Muscular Dystrophy: What You Need To Know? | Missionwalk

A muscular dystrophy is a group of diseases that affects the muscles, and only if you lack this problem in your genes will your muscles continue to be strong. The condition may show symptoms early in childhood for some people, while others do not have symptoms until they reach their teenage years or their middle age.

There are various types of muscular dystrophy, and each is distinct according to the following:
The genes that create it,
The affected muscles,
The person's age when the first symptoms appeared,
How quick is the progression of the disease?

Here are 9 of the major forms of this disease:

1. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common type and mostly affects boys. The symptoms start between ages 3 and 5.
2. Becker muscular dystrophy is the milder form of Duchenne, with symptoms starting between ages 11 and 25.
3. Myotonic is the most common form in adults.
4. Congenital muscular dystrophy occurs at birth or early infancy.
5. Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy causes weakness and wasting of the muscles in the arms and legs.
6. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy affects the muscles of the face, shoulders, upper arms, and lower legs.
7. Distal muscular dystrophy is characterized by wasting and weakness of voluntary distal muscles, which are farther from the center of the body, such as lower arms, hands, legs, and feet.
9. Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy affects the skeletal muscles and the heart.
Muscular dystrophy symptoms usually appear either during childhood or in the teen years. Generally, a child with this disease:
– frequently loses balance and collapses, have weak muscles, experience muscle cramps, have difficulty rising from the bed, climbing stairs, jumping, or running, walk with short steps and in clumsy, swaying motion; walks on their toes, have curved spine (scoliosis), have eyelids hanging down limply, have heart problems.

If you have questions or need more information about muscular dystrophy, please contact Mission Walk today.