Duchenne muscular dystrophy symptoms can appear as early as an infant to six years old. This disease is causes many miserable symptoms that can affect a person’s ability to do many activities such as: getting up from a laying position and climbing chairs or any physical activities that has to do with using a lot of muscles. Duchenne muscular dystrophy may cause retardation but this disease will not cause it to get worst overtime, motor skills such as hopping, jumping, skipping, jogging, and running and can even cause a person to have difficulty walking. Duchenne muscular dystrophy can also affect your ability to learn like a normal human and may cause IQ to be as low as seventy five percent or even lower. This disease can be very dangerous as it is known to cause a person to have frequent down falls. Duchenne muscular dystrophy begins in the human legs and pelvis but may also rarely appear in the arms, neck, and several other areas of the human body. This condition may cause a person to lose their ability to walk or do any physical activity by age twelve causing the person that has Duchenne muscular dystrophy to sit in a wheel chair for the rest of their life. This horrible disease may also cause breathing problems and difficulty’s breathing. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is said to cause a human to have heart disease as early as ages nineteen to twenty one. It is important to take extra calcium and fluoride supplements with this disease to make your bones healthier and stronger. The more calcium and fluoride that a patient intakes the more likely they are going to have less problems with bones weakening. Vitamins are a wonderful source to keeping the human body as healthy, so it wouldn’t hurt to them. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a very uncomfortable disease that causes a tremendous amount of weakness and gets worst very fast over a short amount of time.
People often wonder how you know if you have Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Certain tests and signs of this disease can indicate whether or not you have this condition. A complete nervous system test may be run on the person with the signs of this disease. An examination of a complete nervous system test includes the heart, lungs and muscles. There are many signs that are looked for when testing for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Some of these signs include an abnormal heart muscle which is also known as cardiomyopathy in medical terms, congestive heart failure or irritated heart rhythm which is very rare and is also known as arrhythmias in medical terms, Deformation of the back and chest which is also known as scoliosis in medical terms as well. Enlarged muscles on the calves, buttocks, and shoulders usually indicate symptoms of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and these signs may occur around ages four and five years old. These muscles though are said to be replaced by fat connective tissue overtime which is known as pseudohypertrophy in medical terms. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is popular for causing loss of muscle mass and causes muscle contractions in the lower region of the human body such as heels and legs. Muscle deformities also play a huge role in finding out if a person has Duchenne muscular dystrophy disease as well as respiratory disorders known as pneumonia and having problems swallowing liquids and food substances which occur in the later stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
There are many tests that may be taken when trying to figure out if a person is infected with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Electromyography is a technique that is used for recording and evaluating activity by skeletal muscles. Electromyography is performed by using a special machine known as a electromyogram that is made to detect medical abnormalities recruitment order, activation level and can analyze biomechanics of human and even animal movement. There is also a test known as the genetic test that involves direct examination of the DNA molecules. This test is one of the newest and most significant tests of technique. There are other genetic tests known as biochemical tests that analyze products as enzymes and many other proteins for examination. Another test is the muscle biopsy which involves a needle being inserted into the muscle where a small amount of tissue remains. A piece of muscle tissue is removed from an organism and examined microscopically and carefully. An open biopsy may be obtained by a small surgical incision know as an otomy in medical terms. The last test that can be performed is called the serum CPK which is a test that involves blood being drawn from the human vein. This procedure is performed by your health care provider in the back of your hand or the inside of your elbow.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy has no known cure but there are many treatments and procedures that may be taken to make daily activities more manageable and easy. Treatments known as Steroids can be taken to slow the loss of muscle strength. Steroids can be taken by children who are first diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy or when muscles begin to appear weak. There is a treatment known as Albuterol which is a drug that is also used for those who have asthma. Amino acids, carnitine, coenzyme Q10, creatine, fish oil, green tea extracts, and vitamin E or other treatments that are used by many people on a day to day to make life with Duchenne muscular dystrophy easier and more manageable. These treatments are not a proven fact to help with Duchenne muscular dystrophy but these treatments have been said to help certain people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy disease. These treatments may also be dependent on different people. Some treatments and medicines might work better on others. There are also stem cells and gene therapy that can be used to help with Duchenne muscular dystrophy symptoms.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy can be very irritating and stressful towards a person. To ease the stress of this condition, patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy can join a support group which is where patients go and share each other’s common experiences and problems with a group of people. The most popular support group taken by patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy is muscular dystrophy. It’s a support group that is said to be an excellent source of information for those who struggle with this disease.
Thousands of muscle fibers make up muscles and each fiber holds a number of several individual cells that have joined together threw out the stages of development. Each cell is encased by an outer membrane. The muscle fibers of the body that make up individual muscles are connected to each other by connective tissue. When muscles are active, pulses and signals from the brain are sent along the peripheral nerves which are nerves that connect the central nervous system to sensory organs and muscles. From there they travel to the neuromuscular junction. Finally, a release of chemical acetylcholine initiates events that allow the muscles of the body to move and contract. Dystrophin-glycoprotein is a protein that prevents damage as the muscle moves. Fibers will leak a protein called creatine kinase when the protective membrane is damaged which takes more calcium and can lead to more harm towards the body. Muscles fibers that are affected typically die causing further damage of the muscles such as severe muscle degeneration. http://children.webmd.com/understanding-muscular-dystrophy-symptoms http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001724/ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000705.htm http://mda.org/disease/duchenne-muscular-dystrophy
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