Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy-Olivia Edwards

Have you ever had muscle soreness? Could you imagine having it everyday of your life?

That’s what boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy have to deal with. Duchenne Muscular

Dystrophy is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration. Duchenne

Muscular Dystrophy kills all victims around the age of 25. Even though DMD affects 1 in 3,500

boys a year, people are still working hard to make a cure and treatment that will make victims of

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy happy.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle

degeneration. It is caused by a fault in a gene that makes dystrophin. Dystrophin is a protein

found in skeletal muscle. It provides a link between the muscular cytoskeleton and extracellular

matrix to maintain integrity. Because of this fault, muscle cells cannot make dystrophin. It

usually affects muscles. Symptoms include muscle weakness, difficulty climbing stairs or

running, taking longer to sit, stand, or walk on your own, having a waddling walk, difficulty

standing up from the floor, enlarged calf muscles, tight or rigid joints, breathing problems,

progressive enlargement of the heart, and learning or memory issues. If you have many of these

issues, maybe you should get that checked out.

DMD is caused by an absence of dystrophin. It is usually found in the X chromosome.

The X chromosome is a sex cell. If the X chromosome has DMD gene mutation they will have

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. DMD is also recessive. It can be hidden by a dominant trait.

DMD can be treated by medications. In some cases, a heart transplant will help.

Sometimes orthopedic devices may help as well but it’s not always necessary. Orthopedic
devices help with deformities in bones or muscles. With DMD, the orthopedic devices would

help muscles. Gene therapy may help as well.

Genetic counseling is possible for patients of DMD. Some doctors use enzymes.

Enzymes are used to bring out a specific biochemical reaction. Creatine Kinase is the enzyme

used. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy affects boys. In fact, it affects 3,500 boys a year. In rare

cases it can affect girls.

There are actually 9 different types of Muscular Dystrophy. Those types are Myotonic,

Duchenne, Becker, Limb-girdle, Facioscapulohumeral, Congenital, Oculopharyngeal, Distal, and

Emery-dreifuss. Duchenne is the second most common type of Muscular Dystrophy. If you

haven’t noticed, I have been using the abbreviation DMD. I have been using that because it

stands for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

In conclusion, even though we haven’t found a cure, we are progressing in every way

possible. The world around us is not the best place, but if people keep on trying to do things like

finding cures, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad. Kids have a lot to deal with these days and if we can

take Muscular Dystrophy off that list, it would help a lot of lives. Lives are shortening and if we

can help it to stop pain and debts for hospital bills like patients of DMD, the amount of children

killed would go down. Even though DMD affects 1 in 3,500 boys a year, people are still working

hard to make a cure and treatment that will make victims of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

happy.

All we can do is trust the people who are trying to save hundreds of lives.