Gene Positive - a Column by Steven Beatty

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 what a horrible condition Huntington’s disease (HD) is. It’s not…

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 doing the same thing! Here’s a quote that amused me: “I’ll…

My grandmother died from Huntington’s disease (HD) complications in 1987. I was 13 years old at the time, so my memories of her are few and limited to a time in her journey when she was more advanced in her symptoms. I have no personal recollections of what she…

(Photo from James Pollard, Personal Collection) The above New York Times clipping, dated March 24, 1993, reports breaking news that was immensely important for the Huntington’s disease community. Even today, 26 years later, the significance of a piece of HD news has never surpassed this. Not yet anyway. The…

Sometimes when you meet a person, there’s an immediate connection. Like kindred spirits, you become instant friends. When I attended my first Huntington Society of Canada National Conference, I met someone like that, and my mind opened to a new way of thinking. At the time, I was still…

When I was a child, my mother would tell me that if I didn’t eat my carrots, I would go blind. I do wear glasses now, so maybe that was partially correct. But it’s more likely that she was either misinformed or just trying to get me to eat my…