Gene Positive — Steven Beatty

Many occupations are described as being the most difficult job in the world: Firefighting, mining, roofing in a heatwave. Yes, those examples are full of their own risks and challenges, but they are trumped by the roles we take…

Remember when people wrote letters? You know, when they sat down with an actual pen and let the ink roll out onto paper. Everyone had their own writing technique and style, their own spin on cursive. It’s a bit…

Nobody is guaranteed a long life. Some people’s experience on this planet is going to be shorter than others’, even if they do everything they can to live a healthy lifestyle along the way. Having grown up with the…

The identification of the Huntington’s disease (HD) gene in 1993 opened doors for new scientific exploration. The HD community of families and researchers around the world were excited about what the discovery could mean. Since then, that…

Last week, I had an appointment with my family physician to talk about prostate health. Yes, I know, this is a Huntington’s disease (HD) column. Why am I bringing up my prostate? Come to think of it, this…

One of the more tragic aspects of Huntington’s disease (HD) is how the symptoms can begin to take control of a person in their prime adult years. There’s no cure or effective treatment available to us yet,…

May is Huntington’s Disease Awareness Month in many parts of the world. It’s an excellent opportunity for those of us in the Huntington’s disease (HD) community to reach people who wouldn’t typically encounter this disease and share…

There is some evidence in the Huntington’s disease literature that suggests people with the gene may lack insight into how they have started to show signs of the illness. This terrifies me for several reasons, but for…

It’s time for us to enter our Huntington’s disease (HD) time machine and travel back to the year 1872. It is here that we find Dr. George Huntington sitting in his clinic’s office handling a package. He runs…

I’m sure the headline of this column made you look twice. No, that’s not a typo. You might be saying right now: “How could anything associated with Huntington’s disease make my life better?” I get it. I understand firsthand…

Sometimes it can seem like everyone wants to give you advice about how you should live your life or what you should do to feel and remain healthy. Now that I write this, you could say this column is…