What Is The Significance Of Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder. It is passed on to children from one or both parents (though two parents with Huntington's is extraordinarily rare) in an autosomal dominant manner. This is different from autosomal recessive disorder, which requires two altered genes (one from each parent) to inherit the disorder.

Huntington’s disease destroys the organs that carry the functions of the central nervous system. Kalat (2013) states, “Huntington disease (also known as Huntington disease or Huntington’s Chorea) is a severe neurological disorder that strikes about 1 person in 10,000 in the United States” (A.B. Young, 1995, p. 258).Individual’s develop the symptoms in their middle age, but even if it is a rare disorders juveniles as well as children before the age of ten can develop the disease. Huntington’s disease is hereditary disease that is passed on from a parent. Huntington’s disease is of the lack of the chromosome 4, if one of the parents carries the gene, they can pass that gene to their

Huntington's Disease is a devastating and progressive neurological disorder that resu lts primarily from degeneration of nerve cells deep in the center of the brain. The condition was first described by George Huntington, a physician in New York, in 1872. Even then, the physician recognized the all-encompassing factors of the disorder when describing it as, "coming on gradually but surely, increasing by degrees, and often occupying years in its development until the hapless sufferer is but a quivering wreck of his former self".

2. “What Is Huntington's Disease?” Huntington’s Disease Society of America What Is HD, Huntington's Disease Society of America, hdsa.org/what-is-hd/.

Everyone can relate to the pain of having to watch a grandparent or great-grandparent slowly loose their faculties as they advance into older age. Now, imagine if this seemingly slow digression hit hard and fast at only age thirty. The age where one is finally living alone and independent, with the beginnings of a successful career and the hopes of starting a family and settling down. Huntington’s Disease quickly takes all these dreams and ambitions away, along with control of ones body and mind. The symptoms of Huntington’s, such as involuntary muscle jerks or twitches, had been seen throughout history for many years before being first recognized as an inherited disease in 1872 by Dr. George Huntington (“Hope Through Research). “The hereditary

Huntington's disease is an inherited disease that causes the progressive breakdown (degeneration) of nerve cells in the brain. Huntington's disease has a broad impact on a person's functional abilities and usually results in movement, thinking (cognitive) and psychiatric disorders.

DNA plays a role in in heritance by our genetic make-up. Genetics make us who we are. This means our eye color, hair color, and even our intelligence. 80% of genetics comes from our mother and father. That means that if your mother or father were different, you would be a completely different person (National Library of Medicine (U.S.), 2017, p.5-13).

It is estimated that approximately one in every four American adults suffer from a mental disorder today. Within this subset of Americans, about six percent experience serious disabilities from their mental disorder. One of the more devastating mental disorders today is known as Huntington’s disease (Huntington’s chorea). Huntington’s largely affects people of European ancestry the most, an estimated three to seven out of every 100,000 of this decent suffer from it. Named after George Huntington who first characterized the effects of adult onset Huntington’s at the age of 22. In 1872, in the newspaper The Medical and Surgical Reporter, he described a disease that exhibited; loss of motor control, altered personality and a decline in cognitive

Adolescents at risk for Huntington’s Disease should undergo predictive genetic testing to maximize their enjoyment of life as a healthy individual. Although fatal, Huntington’s Disease is not an immediate death sentence. People can usually continue to function normally for many years if the disease is diagnosed in adolescence. Testing for Huntington’s Disease can end uncertainty and allow adolescents to make informed decisions about the rest of their lives in order to make better use of the time that they have as a healthy person.

Huntington 's Disease (HD) is a progressive brain disorder caused by a defective gene. This disease causes changes in the central area of the brain, which affect movement, mood and thinking skills. Nerve cells become impaired, causing several segments of the brain to fail. The disease disturbs movement, behavior and perception the affected people abilities to walk, think, reason and talk are slowly weakened to a point that they eventually become entirely dependent on other people for care. HD is a disease that affects the brain in many different ways. One of the ways the HD affects the brain is that it causes the person who has it to become forgetful and moody. Huntington 's disease also causes a decline in thinking and reasoning skills, including memory, concentration, judgment and ability to plan and organize.

Huntington’s disease is a neurological (nervous system) condition caused by the inheritance of an altered gene. A neurological disorder is a disease that can affect the central and peripheral nervous systems. Huntington’s disease is an incurable genetic brain disorder. The disease is an autosomal dominant disease, meaning a child only needs to inherit the gene from one parent to develop Huntington’s. Nerve cells become damaged when someone holds the HTT gene that produces a protein called huntingtin, as too much of this protein damages cells, and causes various parts of the brain to gradually deteriorate. Huntington’s disease causes changes in the central area of the brain, the basal ganglia, which can affect movement, emotions, and mental

Huntington’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that slowly breaks down somatic tissues. This degeneration causes a mass amount of chorea, change in mental functioning, change in behavior, decreased memory, along with other serious psychological problems. Since the mechanism of the disease is still not fully understood, there is no cure for the disease, but there are several therapies and medications available. All of the medication and treatment available only help to manage symptoms; they are just stalling the progression of the symptoms but not the overall disease.

Nora Guthrie was a good woman, she was attractive and cared about how she looked, but as time went on, she started to go crazy. She would get unexplainably mad, sad, and she was not even able to walk. Soon enough, she was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. When her brother visited her in the hospital three months later, Nora’s arms and legs were uncontrollably jerking, she lost weight, and was not responding to conversations, she did not even remember her brother. Nora died of Huntington’s disease only three months later. (Lawrence 10-11) Mayo Clinic defines this as “the inherited disease that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. Huntington’s disease has a broad impact on a person’s

Huntington’s disease is an autosomal dominant disorder in which cells of the brain deteriorate and eventually die. The disease does not currently have a cure. Currently, there are researchers studying the effects of mutations and possible ways to silence them. Antisense therapy provides a form of treatment for genetic disorders or infections. If a certain genetic sequence is known to cause a particular disease, the nucleic strand can be synthesized to bind to the messenger RNA (mRNA) produced to the gene to inactivate and thus silence the gene. Upon the expansion of the CAG tract in the huntingtin gene (HTT), a toxic huntingtin protein (HTT) forms with an elongated polyglutamine tract. Wild-type HTT is quite critical during the during early

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited disease that leads to the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. HD affects a person both physically and mentally. Some symptoms include personality change, depression, forgetfulness, unsteady gait, involuntary jerking, slurred speech, and difficulty in swallowing. HD is considered a late on set disorder, because people don’t show symptoms until their 30’s or 40’s (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). HD progressively gets worse and worse and has 3 different stages. The early stage of HD includes changes in coordination, involuntary movements, difficulty thinking through situations, and a depressed mood. In the middle stage of HD, the person will struggle more moving, thinking and reasoning will go down hill quickly and problems talking and swallowing will become worse. The late stage of HD is when it really gets bad, the person becomes fully reliant on someone else and choking becomes a major issue. The person will not be able to speak or walk in the late stage. Medications can be taken to help manage symptoms, but treatments can’t stop the mental and physical breakdown of the person. Speech therapy can help with speech and swallowing and occupational therapy can be helpful in learning to deal with movement issues. Exercise is also very helpful (Huntington’s Disease Society of America, n.d).