MAY seems to be a month packed with many celebrations and events! Maybe it’s due to the fact that it’s starting to feel like summer and everyone is excited! However, one has to still focus on the well-being such as their health and so there still exists time focused on disease awareness. One such is Huntington’s disease! May is Huntington’s disease awareness month, so here are a few facts.

1 Huntington’s Disease is an inherited brain disorder.

2 Huntington’s Disease typically begins in mid-life, between the ages of 30 and 45, though onset may occur as early as the age of two or as late as the 70s.

3 Children who develop the juvenile form of the disease rarely live to adulthood.

4 Huntington’s Disease affects males and females equally and affects all ethnic and racial groups.

5 Huntington’s Disease slowly diminishes the affected individual’s ability to walk, think, talk and reason.

6 Early symptoms of Huntington’s Disease may affect cognitive ability or mobility and include depression, mood swings, forgetfulness, speech impairment, clumsiness, involuntary twitching and lack of co-ordination.

7 Huntington’s Disease usually progresses over a 10-25 year period. Death follows from complications such as choking, infection or heart failure.

8 There is, at present, no effective treatment or cure. However, it is possible to treat some of the effects, such as depression and involuntary movements with various medications.

9 Huntington’s Disease is caused by a dominant gene which causes certain brain cells to deteriorate.

10 Each child of a person with Huntington’s Disease has a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the disease-causing gene.

— Melaine Warren