Essay On Spinocerebellar Ataxia

According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association of New Zealand Inc., spinocerebellar ataxia is described as “...a group of genetic disorders characterized by slowly progressive incoordination of gait and often associated with poor coordination of hands, speech, and eye movements.” This is similar to other muscular dystrophy disorders such as motor neurone disease or in other words ALS because it is a progressive disease and ataxia relates to the cerebellum in the brain. Ataxia is the degeneration of the cells within the cerebellum part of the brain. According to Genetic Home Reference, this disease affects, “1 to 2 per 100,000 people worldwide.” This is a considerable amount of people given how many people are living in the world today but at the same time there aren’t a lot of people that are affected by this genetic disease.
We do have to take into account, with the life expectancy, that there are various types of this disease. The life expectancy mentioned above is in reference to spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. The symptoms for spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 are as follows according to Genetic Home Reference. “Over time individuals may develop numbness, tingling, or pain in the arms and legs (sensory neuropathy); uncontrolled muscle tensing (dystonia); muscle wasting (atrophy); and muscle twitches (fasciculations). Rarely, rigidity, tremors, and involuntary jerky movements (chorea) have been reported in people who have been affected for many years.” There are also some other symptoms such as, a hard time speaking or swallowing, muscle stiffness, weakened eye movement which can lead to involuntary eye movement, and they also have a hard time learning and remembering. All of these symptoms can be linked to the degeneration of the