Huntington's+Syndrome


 * By, Vincent Pecca**

The genetic disease I am going to talk to you about is Huntington's disease.Huntington's disease is a disorder passed down through families in which certain nerve cells in the brain waste away, or degenerate. This disease was first discovered in 1872 by Doctor George Huntington. Huntington's disease is caused by a genetic defect on the number 4 chromosome. The defect causes part of the DNA (called the CAG) to repeat a lot more times than normally. This part of the DNA is usually repeats to 10-35 times, but when you have this disease that part of the DNA is repeated 36-120 times. There are two types of Huntington's disease. The most common one is adult-onset, people with this start developing symptoms in their mid 30's and early 40's. The other type is an early-onset disease, this is a lot more un-common and you develop the symptoms at an early age/childhood. If your parents have this disease you had a 50% chance of getting it when you were born. =﻿SYMPTOMS= Behavior changes may occur before movement problems, and can include: Abnormal and unusual movements include: Dementia that slowly gets worse, including: Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease: Symptoms in children:
 * Antisocial behavior
 * Hallucinations
 * Irritability
 * Moodiness
 * Restlessness or fidgeting
 * Paranoia
 * Psychosis
 * Head turning to move eyes
 * Facial movements, including grimaces
 * Slow uncontrolled movements
 * Quick, sudden, sometimes wild jerking movements of the arms, legs, face, and other body parts
 * Loss of memory
 * Loss of judgment
 * Speech changes
 * Personality changes
 * Disorientation or confusion
 * Anxiety, stress and tension
 * Difficulty swallowing
 * Speech impairment
 * Rigidity
 * Slow movements
 * Tremor

There is no treatment for Huntington's disease so you could not stop yourself from getting it. Also you can not stop the disease from getting worse than it already is. The doctors who treat this today have no way to stop it or cure it, but their goal is to slow down the disease so it doesn't duplicate as much. There are many medicines that will help you with your symptoms and ignore them. For example one medicine is Dopamine blockers help stop abnormal behaviors and movements. Huntington's disease causes disability that gets worse over time. People with this disease usually die within 15 to 20 years. The cause of death is often infection, although suicide is also common. This disease treats everyone different and comes with many complications for whoever has it. Some complications are:
 * Loss of ability to interact
 * Injury to self or others
 * Increased risk of infection
 * Depression
 * Death