Vitamin C news: Kids hope to C cure

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Kids hope to C cure

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21626160-24331,00.html

Kamahl Cogdon

April 27, 2007

ANITA Fiorillo was on kinder duty when she noticed daughter Bianca

was not quite keeping up with the other kids in the playground.

" I didn't really pick it up at home, " Mrs Fiorillo said, " but once

she got into a group of other children the same age, I noticed a

little difference.

" She had a slower run. She didn't pick up speed like a normal run.

It was more like heavy stomping.

" And her climbing ability was not the same. She'd only get half way

up a climbing apparatus, whereas other kids would get right to the

top and back down again. "

Mrs Fiorillo took her concerns to doctors at the Royal Children's

Hospital and last September Bianca, now 6, was diagnosed with

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited genetic disorder that

affects mobility and sensation in the feet, legs, hands and

forearms.

On the same day, dad was in Geelong Hospital having tests after

sudden paralysis in his arms and legs. His diagnosis: CMT.

The family, from the Geelong suburb of Lovely Banks, has since had

apparently healthy son Tony, 3, tested and discovered he too has

CMT.

Bianca and Tony will be part of a trial offering hope to young CMT

sufferers.

RCH pediatric neurologist Dr , Sydney podiatrist Dr Josh

Burns and Prof Ouvrier, from Sydney's Westmead's Children's

Hospital, hope high doses of vitamin C could relieve children's CMT

symptoms.

Their trial follows a landmark French study, which found high doses

of vitamin C helped mice overcome a mouse version of CMT.

Dr said CMT had a significant impact on a child's life.

" It causes a 20 per cent drop in their quality of life and it's

purely because they can't keep up with their peers physically, and

it depresses them, " she said.

" Most of the kids say they don't understand why they can't run as

well as their friends or climb the monkey bars or play footy or why

they are the last kid picked for a team. "

Mr Fiorillo, who is overcoming a second bout of paralysis since his

CMT diagnosis, said the vitamin C trial offered his children hope.

" The last thing I want is to see my son and daughter go through what

I have with this disease, " he said. " I wouldn't wish it on my worst

enemy. "

CMT is an umbrella term for 50 to 60 disorders of the peripheral

nervous system, which controls our ability to move and feel parts of

the body. The nerves of the arms and legs gradually stop working,

leading to wasting of the muscles served by those nerves.

Dr said symptoms were often difficult to detect early but

became more pronounced and painful as the condition progressed.

Foot deformities such as flat feet or high arches and clawed toes

were common. As sufferers aged, they often developed chronic

arthritis and lost sensation in their hands and feet, Dr said.

The disease, named after three doctors who recognised it in the

1880s, is usually inherited and is incurable.

In the Australian vitamin C study, a group of 30 children, aged two

to 16, will be given a high daily oral dose of vitamin C and another

group of 30 will be given a placebo.

Their nerve function, foot and ankle muscle strength, fine motor co-

ordination, quality of life and running speed and endurance, will be

tested at the start and at the end of the 12-month trial.