My wife, Jill, excels at many things. She’s an excellent cook, gift giver, and advice dispenser. She also excels in her dislike of visiting a doctor’s office. As I’ve written before, she has “white coat syndrome.” But we have received some potentially awesome news that might ease some of…
Over this past holiday, my wonderful parents got me the Nintendo Switch and the new Pokemon game (specifically Shield, because it had cooler Pokemon). Yes, I am aware this makes me geeky, but the game is amazing. As soon as I started playing, I couldn’t…
Despite skyrocketing healthcare costs, President Trump is committed to protecting the 30 million or so Americans with rare diseases and ensuring timely, affordable access to lifesaving treatments, the nation’s highest-ranking health official said. “We have to think about how our financing system can protect those with serious and rare illnesses.
Researchers have identified three new small molecules that significantly reduce the formation of toxic aggregates of mutant huntingtin — the underlying cause of Huntington’s disease — in cells derived from Huntington’s patients. These molecules work by selectively and potently binding to the expanded CAG repeats in an intermediate molecule…
MMJ International Holdings, a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of cannabis-based therapeutic products, will soon begin testing its oral cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products in U.S. clinical trials for Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) cleared MMJ to import…
Thanksgiving always seems to occur out of the blue, and this year was no different. One minute it’s summer and the weather is warm. You blink, and the leaves are changing. Blink again, and daylight savings time ends. And then you wake up, and it’s Thanksgiving. My family differs from…
This week’s column was going to be about patience, but before I could write it I received a text from my wife, Jill. She asked if I had used our credit card at a place where I don’t normally shop. The answer was a resounding no. My wife handles…
At around 1 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2019, my aunt was pronounced dead. She had been waiting with her son in their car outside their house for a storm to abate when a tree fell on the car. Fortunately, my cousin was unharmed. My aunt had…
For a time following my diagnosis as gene-positive for Huntington’s disease (HD), I avoided elderly people. The mere glimpse of a wrinkled hand was a reminder that I was going to develop Huntington’s someday, and that was something I was trying to forget. Recently, my husband and I attended our…
Researchers have developed a new class of compounds that tackles the root cause of Huntington’s disease, opening up new avenues for the development of novel therapies for the disease. The compounds can lower the levels of mutant huntingtin — the faulty protein in Huntington’s disease — by sending it…
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