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Muscular Dystrophy

- By Shirley Butler

The Facts about Muscular Dystrophy

Muscular Dystrophy is a group of diseases of the muscular system with three features in common: they are hereditary, they are progressive, and each produces a selective pattern of weakness. While there are many types of MD's, space here is too limited to list them.

The primary cause of MD is genetic defect, and may occur at any age, but most often it attacks young people. Duchenne MD usually seen first in toddlers, Becker appears in childhood or adolescence, and others in adolescence/early adulthood. Some MD's progress more rapidly. And people in one family group with the same sort of MD may have different rates of progression.

While all MD's are genetic, they are not always inherited, and there is not always a history of MD in a previous generation of an affected person's family. The first person may be affected with genetic defect which has occurred in a family for the first time, i.e., a new mutation.

To research more about muscular dystrophy on the interned why not start at http://www.mdusa.org/home.html.