Preventions

PREVENTION
One question you might ask: is there any way to prevent the Huntington's disease from reaching my offspring? There is no current cure to prevent Huntington's disease in the human body. However, scientists have recently discovered a cure for Huntington's disease in mice. During this study, scientists realized that Huntington's disease could one day be stopped by the process of phosphorylation. Phosphorylation is the process of injecting a small amount of phosphate. The phosphate prevents the enzyme that makes the Huntingtin from making it. Huntingtin is the name of the protein that is mutated by the Huntington's disease. Even though Huntington's cannot be prevented, doing simple things can make a patient with Huntington's a lot better. Another concern may be how would a family member with Huntington's affect my daily life? Getting enough sleep, excercise, and eating a right are a few factors that can change the life ofa patient with Huntington's. Taking care of a patient with Huntington's is crucial.

Moving on. if patients with Huntington's do want a child, doctors can preform a special scan. The scan involves searching for an egg that does not contain the Huntington's disease and fertilizing it. By doing this there is a 100% chance that the offspring will NOT have Huntington's disease.

The overall outcome of Huntington's disease is death. The most common way of death through Huntington's disease is by pneumonia. Huntington's disease affects both the body and the brain. Throughout the course of their life, patients with Huntington's disease suffer from brain damage. The mutant protein destroys brain cells in the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia contains the D1 and D2 receptors that are in contact with the central nervous system. This is what causes the major symptoms associated with Huntington's disease. As patients with Huntington's disease grow older, the disease starts damaging their brain even more. Therefore, as they grow older, the symptoms worsen. Throughout life, patients with Huntington's begin to grow weaker as a lot of the brain functions begin to fail.
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