sciencedaily.com | Submitted by Jordanna, 02.23.10
Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic disease that leads to severe physical and mental deterioration, psychiatric problems and eventually, death. Currently, there are no treatments to slow down or stop it. HD sufferers are born with the disease although they do not show symptoms until late in life.
Researchers may have identified a protective pathway in the brain that may explain why HD symptoms take so long to appear. The findings could also lead to new treatments for HD.
npr.org | Submitted by smboy5, 11.23.09
Four years ago, Charles Sabine's life changed. Sabine was a war correspondent with NBC for 25 years, covering dozens of conflicts and disasters around the world. He decided to get a genetic test that would tell him how he's likely to die. The test specifically checked for a disease that runs in Sabine's family — Huntington's disease, a deadly degenerative disease that destroys a person's nervous system. Sabine has seen a lot of death, destruction and suffering throughout the world during his life, but "nothing that I've experienced compares with that test in terms of the terror that it inflicted on me." Read his story
nytimes.com | Submitted by Jordanna, 09.26.08
But Ms. Moser bristled at the idea that she should have to remain ignorant about her genetic status to avoid discrimination. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “It’s not like telling people I’m a drug addict.”