Huntington's+disease+(HD)+-Heather+H.!

Huntington’s disease (HD) **Description: ** Huntington’s Disease destroys cells in the basal ganglia which is part of the brain that controls movement, emotion, and cognitive ability. It starts on a gene on chromosome 4 and continues through out your life. The number of CAG triplets increases and gets abnormally high. You can have up to 40 or more. H.D. can eventually cause death because proteins become clumped up making them toxic. In the last stages of H.D. you can loose around 25% of all your brain cells before death.

**I ****nheritance: ** When you have Huntington’s disease and you want to have an offspring, you have a 50% chance of passing H.D. to your children. Whether your offspring is born with the disease or not, everyone will eventually get H.D. The offspring will have a normal copy of genes from the mom and either a normal or H.D. infected gene. The patterns of the genes are autosomal dominant.

**Punnett Square: **

**Symptoms: ** -Bad memory -Depression/mood swings -Lack of coordination -Twitching or other uncontrollable movements -Troubles walking, talking, or swallowing. -Eventually H.D. makes easy tasks such as getting dressed hard. Symptoms of H.D. start around the ages of 30 to 50; however, they can appear earlier in time and get worse over time.

**Diagnosis: **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px;">H.D. is diagnosed by pregnancy tests. They give you two tests; a sample of fluid from around the fetus or a sample of fetal cells from the placenta. They can’t tell what age H.D. will begin to affect you. If you’re already born and you think you have H.D. they’ll give you neurological and psychological tests.

**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Treatment: **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Any kind of treatment you are receiving will not slow down the process of H.D. but it will you the patient more comfortable. Doctors will prescribe medications to help feedings of depression and anxiety. Other medications control movements or twitching. Physical or speech therapy is recommended so patients can live normal lives.

**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Interesting Facts: ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">H.D. was named after Dr. George Huntington who was the first to define the disease in 1872. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">In the United States today, H.D. effects about 1 out of every 30,000 people.

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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Huntington Society of Quebec. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Huntington Society of Canada (HSC)
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Support Groups: **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Huntington’s disease Society of America.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">[|www.hdsa.org]
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Sources: **