Muscular Dystrophy : A Disease That Destroys The Muscles Essay

Boys begin to have difficulty sitting up and standing, weakness that progresses to muscles in the trunk and shoulder, and later affecting the heart muscle. By the age of twenty years individuals affected with Duchenne dystrophy die.

According to the " Muscle Diseases" by Patrick F.Chinnery in the Goldman's Cecil Medicine, 24th Ed 2012, "Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy affects about 1 in 3500 males. About one third of the cases arises from a de novo mutation without a family history."

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is also the most common type of muscular dystrophy in kids, children who are affected by the disease will most likely be in a wheelchair by the time they are 12, and are likely to die anywhere from their late teens to early twenties ( Yiu and Kornberg, 2008, p. 236).

Individuals who inherit this disease will have a rapid progression of symptoms. Walking becomes difficult and skeletal contractures and muscle atrophy follows. They also usually need wheelchairs by adolescence. Half of the receivers of the disease unfortunately develop some form of mental retardation and most never make it past their teenage years. Currently, options for a treatment of muscular dystrophy are limited. Physical therapy may slow down the progression of deformities. Such devices as wheel chairs, crutches, or secondary orthopedic limbs may permit mobility. There are also a few medications that can help relieve pain and stiffness in the muscles. The Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Research and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh helped fund a research project for the disease. The research, carried out by Johnny Huard, Ph.D., is looking fairly successful. Scientists are isolating special

Duchenne muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is the most common out of nine types of muscular dystrophy. This genetic disorder causes progressive muscular weakness, and deterioration due to the lack of a protein called Dystrophin. This protein keeps the muscles in tack, so when it's missing, the muscles slowly break down. (MDA, 2015)

The tell- tale sign of muscular dystrophy is the weaking of muscles caused by loss of muscle mass. Different signs can occur in different age groups,

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (also referred to as DMD) is a type of muscular dystrophy that weakens the muscles that we need to support our body, body weight, to stand, and to move around. It also can cause you to have scoliosis. Some of the main causes for DMD are genetic disorders, mutations, and DMD has to be passed down throughout everyone in that family for generations. The symptoms you can have if you have DMD are weak muscles, lack of strength, and difficulty walking. DMD is a negative mutation because it affects your muscles horribly bad that you can get a disability of walking and even moving. You need to tell your doctor immediately if you experience any symptoms. If you don't tell your doctor, you may find yourself in a very difficult situation where you can't get up or can't get something you need. When you do talk to your doctor, you will have an advantage of getting the help you need.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a sex-linked disease, which is inherited in a recessive fashion (National Human Genome Research Institute, 2013). Over thirty similar genetic disorders exist (Duchenne Foundation Australia, 2015). All types of muscular dystrophy are considered to be a rare disorder (Duchenne Foundation Australia, 2015). Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is most common in children and causes muscle weakness and wasting, which commonly begins in the lower limbs (Duchenne Foundation Australia, 2015; National Human Genome Research Institute, 2013). The disease itself is caused by changes to the DMD gene, which is responsible for providing instructions regarding the creation of the dystrophin protein in one’s muscles (Duchenne Foundation Australia, 2015). This protein is responsible for protecting muscles from damage, and without it the cells of a person’s muscles deteriorate and symptoms of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy are exhibited (Duchenne Foundation Australia, 2015). The disease results from changes in the DMD gene, or other genetic changes in a child (Duchenne Foundation Australia, 2015).

When looking at a potential therapy or cure, it is important to recognize exactly how the disease affects the body. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is one of the most severe myopathies, or muscle diseases (Cacchiarelli et al). To be diagnosed with DMD, a patient must have a mutation in the dystrophin gene present (Muscular Dystrophy Association). Moreover, that mutation in the gene is what causes the lack of dystrophin synthesis. Dystrophin is protein in the body that keeps the muscles intact (Muscular Dystrophy Association). Therefore, a lack of dystrophin causes the muscles to deteriorate; which is identified as dystrophy. When the body lacks strong healthy muscle, it does not only become weak; the body itself begins to shut down. Our organs depend on the muscles that allow us to walk, eat, and breathe to provide energy, nutrients, and oxygen. For this reason, DMD eventually leads to a short life.

I remember replying to a few of your posts last semester. Did you know Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy affects more boys than girls? Expect them to be in a wheel-chair at around during their early teens. It is also know that it takes longer for them to start walking, which means they barely walk during their lives. They even have a hard time raising their arms and fall often if they were walking. They might struggle to climb up the stairs or it may not even be worth the trouble. The worst case scenario is Cardiopathy because DMD causes damage to the heart. To further elaborate, the lacking of dystrophin results to weakening of the muscle layer in the heart which is called myocardium. This situation could indeed threaten their life. DMD has also affected the way they learn verbally and they even have a hard time focusing. In addition, they will struggle to recall memories and could interact emotionally different than most people (MDA For Strength, Independence & Life, 2016). I’d choose adoption if I could have avoided this devastating syndrome. I would also suggest prenatal diagnosis.

Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary condition marked by progressive weakening and wasting of the muscles. The main sign of muscular dystrophy is progressive muscle weakness. Specific symptoms start at different ages and in different muscle groups, depending on the type of muscular dystrophy. This disease can appear in infancy up to middle age or older. There are 9 major types of muscular dystrophy. Myotonic, Duchenne, Becker, limb-girdle, facioscapulohumeral, congenital, oculopharyngeal, distal, and emery-dreifuss. The diagnostic of muscular dystrophy can be found through a physical exam, family medical history, and tests. Furthermore, those include muscle biopsies, DNA testing, nerve conduction tests, and blood enzyme tests. Muscular dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an X-linked recessive form of muscular dystrophy, which only affects boys. In the article titled “Timed Rise from Floor as a Predictor of Disease Progression in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: An Observational Study”, their purpose for doing this article was to investigate the effect of the time to rise from the floor test on the changes that were observed on the 6 minute walk test (6MWT) over a time period of 12 months. There were 215 boys with this disease that participated in this experiment, and their ages ranged between 5 and 20 years old.

Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy (EDMD) - This is 1/9 types of muscular dystrophy, these diseases mainly affect your voluntary muscles. It’s named after Alan Emery and Fritz Dreifuss, physicians who first described this disease in the 1960s. EDMD is caused by gene mutations that cause the produce of proteins in the nuclear membrane of each muscle cell. Also it can be inherited in a number of ways, but each inheritance pattern usually has the same symptoms. EDMD usually shows itself by the age of 10 and it’s described as the wasting and weakness of muscles making up your shoulders, upper arms, and calf muscles of legs. Another major EDMD aspect is appearance of contractures (stiff joints) in the elbows, neck, and heels early in the disease’s

One such disease that this paper will be focusing on is known a Muscular dystrophy more specifically a severer case of this disorder known as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). It is in the group of disorders characterized by a pathological swelling of skeletal muscles caused by the mutation in the DMD gene, located on the X chromosome. It is the most prevalent form of this disease, occurring early in life and affecting nearly one million boys worldwide (Panno, page 11).

Muscular dystrophy is a disease with different versions that effect most body systems. The main systems are the heart, eyes, spine, brain, nervous respiratory, musculoskeletal and endocrine system. The main purpose of all nine major types of muscular dystrophy is ongoing condition that makes your muscles weak resulting in loss of mass/functions. A person with muscular dystrophy lifestyle would be affected depending upon what type they have. It will have a huge effect on activated due to muscle weakness but for the most part they should be