In 1995, genetically 50% out of 1,000 people in the population end up or effected by Huntington’s disease. (Phillips, Dennis H. ) Huntington’s disease commonly known as HD is an inherited disease that causes certain nerve cells in the brain to waste away. (National Library of Medicine) This basically means that you lose all function of what might seem like the most simplest thing to do like walking and talking. Even raising your hand will be almost impossible to do with Huntington’s disease. This disease usually takes over your body at the ages between 30 or 40.
If you get it before the age of 20 it is now called Juvenile Huntington’s disease (national liberty of medicine). Because this disease affects the mind, body, and emotions there is many symptoms that a patient will have to go through. The general symptoms in early stages can include poor memory; difficulty making decisions; mood changes such as increased depression; anger or irritability; growing lack of coordination, writing or other uncontrollable movements; difficult walking, speaking, and/or swallowing (helpguide. org).
As I said before this disease attacks the mind, body, and emotions. The way it attacks the mind is by causing the patient to have a lack of concentration. They can even forget things such as why they walked somewhere or where they live or work, which is why the disease is commonly missed diagnose for Alzheimer’s. It can also make them have poor judgment. They will trust everyone without knowing why and do things they normally wouldn’t do. They can also have a difficult time making decisions and answering questions. The physical attacks on the body can be just as devastating as he mental attacks.
The patient can start to develop ticks. An increase of clumsiness will start to occur out of nowhere even with a person who before the disease wasn’t clumsily at all. Slurred speech will also start to develop it can get so bad that the patient will be very difficult to understand. They can’t even write down what they want to say to you because continuously muscular contractions start to happen. This means that your body stars shaking and you can’t stop it which is why this disease is also misdiagnosed with Perkins disease.
They will start to have trouble to eat their own food and even have difficulty swallowing. Jaw clenching or teeth grinding will start to happen causing the mouth to hurt. If they can still walk there will be a lot of stumbling and falling which will lead for the patient to not be able to walk anymore. These symptoms will start off light but then will get worse over time, knowing this can cause the patient to have an emotional breakdown. The emotionally attack in my opining is the worst that the disease can do to a person.
The patient will start to have more hostility and irritability. They will start to develop a lack of energy not wanting to do anything that they still can do. Eventually they will start to act like a person who has bipolar okay one minute and then angry or sad the next. You will have to constantly on your toes to see which mood they will be in. A person with Huntington’s disease may eventually begin to exhibit psychotic behavior, such as; Delusions, Hallucinations, inappropriate behavior (e. g. unprovoked aggression), and paranoia. help guide. org) The order that the symptoms occur is different for every patient but it all starts out the same the symptoms appear slowly and then gets worse over time. Eventually someone with huntingtins disease will no longer be able to do the normal things that they once could.
They will have a hard time dealing with it and their loved ones will have a hard time seeing them go through so much pain. If you have anyone in your family that has Huntington’s disease there is a good chance that you might get it. If omeone’s family member has huntingtins disease and you don’t know the carrier status. You have a one and four chance of developing the disease. (helpguide. org) To find out if you carry the disease all the doctors have to do is take some blood and run some test. If your child is under 18 it is recommend that you don’t force your child into getting the blood test. Knowing that you have the disease and can cause your child to have emotional distress. Some children even consider suicide the longer they look into the disease. The decision should be the child’s when they turn 18.
Although there is not yet a cure for Huntington’s disease, the research being done is encouraging in terms of slowing the progression of the disease. (healthguide. org) Just because there is no cure it is highly recommended that you start taking care of your body. When you find about the disease you should immediately start eating right and working out. No this won’t stop the disease it will slow the disease down so that you can have more time to be mobile. Some patients start to test their memory and try to improve it as well.
Also having support from your loved ones can help a lot in this. Speech therapy is also highly recommend it could be easier for the patient to communicate with their loved ones and doctor. Even with no cure for Huntington’s disease many people are still fighting this awful disease that effects so many people. People are not giving up hope over this disease and many of them are willing to do whatever it takes to find a cure. I know a lot of scientist are working on it right now but so far they have just find a way to slow down the disease.
This has given a lot of hope to the people who have Huntington’s and loved one who are watching them suffer and not being able to do anything about it. If you want to help cure Huntington’s disease or just want to help the family’s that are going through this there is several organizations that you can donate to. No matter what the amount of money is it will do a lot of help to those who suffer from Huntington’s disease. One day there will be a cure and hopefully that day will come soon.