Mitochondrial Diseases

Mitochondrial diseases, of which hundreds of varieties have been identified, occur when the mitochondria (biological machines that combine the food we eat with oxygen to produce energy in each of our cells) are not functioning properly.  This can cause complex variety of symptoms such as muscle weakness, muscle cramps, seizures, food reflux, learning disabilities, deafness, short stature, paralysis of eye muscles, diabetes, cardiac problems and stroke-like episodes, to name a few, or simply bring the body to an immediate "halt"!  

The symptoms can range in severity from life threatening to almost unnoticeable, sometimes taking both extremes in members of the same family.  Because some people have specific subsets of these symptoms, clinical researchers have grouped those that occur together into "syndromes" producing a bewildering array of descriptive acronyms.

(For more information on Mitochondrial Disease contact the Muscular Dystrophy Association or visit http://www.mitoresearch.org and http://www.kathleensworld.com)