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June 30, 2003
Thanks Venomous Kate
Welcome to those of you visiting this us from Venomous Kate's Blog!
I'm sure many of you do not know what Huntington's Disease is. HD is a genetic disease where every child of an HD parent has a 50% chance of getting the HD gene. There is no cure or effective treatment at this time.
HD causes a gradual deterioration of the brain. If you combined Alzheimer's and Parkinson's into one disease and added some behavioral degeneration you would have an approximation of HD. The symptoms usually start to show between age 35-45 and take 10-20 years to run their course. The suicide rate in HD is 8-12 times that of the general population. It's not pretty.
While this disease is as common as Lou Gerig's Disease (ALS) and Muscular Distrophy (MD) it's not as well known. Researchers have made the most of the limited money and are developing many possible therapies which could end up benefiting Alzheimers, Parkinson's, Lou Gerig's, Mad Cow and many others. Research that was done for HD was a valuable part of the human genome project.
Effective treatments and a cure is on the way, but it will take a few years. This blog is an attempt to follow this exciting research!
Thanks for visiting the HD Blog and thank you Kate for your generousity!
Posted by Dave at June 30, 2003 02:05 PM
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