Muscular dystrophy with acronym MD can be explained as a group of inherited diseases in which the muscles that control movement named voluntary muscles progressively weaken. In some kinds of this disease, the heart and other organs are affected. It most is noted that there are nine major forms of muscular dystrophy with are myotonic, Duchenne, Becker, limb-girdle, facioscapulohumeral, congenital, oculopharyngeal, distal, emery-Dreifuss.
Muscular dystrophy appears in infancy up to middle age or later, and its kind and severity are determined inside by the age at which it occurs. Some forms of muscular dystrophy affect only males; some people with muscular dystrophy enjoy a normal life span with mild symptoms which progress very slowly; others experience swift and serious muscle weakness and wasting, dying in their late teens the to early 20s. The various types of muscular dystrophy affect many around the globe today. Through the improvements in medical treatment, children with muscular dystrophy are living longer than ever before.
Muscular dystrophy usually occurred as a result of the defects in certain genes, with type determined by the abnormal gene. It was discovered by researchers that the gene which when defective or flawed, causes Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The muscle protein associated with this gene was named dystrophin by researchers. Duchenne muscular dystrophy does occur when the gene fails to make dystrophin. Becker muscular dystrophy can be felt when a different mutation in the same gene brings some dystrophin, but it’s either not sufficient or it’s poor in quality. Scholars have discovered and continue to make research for the genetic defects that cause other forms of muscular dystrophy.
Some muscular dystrophies are inherited disease named X-linked disorders or genetic diseases that mothers may transfer it to their sons even though the mothers themselves are unaffected by the disease. Men possess one X chromosome and one Y chromosome while females have two X chromosomes. Thus, for a girl to become affected by muscular dystrophy, both of her X chromosomes have to carry the defective gene, an extremely rare occurrence, because her mother would have to be a carrier of one defective X chromosome and her father would have to have muscular dystrophy because men carry just one X chromosome, the other is a Y chromosome. A female who has the defective X chromosome can transfer the disease to her son whose other chromosome is a Y, from the father.