Ald Case

I chose to do my disease on Adrenoleukodystrophy, or as some people know it, ALD. I wanted to learn more about this disease after watching Lorenzo's Oil, which was an inspiring movie on a boy's struggle against ALD. This disease is a genetic disorder that usually affects males more than females. Most of the time, this is passed through the female, for men, because sometimes the female carries a small form of the disease. The females get it from their father, if he had the disease.

Most children between the ages of 4 and 10 start showing very bad symptoms of ALD. Most children do not have many years left afterwards. Some of the symptoms a child might have are loss of previously acquired neurologic abilities, seizures, ataxia, Addison's disease, and degeneration of visual and auditory function. Basically this disease starts stripping away the myelin, which is the white matter in the brain and spinal cord. Once this is taken, the body losses daily body functions, because they can't get rid of the fatty acids that create the myelin, it becomes abnormal and falls apart. The myelin is often what people use for a sense of touch, without it, you can't feel anything. ALD is also an X-linked disease, males are made up of X and Y chromosomes. Since there is only one X, there is only one type, but even so, this disease is very deadly. The best part about having only one type is that you only need one solution to fix the problem.

To detect ALD, a person must undergo an MRI (visual screening of the brain) and have their myelin measured. The only problem is, changes in the myelin can only be seen in the first two years of life because the brain is still maturing. When the diagnosis of ALD is made, the first step is to measure the level of adrenal function. If there is adrenal insufficiency, the treatment should be given by a steroid replacement, which has proven to be life-saving, adrenal function should be tested over and over again. In the movie, Lorenzo's Oil, a possible treatment was found to save a young boys life, it was an oil that reduced the fatty acids in the blood, and there were some signs that it was working. Unfortunately, with this treatment, Lorenzo was never able to get to normal. The best treatment for this disease unfortunately is a bone marrow transplant. However this is a threatening procedure because it does have a 10- 20% death rate. This procedure is very hard to do because only certain people have the same match for the person who needs it. This procedure unfortunately is only useful for an early stage of ALD.

For this disease, I learned about some of the possible treatments people can use and how deadly the treatments might be. I thought a very interesting fact was that you can go to a doctor's office and have them check to see if your child would have ALD when it is born.

Reference Page

http://www.healthline.com

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