TMAU video news story on KomoTV : May 2008

Tammy Gobin, Rob Brown, and Cheryl Fields tell their TMAU stories, and as Rob points out, “Ignorance is the big problem here,” as it took him 47 years to get the right diagnosis. Dr. John Cashman, Director of the Human Biomolecular Research Institute in San Diego, says the Institute has been studying TMAU for 10 years, but getting medical funding for the disorder has been their biggest challenge. As Dr. Cashman clearly tells it, “We don’t have much funding for it, we’re on fumes.” They tell their stories in hopes of creating awareness and attracting research dollars, “We’re an orphaned disorder,” Tammy says, “People don’t want to spend money on us” Please see ‘The TMAU Research Fund’ post in this blog dated June 1, 2008, for details on how to make a donation, http://mpdela.blogspot.com/2008/06/tmau-research-fund.html

Video link : http://www.komotv.com/news/18956014.html?video=YHI&t=a

Full article: http://www.komotv.com/news/18956014.html

Points of interest :

" After spending $20,000 on medical bills with no help from medical insurance, Gobing found answers from Dr. John Cashman, Director of the Human Biomolecular Research Institute in San Diego.

"They (medical doctors) don't believe the syndrome," said Cashman. His San Diego lab tested Gobin positive for Trimethylaminuria. The Research Institute is one of the few facilities that test for Trimethylaminuria, or TMAu.

"Tammy is a very unusual case," said Cashman. Most patients are born with it and struggle their entire lives. Gobin developed TMAu in her early 30s and was in good health prior to the diagnosis. "

...

"I think in the future there is going to be nutritional supplements or other approaches that will be helpful," said Cashman, but he can't even guess when that might happen. "There's a lot of things we don't know about this gene and its protein and that's why we're studying it in the lab."

Cashman said the Insititute has been studying TMAu for 10 years, reviewing analytical data and DNA sequences, but despite those efforts getting medical funding for the disorder has been an uphill battle.

"We don't have much funding for it, we're on fumes," said Cashman.