Huntigton's Disease
Huntington’s Disease
Huntington’s disease, or also known as Huntington’s Chorea, is an incurable hereditary brain disorder, which causes nerve cells to become damaged, resulting in various parts of the brain deteriorating. Huntington’s disease was recognized by George Huntington in 1872. Huntington’s disease had been acknowledged as a disease entity previously, several people before 1872 reported having and describing movement disorders that later would be connected to Huntington’s disease. The disease now bares Huntington’s name because of a paper he wrote called On Chorea which was later published and the disorder he talked about became known as Huntington’s Chorea. More than a quarter of a million Americans have HD or are at risk of inheriting the disease from an affected parent. Each child of a person with HD has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the fatal gene. Any person who carries the gene for HD will develop the disease eventually. One out of every 10,000 Americans has HD and there is no known cure.
Symptoms of Huntington’s disease start to become noticeable slowly and are different for each individual and vary between emotional and physical symptoms such as motor skill impairment. In time, the person impacted by HD will need full-time care. Some examples of behavioral symptoms are: irritability, aggressive outbursts, depression, and social withdrawal. Irritability means easily annoyed or made angry. For example if you are chewing with your mouth open might irritate the impacted person and the might get angry, which leads into the next symptom mentioned, aggressive outbursts. At random time the person may get aggressive and may lead to violence such as trying to punch or kick someone for no reason. People affected by HD may also show signs of depression or social withdrawal, not wanting to go anywhere or talk to anyone. They want to be by themselves and want to be alone. Other symptoms are categorized as lack of motor skills such as, fidgety
Huntington’s disease, or also known as Huntington’s Chorea, is an incurable hereditary brain disorder, which causes nerve cells to become damaged, resulting in various parts of the brain deteriorating. Huntington’s disease was recognized by George Huntington in 1872. Huntington’s disease had been acknowledged as a disease entity previously, several people before 1872 reported having and describing movement disorders that later would be connected to Huntington’s disease. The disease now bares Huntington’s name because of a paper he wrote called On Chorea which was later published and the disorder he talked about became known as Huntington’s Chorea. More than a quarter of a million Americans have HD or are at risk of inheriting the disease from an affected parent. Each child of a person with HD has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the fatal gene. Any person who carries the gene for HD will develop the disease eventually. One out of every 10,000 Americans has HD and there is no known cure.
Symptoms of Huntington’s disease start to become noticeable slowly and are different for each individual and vary between emotional and physical symptoms such as motor skill impairment. In time, the person impacted by HD will need full-time care. Some examples of behavioral symptoms are: irritability, aggressive outbursts, depression, and social withdrawal. Irritability means easily annoyed or made angry. For example if you are chewing with your mouth open might irritate the impacted person and the might get angry, which leads into the next symptom mentioned, aggressive outbursts. At random time the person may get aggressive and may lead to violence such as trying to punch or kick someone for no reason. People affected by HD may also show signs of depression or social withdrawal, not wanting to go anywhere or talk to anyone. They want to be by themselves and want to be alone. Other symptoms are categorized as lack of motor skills such as, fidgety