Werner Syndrome: Description and Symptoms

The aging process is, in fact, inevitable for everyone, but it happens gradually and slowly, so a person has time to get used to the changes that occur with his body. To date, a complex enigma for modern science has become a disease that significantly accelerates all the aging processes in the body - the Werner Morrison syndrome.

The disease is extremely rare, so scientists are not yet able to find an effective method of treatment. This is a kind of anomaly in modern society. For the first time the fact of the disease with this ailment was fixed in 1904 by a German scientist. Until now, the greatest minds of mankind are trying to study an incomprehensible process that provokes the premature aging of the human body, and is looking for methods to effectively combat the disease.

Where did this disease originate?

As a rule, the syndrome is inherited. Patients receive from the parents one anomalous gene, which is located in the eighth chromosome. Because of genetic malfunctions, a mutation occurs, the child subsequently inherits these genes. Changes affect the work of the whole body, including on the exterior.

To date, we have only found out that Werner's syndrome is an autosomal recessive disease. But to refute or confirm this diagnosis by genetic examination is impossible.

Symptoms of the disease

As the rather rare practice shows, the first symptoms of this ailment can manifest after a ten-year age. In the first place, the strong lag in growth causes concern. But most often obvious signs can be seen only in 20 years.

Specialists identify a number of basic symptoms:

• In a fairly short time a person becomes gray and soon loses all the hair on his head.
• The skin begins to rapidly grow old, hyperpigmentation, wrinkles appear on it, it becomes pale and dry.

Along with these irreversible processes, a great number of other pathologies appear in a person:

• Atherosclerosis.
• Cataract.
• Dysfunction of the heart.
• Osteoporosis.
• Benign and malignant neoplasms.

Werner's syndrome affects the endocrine system, so a person may not have secondary sexual characteristics: menstruation does not occur, there is an excessively high timbre of voice, thyroid dysfunction, diabetes (insulin-resistant) develops. All this is familiar to people who have such a terrible syndrome.

Appearance

A patient with this ailment can be recognized from afar, because such people have very different facial features from habitual ones. As a rule, they acquire sharpness, the nose is like the beak of a bird, and the chin protrudes strongly, a small mouth, the face of the face acquires a lunar shape. Also fat tissue and muscle are completely atrophied. Therefore, arms and legs abnormally thin - all this affects the normal mobility. Human movements are difficult, it quickly gets tired and does not withstand heavy physical exertion.

There is one more, the main sign that characterizes Werner's syndrome. Photos of people suffering from this disease are striking: at the age of 40 they look twice older. As the statistics show, patients who have undergone this illness, do not live up to 50 years. Or the body affects cancer, or death occurs because of a heart attack or stroke.

Who is at risk?

Often this disease occurs in the male half of the population. Werner's syndrome (symptoms) appears after a transitional age. The disease develops at the molecular level, mutating the gene, which is responsible for the encoding of DNA. Scientists have not yet figured out what relationship this syndrome has to other similar diseases that cause rapid aging. In addition, they doubt that it exists at all.

Although this disease is a rarity, such people exist, and modern society should treat them more loyal, because no one is immune from this. People who have experienced this disease, it is very difficult. In addition to the frightening appearance, there are many attendant ailments that do not allow for a normal existence. The initial stage is accompanied by external changes, and all subsequent cause organ diseases.

Werner's syndrome develops so rapidly that a patient at 40 years of age is likely to be affected by cancer, because malignant formations are not uncommon in this disease.

Diagnostics

Virtually all ailments usually manifest in mature, and even in advanced age, but only if it is not Werner's syndrome, a syndrome of premature aging. Usually, with a full medical examination, osteoporosis of the feet, as well as of the legs, and a violation of the ligament and tendon structure are observed in the patients. As a rule, the patient complains of poor eyesight, because as a disease, almost always there is a cataract. Many have seen a disruption in the brain, which is accompanied by a rapid decline in intellectual abilities. Often patients complain of pain in the region of the heart.

In order to diagnose "Werner's syndrome", a full clinical examination is prescribed. If the doctor doubts, he can determine in culture the ability of fibroblasts to multiply.

Treatment

Werner's syndrome is a plague of the 21st century. Scientists assiduously try to study this disease, are looking for a solution to this problem and are working to rid the modern society of this kind of anomaly. We can say only one thing - this is one of the rarest cases of genetic defects.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that medicine over the past dozens of years has made great progress in development, today scientists can not fight this disease. Is it possible to cure it? This is still a mystery. To maintain the patient's condition, special therapy is carried out, which helps to stop rapid aging and prevents organ diseases. Regular prophylaxis is performed to reduce the symptoms that are present in this disease. But doctors can not stop this process to the end.

Will plastic help?

Of course, you can ask for help from a good plastic surgeon and improve your appearance. But a person grows old incredibly fast, so this kind of help will be short-lived. One can only hope that in the near future the development of scientists will be successful and there will be a medicine that gives the desired effect. Recently, many hopes are placed on the field of medicine, which is actively engaged in the treatment of the most hopeless ailments with the help of stem cells. It remains only to believe that soon with this method it will be possible to cure Werner Johnson's syndrome.