SearchExclusive.com

Symptoms, Causes, and Complications of Huntington’s Disease

Huntington’s disease results in the brain nerve cells’ progressive degeneration or breakdown. It is a hereditary disease and adversely affects your functional abilities. Psychiatric, cognitive and movement disorders can be associated with this disease. The symptoms of this disease normally develop in the 30s or 40s of the life of an individual. If you develop this disease prior to 20 years of age, it is known as juvenile Huntington’s disease. This type of early occurrence causes different kinds of symptoms and speedy progression of the disease.

Major symptoms
In addition to psychiatric, cognitive and movement disorders, this disease has many other symptoms. The first symptom that manifests depends on the unique condition of the affected person. As the disease progresses, certain disorders become more dominant and they create more impact on the functional ability.

Movement disorders
When it comes to movement disorders, there are two types of problems and they include voluntary movement impairments and involuntary movement issues. Some of the most prominent disorders under these categories are muscle problems like dystonia or muscle rigidity, unusual eye movements, impaired balance, posture and gait, speech production or swallowing related difficulty, chorea and involuntary impairments that make it really difficult for a person to perform daily activities and communicate.

Cognitive disorders
The most common cognitive impairment problem connected with this disease is the difficulty of focusing on tasks, organizing and prioritizing. The affected people often lose the flexibility to get stuck on a thought and they also lose the natural tendency to focus on an action. Sexual promiscuity is another cognitive disorder and the patients lose the control over the impulses that lead to outbursts. These people are not aware of their own abilities and behaviors and they often find it extremely hard to learn new information. Another cognitive disorder that affected people experience is the slowness in processing thoughts.

Psychiatric disorders
Depression is the most dominant psychiatric issue that can be linked with Huntington’s disease. Brain injury and the resultant changes are the major causes of depression. Other symptoms related to psychiatric disorders are insomnia, irritability, bipolar disorder, apathy, loss of energy, social withdrawal and recurring thoughts about suicide and death. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is also a leading symptom and the patients always have inflated self-esteem. Weight loss can be found in a good number of patients as well.

What are signs of juvenile Huntington’s disease?
The symptoms of this disease in younger people have slight variations from that of adults. The most dominant symptoms are physical changes, behavioral problems, fast, a considerable drop in academic performance, becoming unaware of early learned physical skills, contracted and rigid muscles, seizures, drastic changes in motor skills and tremors.

What are the major causes of Huntington’s disease?
The major reason behind the occurrence of this disease is a hereditary defect in a single gene. It is a kind of autosomal dominant disorder. For developing this disorder, you just need one copy of the defective gene. Apart from the sex chromosome genes, every person inherits two copies of all genes. It means the child inherits one copy from the father and mother. A parent suffering from this disease could pass on a healthy copy or defective cop to his/her son or daughter. So 50% chances can be associated with every child in the family. In other words, the child always stands in with a chance of 50% of inheriting the gene which results in this genetic disorder.

What are the most prominent complications of Huntington’s disease?
Once a person becomes vulnerable to this disease, they have to face a lot of complications. The functional abilities deteriorate in a gradual manner. The rate in which disease progresses vary and there can be a difference in the duration from person to person. The time frame between the emergence of the disease and death can be in between 10 and 30 years. As far as Juvenile Huntington’s disease is concerned, the death occurs within 10 years after the development of the symptoms.

The risk of suicide
The clinical depression linked with this disease can decrease or increase the suicide risk. Various studies reveal that the risk of suicide is higher during the phase before the diagnosis compared to the middle phases of the disease where the affected has started losing independence.

The affected individual cannot live independently. The patient requires assistance for all activities including daily survival. When the individual reaches the later stages of the disease, they will most probably be restricted to a bed and the speaking ability also vanishes. Nevertheless, the patient does not lose the ability to understand the language and the identification of the family members and close friends will also remain. The most prominent reasons for death are the problems associated with the incapability to swallow and infections such as pneumonia and, the injuries associated with falls can also lead to death.

Related Reading

Tips for Buying the Best Dog Food

Most of the dogs do not have a food fuss and may eat almost anything that you feed them. Dogs are not choosy at all when it comes to food and nutrition. Hence, it is important to make sure that the food that you are purchasing for your dog is healthy. The landscape of dog food has been developing by leaps and bounds in recent times. There is a wide variety of options to choose from in the online and offline market. Given the wide range of options that are available today, buying the best dog food might seem to be a confusing task indeed. All the commercial pet food that is available in the market today is regulated by the FDA. Therefore, most of the products do contain nutritious, healthy, and safe ingredients. But it does help to know certain basic factors you should look for while buying food for your dog. Prioritize on the nutritional guarantee The best dog food, which meets the dog’s needs adequately has a statement written on the label of the product, from the Association of American Feed Control Officials. Buy from some of the best dog food brands, such as Fromm Family Foods, Earthborn Holistic, Nature’s Variety Instinct, and The Honest Kitchen.

Different Types of Kitchen Cabinets Available for Your Home

The most important aspect when designing your kitchen is deciding on the type of cabinets. In addition to functionality, kitchen cabinets score on aesthetics as well. Once the layout is planned, you can go ahead with choosing the cabinets. If you’re remodeling your home or just the kitchen, what you need to consider are the types of cabinets that furnish your kitchen. Here are a few types of kitchen cabinets that you can choose from. Base cabinets These kitchen cabinets are mounted on the floor and they are placed after checking out the floor plan. A major part of your job in the kitchen is on these base cabinets, which hold and support the countertops. These base cabinets are combined to carve out kitchen islands. A number of base cabinets are fused/set against one another and installed on site. The base cabinets, in addition to supporting the countertops, serve as drawers to hold your cutlery and appliances. Wall cabinets Mounted on the walls, these cabinets can store everything, right from your cookware to cookbooks. In terms of design, they offer utmost flexibility. Wall cabinet kitchen is available in varying heights, multiple widths, and custom depth options. This customization helps you to fit in your stuff of varying shapes and sizes into the wall cabinets.

How to Pick the Right Dog Food for a Sensitive Stomach

In today’s world, where you are presented with over a dozen choices for every item you would purchase for your own kitchen, it is not surprising that you have an equal number of options for your dog’s food. However, choosing the perfect brand and formula for your dog out of a range of options in the market is not an easy job. Your pet depends on you and trusts you to make the right choice for them. Therefore, it is imperative that you do your research about the products available in the market, understand what your dog needs, know what might be your pet’s problems, and then make a sound decision. What is a sensitive stomach? Dogs are known to have voracious and large appetites. Keeping that in mind, it is normal to assume that they have strong stomachs. They can eat close to anything be it sweets, bakes, chewy gum, hard leather or even woolen socks for that matter! It always so happens that the strongest of them are prone to allergies and can develop a disorder which is medically translated as a sensitive stomach. This might be due to a sudden change in the food habits or even due an infection picked up from somewhere.

All You Need to Know about Cat Food

For cat owners, cat food is a hot topic. You need to think about it in different aspects. The best thing is to know which ingredients are good for cat food and which are harmful. If you are aware of this, you can get an idea about the quality of the cat food just by going through the label. It is always sensible to stick to one brand of cat food. However, you may also want to try and prepare cat food yourself. There are also various options for wet cat food as well. Cat’s love for fish is universal, so you can do without going for expensive cat food. Nevertheless, whether you buy it or prepare cat food at home, you need to ensure that the food contains enough nutrition and calories. You would need to have some idea about the ingredients that must be present in cat food and make a worthy selection for your cat. Basic ingredients present in good cat foods Cats need a variety of nutrients to stay healthy and active; they need various vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, and oils. The following is a brief explanation of the basic ingredients that should be present in cat foods.