cystic fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that causes mucus like substance to accumulate in the lungs, digestion track and various parts of the body. This is a disorder of the exocrine glands. Cystic Fibrosis is most common in children and young adults. This disease is usually not found in people over the age of forty years old because you are born with the disease and normally die young. This is a very harsh disease that makes it extremely hard to breathe. There are over one-thousand people diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis each year and over seventy percent diagnosed are under the age of two, (McCloud). Cystic Fibrosis is a generally new disease when it comes to the amount of knowledge we know about it but has been around since the early 1700’s. Doctors started getting a better understanding of the disease in the late 1930’s but it wasn’t until Dr. Dorothy Anderson gave the disease a definitive description of the disease. With this information doctors were able to start researching how the disease is acquired. They soon found the CFTR gene was what caused the Cystic Fibrosis. After they found this they were able to better the treatment available for people with this disease. This in turn increased the life expectancy by thirty five years, (Long). This disease is more common in males. CF is the most common lethal disease found in Caucasians. One in twenty-two people will be a carrier of CF. This trait is autosomal recessive which basically means both copies of the gene in each cell have mutations. Both mutations are found on chromosome number seven. Both parents are carriers but usually do not show symptoms of the disease. Cystic Fibrosis is not contagious, (Anderson, page 429). There are a lot of symptoms of Cystic Fibrosis including; delayed growth, salty tasting skin, coughing, sinus pain, nasal congestion caused by nasal polyps, inflammation of pancreas, failure to gain weight, nausea, loss of appetite, recurrent episodes of pneumonia, infertility(men) and many