the level of long-chain fatty acids in the blood, a principal symptom, there is no proof yet that it changes or improves the course of the disease.Dr.
Rizzo began the first pilot study of the oil in August 1987. Six of 8 boys in the study deteriorated rapidly.
The other two seemed to stabilize for a time, but one has now had a relapse and investigators have lost contact with the other.In a study by Dr. Hugo Moser of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 70 children with the rapidly progressing disease used the oil from the time of their first symptoms until they lost sight and movement. Moser concluded, 'did not make any difference.' Moser said that so far he had seen no evidence that Lorenzo's disease could be prevented in boys who were otherwise destined to get it.But what about 14-year-old Lorenzo?
Lorenzo's Oil Full Movie
Isn't he living proof that the oil at least prolonged his life? The Odones say he is. 'He answers yes and no to age-appropriate questions by wiggling the fingers of his right hand to say yes and closing his eyes to say no,' Mrs. He also says 'perhaps' - his left fingers wiggle up a storm.
Until about the age of seven, Lorenzo Odone was a normal child. After then, strange things began to happen to him: he would have blackouts, memory lapses, and other strange mental phemonenons. He is eventually diagnosed as suffering from ALD (adrenoleukodystrophy): an extremely rare incurable degenerative brain disorder. Frustrated at the failings of doctors and medicine in this area, the Odones begin to educate themselves in the hope of discovering something which can halt the progress of the disease. Definetly one of the most inspiring movies ever made.As individuals, it would be quite easy to feel helpless while up against a disease such as ALD and a medical establishment that has agendas other than the life of a small child. But Augusto and Michaela Odone refused to just stand idly by and while there son's life slipped away from them.
Instead, they made the unprecedented decision to learn as much as they could about their son's devastating illness and then set about to find a cure. Because of their efforts, thousands of boys will now be able to enjoy a life their child will not. Had they not been the exceptionally educated and intelligent people that they were I don't know if they would have been able to accomplish such an unbelievable feat. What's important to remember, and what I think is the moral of the story is that great things can be accomplished when people become determined to make a difference.Though Lorenzo regained his sight, some motor skills, and the ability to swallow, his condition hasn't improved to a large degree over the years, and will not until science is able to regenerate the myelin sheath covering his brain that was all but destroyed by the ALD. At the end of the movie, Augusto was involved with a group of scientists who were about to begin trials that would put the myelin back into some puppies who were born with this defect. I, along with others pray for those suffering from this disorder, as well as for people with other diseases such as Multiple Schlerosis that this therapy could help, that they will be successful.Sadly, Michaela passed away not too long ago.
Being from Virginia the Odone's are considered heros in this state, so her death made the papers here. I cried when I thought of how difficult it must have been for her to have to leave the child she'd spent so many years giving hours upon hours of endless care and attention.
I'm sure it never crossed her mind that he would outlive her. If you've never seen this movie, be sure not to miss it. It's a stellar 10!!
But be sure to bring a whole box of tissues, you're going to need it!