Huntington's disease (HD) develops slowly for 10 to 20 years to end with death. Huntington Disease Society of America reports that HD disease occurs in ages 20 to 50 with only a few cases of really unusual Huntington starting in the age of 2. Huntington's disease has no cure but the disease may approve if patients exercise while proper care and right nutrition also help a quality lifestyle. Huntington's chorea (Motor Skill Degeneration)
A Huntington's chorea includes the degeneration of rapid motor skills that are present in patients with moderate Huntington's. In this condition, daily activities are limited because of being unable to control movements and may cause a severe injury. Individual cognitive experiences decrease and therefore individual changes and behavioral of patient may be a problem because of the degeneration of motor skills. Degerations means a high level of dependency.
The Department of Neurology in Kansas has all the personality and behavioral problems of HDs. Those are agitation, hallucinations, obsessive-compulsive behavior, delusional thinking, sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, suspicion, irritability, constant complaining, impulsive behaviors, blaming others, difficulty of making decision, loss of interest and hostile attitude.
Cognitive Decrease
Cognitive ability to think decrease due to a deterioration of some functions. The ability to focus, make decisions, concentrate or make any plan is decreasing. As the cognitive functions declines so does patient’s abilities to remember. Normal every day tasks are becoming very hard to do, also navigational and orientation abilities lower, depression and bad behaviors strikes and increasing psychosis occur as well. All this adds up with aggravation, strange movements of limbs, bad coordination and forgetfulness.
The Progression of Disease
If every day activities are getting harder to accomplish of means that HD progress. So HD patients can not live alone. If cognitive abilities decrease, degeneration processes keeps on to progress. In this phase all HD patients’ falls or any bone breaking may cause fatal infection or death.
The Huntington’s disease Prevention Patients with Huntington's disease who may have a possibility of having genetic inheritance, it is good to consult doctor before making a decision to have a baby. If there is a HD gene, the disease may not show symptoms at start. But if there is a defective gene there is a possibility of 50% for children to develop a disease during their life.
The Possibility
One of the chances is to screen embryos for HD mutations and if there are no mutations in embryo it is safe to implant it in uterus. The procedure is called in vitro fertilization with pre-implantation screening.
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