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What Is Muscular Dystrophy?
Muscular dystrophy [MUS-kyu-luhr DYS-truh-fee], or MD, is a group of more than 30 diseases that can cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass in the muscles that control movement.
MD is a genetic (inherited) disease, which means that it is caused by a problem in the genes, or the DNA code that determines the parts of the body and how they work. Some of these genes tell your body how to make proteins, the materials that make up the muscles in your body. People with MD don’t have the right instructions for making these proteins, and this causes problems with their muscles.
MD is also a degenerative [dee-JEN-uhr-it-iv] disorder, which means that the symptoms get worse over time. Depending on the type of MD that your child has, these symptoms can start earlier or later in life, and may take different amounts of time to get worse.
What Are the Common Types of Muscular Dystrophy?
There are many kinds of MD, but some are more common than others. Here are some common types of MD:
What Are the Symptoms of Muscular Dystrophy?
Even though there are many types of MD, all forms of this disease cause muscle weakness and stop the body from making the proteins that build and protect muscles. This means that there are certain symptoms that are common to all types of MD:
MD is a degenerative disease, which means these symptoms will get worse over time. The life expectancy of a child with MD depends on how serious these symptoms are. If your child has severe muscle weakness, this can increase the risk of breathing and heart problems, which are more likely to be fatal.
Muscular dystrophy is a genetic (inherited) disease. This means that it is caused by a problem in the genes, which is the code that tells your body how to grow and make the materials it needs to stay alive. Sometimes, these genes can be changed or mutated. Usually, this has no effect, but sometimes the mutated genes control important parts of your body.
Some of these genes control how your body makes proteins, which are used to build cells and other structures in your body. People with MD have mutations that stop their genes from making proteins in the right way. This means that they have problems with their muscles, which causes the symptoms of the disease.
Your child’s doctor will take a number of steps to try to diagnose muscular dystrophy or rule out other conditions that can cause the same symptoms. Usually, your child’s doctor will start with a physical exam to check your child’s body for problems like muscle weakness and spasms. During this exam, they might ask you some questions:
If your child’s doctor still thinks they might have muscular dystrophy after the physical exam, they might recommend tests that can confirm that this is the disease your child has. These tests can include:
There are many kinds of treatment that can be used to help with the symptoms of MD, slow the loss of muscle mass, and help your child deal with the loss of mobility from this disease.
Medicine
Your doctor might prescribe medicines that can help with the loss of muscle and damage that MD can causes to some parts of the body. Medicines include:
Therapy
Different kinds of therapy can help your child stay mobile for longer and reduce the symptoms caused by MD. These can include:
Muscular dystrophy is a genetic (inherited) disease, which means that it is part of the genes in your child’s body and can’t be prevented. Different types of MD are passed down from the parents in different ways. Duchenne muscular dystrophy, for instance, is caused by a problem in the X chromosome [KROH-moh-SOHM] that a child gets from the mother.
If you have a family history of muscular dystrophy and are thinking about having children, you should talk to your doctor about getting genetic counseling that can help you understand your risk of passing this disease on to your child.