Huntington disease help is available to Huntington Disease sufferers in limited quantities due to the disease's nature and lack of treatment alternatives.
Huntington Disease is a progressive genetic disorder that is also categorized as a neurological disorder. While Huntington disease is a life altering disease, the proper education is needed in order to forge a successful treatment plan.
Huntington disease is a genetic disorder and a neurological disease. Genetically speaking, Huntington disease is a mutation of the HTT gene.
The HTT gene is responsible for producing an essential protein called Huntington, hence the disease's name.
Scientists are unsure of the Huntington protein's role. However, scientists conclude that the gene mutation in Huntington disease directly affects the brain's nerve cells.
Huntington disease is somewhat rare, only affecting a few people per 100,000 of the population. Huntington disease occurs in those of European descent. Other races including Asians, Africans, and Latinos are also susceptible to acquiring the disease, but the disease is even more sporadic in these races.
Moreover, Huntington disease is also hereditary. There are a few cases in which individuals have acquired
Huntington disease while their parents do not have the genetic markers for the disease, but these cases are also infrequent in comparison to those with affected parents.
Huntington disease symptoms are horrid and severely limit a person's quality of life and life span.
Symptoms usually begin in a patient's mid 30s and early 40s and encompass small symptoms like anxiousness and twitching. Cognitive symptoms further progress to incisiveness, and loss of reasoning skills.
Huntington disease patients also are not able to absorb new information, they have outbursts, indulge in risky behavior, and are not able to organize and complete tasks.Physical symptoms include the disease's signature jerking movements also called the Huntington dance or Chorea. The movements are uncontrollable and prohibit sufferers from performing simple tasks like writing, speaking, and even sitting.
As symptoms progress, Huntington disease subjects have difficulty swallowing and even speaking.
From a psychological standpoint, Huntington disease subjects also experience depression, bi-polar disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.
In either event, the symptoms are crippling and advance to a point where living is unbearable.
Diagnosing Huntington disease is a simple process and involves a series of genetic tests. While genetic tests give an accurate diagnosis, genetic tests are not beneficial in implementing a treatment plan.
MRI and CT scans give further analysis of the disease's impact on the brain. Psychological analysis is also necessary to determine the proper treatment.
Currently, there is no cure for Huntington disease. Once symptoms begin, a person's life span is reduced to 15 to 20 years after the first symptoms begin.
There are some medications to lessen the disease's symptoms, however, these medications do not inhibit the disease's progression or expand someone's life span.
Medications including Tetrabenazine are used to inhibit disease's uncontrollable jerking movements. Haldol is also used to ease chorea or the jerking movements associated with Huntington disease.
While these medications are beneficial, the use of Haldol has been correlated to increasing muscle stiffness and muscle rigidness.