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The Washington Post
FINDINGS
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A07
Lorenzo's Oil Shows Preventive Benefits
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"Lorenzo's oil," a treatment popularized in a 1992 movie starring Nick Nolte, appears to lower the risk that children with a genetic defect will go on to develop symptoms of a neurological disease known as adrenoleukodystrophy, a new study has found.
The treatment, which has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, attempts to change the way children with the genetic defect make certain types of fat. Symptoms of the disease include a loss of the ability to speak, reduced strength and coordination, and eventually complete breakdown of bodily function and death.
Lorenzo's oil, developed by the father of a child with the disorder based on his reading of research papers, is not a cure, but its adherents believe it is a way to keep the disease at bay.
The new study followed 89 children who had the genetic defect that causes the disease but were not yet symptomatic. Treatment was combined with a rigorous diet. Ethical guidelines kept researchers from comparing the effects of their treatment against a placebo -- the best technique to measure a treatment's effectiveness. The researchers acknowledged that it was unclear how long the effects of the oil lasted.
"This clinical study clearly demonstrates that the use of Lorenzo's Oil can prevent the onset of the rapidly progressive and devastating form of the brain disease that affects 50 percent of boys" who are genetically predisposed to get the disorder, Hugo Moser of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore said in a paper published in the Archives of Neurology.
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