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Essays on huntingtons disease
Huntington disease research conclusion
Essays on huntingtons disease
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As people approach old age, often times, their bodies deteriorate. Along with the occasional knee replacement or mandatory walker they must push around, the mind also loses its youthful vigor. This languishment of the mind can commonly be linked to dementia or a prodigious amount of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, or on a rare occasion, Huntington’s Disease. Huntington’s is a lesser-known problem that is associated with not only the declination of memory, but also the loss of muscle control. Huntington’s Disease has been altering the final years of unlucky individuals by changing the jovial years of retirement into an enduring horror; however, RNA interference research is uncovering a possible light at the end of the tunnel.
George Sumner Huntington, born into a family of physicians in New York in 1850, was the first to describe the disease (“George Sumner Huntington” par. 1). “Huntington’s chorea/disease” shows that George was familiar with the disease through “His father and his grandfather, also physicians, [who] had both treated sufferers from chorea for many years” (par. 3). During the Salem Witch Trials, according to the “Huntington’s chorea/disease,” the Bures family was commonly accused for witchcraft and put to death. This was due to the fact that many of the family members were struck ill with a strange disease, causing them to appear possessed and full of demons. The Bures family migrated to Connecticut from Suffolk, England, bringing this strange disease to the Americas (par. 3).
The symptoms of Huntington’s begin between the ages of 30 and 50 in 90 percent of afflicted people (“Huntington’s chorea/disease par. 1). Virginia Goolkasian summarizes the majority of the symptoms. To start, an afflicted...
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...ginia. "Delving into Huntington's Disease." USA Today (Farmingdale).
Sept. 2001: 34-35. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Gorner, Peter. "2 Americans Share Nobel Prize for Medicine." Chicago Tribune
(Chicago, IL). Oct. 2 2006: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
"Huntington's chorea/disease." World of Health. Gale, 2007. Science in Context. Web. 21
Mar. 2014.
Hayden, Thomas. "DNA Meets Its Match." U.S. News & World Report. Feb. 24 2003:
n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Revkin, Andrew. "Hunting Down Huntington's." Discover. Dec. 1993: 98+. SIRS Issues
Researcher. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
"RNA Interference." Genetics. Ed. Richard Robinson. New York: Macmillan Reference
USA, 2008. Science in Context. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Rogers, Kara. "RNA interference (RNAi)." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica,
Inc., 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Woodward, Walter “New England’s other Witch-hunt: The Hartford Witch-hunt of the 1660s and Changing Patterns in Witchcraft Prosecution” OAH Magazine of History, 2003. 8. Cavendish, Richard. The. “A History of Magic” New York, 1977 pg 69-79 9.
More than three centuries ago, an entire community in Salem, Massachusetts, just 5 miles from Salem Town fell victim to what would become the most notorious instance of witch hysteria in United States history. The infamous witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts remain one of the most unscrupulous and inexplicable phenomena in the United States, having resulted in a total of 20 deaths and 165 accusations related to Witchcraft within the span of four months. [3] The brief, but tumultuous period has long been a source of debate amongst historians. For nearly a century, it was widely accepted that social tensions and Puritan religious beliefs were the primary cause of the trials, but in the 1970’s, a college undergraduate suggested ergot poisoning might be to blame. Ergotism – ergot poisoning – is born from the fungus Claviceps purpurea, which is known to infect rye and other cereal grains, it produces a chemical known as ergotamine which is the base for toxic hallucinogenic chemicals such as LSD. [2] Studies have shown that the consumption of ergot-contaminated food results in symptoms much like those associated with the afflicted girls in Salem, 1692. [2] Collectively, Ergot poisoning, and the implication Puritanism and Puritan values had on the genuine fear of witches, and socioeconomic tension caused the events that would become the Salem witch hysteria of 1692.
This was the belief of many of the Puritans, in Salem. Puritans had such strong religious beliefs, that to them it seemed highly plausible that the devil was using their peers as pawns to carry out his evil influence on the world. Another thing that fueled the Puritans belief of bewitchment was a book written a few years previously called Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions by Cotton Mather. This book explained symptoms of four children who had been bewitched by their laundress. The symptoms that Mather described were the same symptoms the town seemed to be plagued with. This only added to the belief that the town had an outbreak of witches. Many of the doctors in the town started blaming illness that could not be diagnosed on witchcraft. In 1692, Williams and Elizabeth Parris began acting out of the ordinary by dashing around, complaining of strange pains, and jumping under things. They visited their local doctor and he told them they must be bewitched because there activities were so unexplainable. Another medical case that was thought to be witchcraft was that of Martha Goodwin. She began screaming, complaining of unusual pain, and demonstrating different behavior than normal. The symptoms that were shown in Martha Goodwin were so out of the ordinary that the doctors did not know what could be causing these problems. The doctors decided the child must be a victim of witchcraft and arrested her parents under the assumption that they were
Huntington’s disease is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder that has a middle-age onset. It is clinically characterized by unwanted movements, behavioral and psychiatric disturbances, and dementia. George Huntington, who first described Huntington’s disease, named it “an insanity which leads to suicide,” (Halpin, 2012). Individuals whom are at-risk or diagnosed with this disease stand in a tough situation in which many decide to commit suicide. There is major controversy on voluntary ways to die with this disease, which include to commit suicide, whether physician-assisted or individually, go under continuous deep sedation, or by euthanasia.
In the early winter months of 1692, in colonial Massachusetts, two young girls began exhibiting strange symptoms that were described to be "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect (examiner.com)." Doctors looked them over, but could not come up with any sort of logical explanation for their ailments. Therefore, the girls were accused of taking part in witchcraft. Soon, other young women in the village started showing similar symptoms. This "illness" of sort slowly made its way through the village to many of the residents. Soon, people started coming up with possible theories as to what started all the madness.
As we may already know, the town of Salem was subject to an epidemic of the accusations of witchcraft that lasted over ten months. Witchcraft of this time period was not taken lightly. In England alone over 40,000-60,000 people were killed after being found guilty of witchcraft. Needless to say the people found witchcraft as a virus that infected the town. The first cases started off with the daughters of Samuel Parris, the town minister, accusing his slave, Tituba, of being a witch. She claimed that she and others in the town were witches and there was even a wizard. The town broke out in hysteria in further months. Over 100 people were put in jail because of accusations. The council that were to find these people’s innocence or guilt were corrupted as well because to claim innocence meant you were guilty and if you were to claim guilt you could be redeemed. Many of the items found incriminating were pins and voodoo dolls. Many of these people faced the psychological terror of being pressured into claiming guilt to a crime, you didn’t commit in front of a committee and scared the community to death that they were going to be subjected to. Many of the witnesses to these trials were said to have undergone physical distress or act inhumanly. Many historians say to these records that since their body was put under so much strain and fear of the witchcraft that surrounded them all the time, their bodies going through strange changes such as paralysis or temporary blindness with no real cause rather than stress. But many historians also believe the witnesses were voluntarily acting and committing fraud against the others. But why was this such an enigma to understand why this small town in New England was all of a sudden becoming a cen...
During the early winter of 1692 two young girls became inexplicably ill and started having fits of convulsion, screaming, and hallucinations. Unable to find any medical reason for their condition the village doctor declared that there must be supernatural forces of witchcraft at work. This began an outbreak of hysteria that would result in the arrest of over one hundred-fifty people and execution of twenty women and men. The madness continued for over four months.
In 1692, the occurrence of “witchcraft” began after the Massachusetts Bay Charter revolution and the outbreak of small pox. The rebellion caused hysteria and a sad injustice. Friends were pinned against friends; upstanding citizens were forced to flee for their lives and men and women were put to death (Jurist Legal News and Research Services 2008).The fear of the devil influenced the cruelty that took place. Most of the settlers that established their homes in the colony were puritans, a member of a group of English Protestants who revolted against the Church of England. The belief that God punished sinful behavior with misfortune did not help circumstances. The puritans targeted outcasts, people who never really fit it in; they wanted to rid the towns of these suspected sinners.
In Gattaca, the plot focuses on the ethics, the risks, and the emotional impact of genetic testing in the nearby future. The film was released in the 90s; yet in the present, the film does not give the impression of science fiction. Today, genetic testing is prevalent in many aspects of the scientific community. This paper will describe genetic testing, its purpose, diagnostic techniques that use genetic testing, relating Huntington’s disease to genetic testing, and the pros and cons of genetic testing.
Huntington's disease affects three main areas of function: motor (physical), mood (emotional), and cognition (psychological). Motor function disturbances can fall into too much movement and too little movement. Chorea, involuntary dance-like movements, can affect any part of the body. It looks like restlessness, wrigg...
In early 14th century Europe, many people had a strong belief in the supernatural, or more specifically, in the devil giving certain humans (“witches”) powers to hurt others. This belief resulted in tens of thousands of people killed from being accused of witchcraft. The Salem witch trials occurred in 1692 until 1693, when a group of young girls living in Salem Village, Massachusetts convinced the leaders of the town that they were possessed by the devil and blamed many women being the cause of their possessions. It all began when 9 year old Elizabeth Parris, daughter of Samuel Parris (minister of Salem Village) and 11 year old Abigail Williams, niece of Samuel Parris, began having random “fits”. They would have outbursts of screaming, violent contortions, throwing things, and making strange sounds. Doctor William Griggs observed them and diagnosed that they have been bewitched. After his diagnosis, more girls in the village began displaying the same symptoms. (History.com) On February 29, the girls went to court and under pressure from judges Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne (Hawthorne's great-great-grandfather), they accused three women in their community for bewitching them: Sarah Go...
In order to understand the outbreak of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, authors of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, explore the social and economic divisions and tensions within Salem and the surrounding communities. Both Boyer and Nissenbaum have a strong background in history. Paul Boyer (1935-2012) was the Merle Curti Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a cultural and intellectual historian who authored several other books. Stephen Nissenbaum was a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who authored several other books as well. In Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of
Dementia can occur in relation to many different illnesses. Some of the most common of which are Huntington’s Disease,
Sidky, H. Witchcraft, lycanthropy, drugs, and disease: an anthropological study of the European witch-hunts. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1997.
It is estimated that between .1 and 10 % of people who suffer from Huntington's