Neuro Note #4 - Huntington's Disease

For my fourth neuro note, I chose to watch a Tedx video on YouTube about Huntington’s disease. It is called “Facing Death Full of Life” and the speaker is Danielle Valenti. I chose to watch this video because I did not know much about Huntington’s disease and the title was intriguing to me.

Danielle learned her mother had Huntington’s disease two years after she had been diagnosed. Her mother kept the secret from her until her health really started to decline because she did not want Danielle to be filled with worry. Danielle eventually took her mother to a Huntington’s disease nursing home where her mother ultimately decided to end her own life by choosing not to eat anymore. She passed away 67 days after her last bite of food. Danielle spoke about how hard it was to let her mother do that, but she wanted to honor her mother’s last choice.

From this video, I learned that Huntington’s disease has a strong genetic link. Danielle explained that children of a parent who has this disease, has a 50% chance of having it, too. If they do have it, there is 100% chance of becoming symptomatic at some point in their life. Additionally, I learned how rare this disease is because only around 30,000 people in the United States have it. She also explained it as a disease that is kind of like a combination of Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Parkinson’s.

To learn more about the disease and understand it better, I decided to do a little bit of research on it. From the Mayo Clinic website, I learned that symptoms of this disease most often appear during the ages of 30-40. Huntington’s disease causes dysfunction in movement, cognition, and psychiatrics. Therefore, there are a wide variety of symptoms of Huntington’s disease and they can vary greatly from person to person.

This Tedx talk was very informative and I would recommend for anyone to watch it. Danielle does a great job explaining what Huntington’s disease is, what it looks like to live with or care for someone who has it, and gives inspiration about living life to the fullest if you know you have the gene.

 



References:

Mayo Clinic. (2020, April 14). Huntington’s disease. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/huntingtons-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20356117



TEDx Talks. (2015, December 4). Facing death full of life [Video]. YouTube.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JRwCdmewl0

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