Genetic Disorders

In cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes and their abnormalities, every chromosomal pair has a G-band pattern that is unique. This allows scientists to recognize specific chromosomes....

Celiac disease is a hereditary autoimmune disorder. It affects the body's ability to process gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. People with this condition can live very normal...

The average person travels more than 100,000 miles on foot in a lifetime, but for people suffering with flat foot pain, it's a struggle just to stand or walk for any sustained period of time. For...

Men and women of all ages, races, ethnic groups and social classes equally suffer from bipolar disorders. Bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans. According to The...

Patau syndrome is a genetic condition that can result in a multitude of medical problems in newborns. Typically, children born with this syndrome do not live longer than three days from the time...

Deafness Hypogonadism Syndrome refers to a relationship between two inherited conditions, hormone imbalance and impaired hearing. While each condition may occur separately; either through...

Crouzon Syndrome, also known as Crouzon's Syndrome, may have some relationship to congenital heart disease. The genetic flaw that causes malformed skull and facial bones in newborns and children...

Although fibromyalgia is a widely studied condition, exact causes, possible genetic associations and an accurate diagnosis procedure have not been determined. Many symptoms, including persistent...

Many people at one point in their lives will have received at least one misdiagnosis from a doctor. According to the March 2009 Journal of the American Medical Association, an estimated 40,000 to...

Genetic testing is offered to women generally after week 10 of their pregnancy. For couples faced with higher risks of having a baby with a genetic disorder, preimplantation genetic diagnosis is...

Mitochondrial disease is a relatively rare phenomenon that typically shows up in children, though it is increasingly discovered in adults. One out of every four thousand children suffer from some...

Sickle cell disease, also known as sickle cell anemia, is an inherited disease that affects a person's red blood cells. It produces an abnormal form of hemoglobin, the molecule that transmits...

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disorder that affects the lungs and the gastrointestinal tract. A genetic defect causes the body to produce thick and sticky mucus, digestive juices, sweat and...

Seventy-five percent of children with Down Syndrome (DS) experience a hearing loss in one or both ears and many can benefit from hearing aids, according to the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Phenylketonuria, or PKU, is a rare birth defect that can cause high levels of phenylalanine due to the body's inability to break down this amino acid. Babies in many countries are routinely tested...

Triple X syndrome, also known as trisomy X, is a genetic disorder in which a female carries an extra copy of the X chromosome.

As medical technology continues to offer new and innovative methods of detecting and treating disease, gene testing has become a hot topic in many areas of the medical community. Medical science...

Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis, or PGD, is a technology that permits the genetic testing of an embryo. PGD screens embryos for certain diseases so that parents with a history of genetic...

Clubfoot is a deformity that affects newborns. It is a genetic disorder that causes one or both of the baby's feet to turn inward. The treatment process for clubfoot is quite involved, and there...

According to Medline Plus, a genetic disorder is any disease that arises as a result of defect, abnormality or mutation of a gene. Mutated genes can occur as a result of environmental factors or...

If it's decided by your doctor that you need injections of human growth hormone (HGH) as a result of a serious medical condition, it's extremely important that you're aware of the proper...

Parkinson's disease is a neurological brain disorder that develops in most adults after the age of 50. It does not discriminate against men or women unequally. The inheritance pattern of...

Black bone disease, or alkaptonuria, is a rare genetic disease. The condition can lead to darkening of the urine and arthritis of connective tissues.

The uncommon inherited medical condition Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD) affects the central nervous system. Degenerative and progressive, it strikes approximately 1 in 500,000 American males...

"Fibro" is a prefix used in medical terminology to denote fibrous tissues in the body. The term originates from the Latin "fibra," which also refers to fibrous tissues.

Simply put, a karyotype is a picture of a person's chromosomes. This picture can help researchers and health care professionals determine if a person has or will develop a genetic disease. The...

Essential tremor is defined by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) as "an unintentional, somewhat rhythmic, muscle movement involving to-and-fro movements...

Menopause can be challenging for a healthy woman, but for those with epilepsy the situation can be even worse because of to the change in her hormone levels.

According to the National Urea Cycle Disorders Foundation (NUCDF), urea cycle disorders (UCD) are genetic disorders caused by deficiencies in one of the enzymes of the urea cycle--the metabolic...

A genetic disease can be the result of mutation in a gene. According to ThinkQuest.org online library there are currently more than 4,000 known genetically transmitted diseases with more being...

Scoliosis, a side-to-side curving of the spine, is especially prevalent in young adults but recently has been diagnosed more frequently in the elderly. Geriatric scoliosis tends to be harder to...

A mutation is any change to our DNA. A gene is a section of DNA which codes for a particular protein. When there is a change to the DNA in a gene, the protein produced by that gene may be...

Genetic conditions are the result of mutations or changes in a person's DNA. Genetic disorders are illnesses caused by abnormalities in the genes or chromosomes. When a genetic disease is...

Laws involving genetic testing are fairly recent and less comprehensive than other legal issues, due to the relatively new roles of gene therapy and the human genome project. Legislation passed in...

Gilbert's disease, also known as Gilbert's syndrome, is a genetic disorder found in around 5 percent of the population. It is seen as relatively harmless, usually not requiring immediate...

If you are not careful, you will pay 400% more for a remedy that was probably already in your home. Always look at the ingredient list on the package of over-the-counter medications. Once you know...

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a medical term used to describe a spectrum of physical, cognitive and behavioral disorders experienced by the offspring of a woman who drinks during the term of...

Parkinson's disease is a disease that causes a deterioration of the central nervous system. There are no laboratory tests that can be given to confirm the presence of Parkinson's disease, so...

Translocation in humans occurs on a genetic level. Chromosomes exchange a portion of their genetic material between one another, resulting in entirely new pairings. This may occur without cause,...

Every young girl worries about her first menstrual period. What is it going to be like? What supplies do I need? How do I put in a tampon? Having honest conversations with your daughter is the...

Radiation is all around us, coming from space, earth and our own bodies. Normal levels of this background radiation don't seem to harm people, but high levels have differing biological effects.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Klinefelter syndrome is a condition that adds an extra X-chromosome to a male's genetic make-up. Klinefelter syndrome is only found in males,...

Cancer Tumor Markers are substances (usually proteins) that are found in blood that can help identify cancer. Many times this substance is elevated in cancer types and this is called a cancer...

There is much debate concerning whether the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research is too unethical to be allowed. Some argue that the process kills human lives. Others argue that these...

There are several disorders or complications associated with the feet, including plantar fasciitis, gout, bunions, corns, athlete's foot and Achilles tendinitis. However, those considered...

Advances in medical technology give doctors greater control and more options when responding to a variety of diseases. Controlled cell growth, also known as tissue engineering, is on the leading...

Sweating on the soles of your feet usually starts in childhood, and mostly, it occurs for no apparent reason. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) assures us that it is rarely an...

Krabbe disease is a rare genetic disorder that results from a shortage of an enzyme called galactocerebrosidase, which leads to the production of toxins in the brain and neurological impairment....

Transgenic plants and animals have been genetically altered in a laboratory to have traits and characteristics they don't normally have on their own. Trangenesis can be useful in agriculture,...

Genetic diseases occur when the DNA in our cells does not copy properly, resulting in some abnormality. Some abnormalities include congenital insensitivity to pain, which does not allow the...