Living with Incurable, Debilitating Diseases:

Debilitating diseases take numerous forms, ranging from those that assault our muscles and limit our physical ability to those that affect our brain function and damage our mental processes.

People suffering from severe conditions encounter numerous obstacles that have a significant impact on their health and income. As the condition progresses, a person's life might be radically altered in a matter of months.

RARA is an autoimmune illness that produces persistent inflammation in the body's joints and organs. RA is a fairly prevalent disease that affects 1.3 million people in the United States alone.

It causes painful and debilitating symptoms. People who have it may experience periods of remission for months or years during which no symptoms are recognized. However, this is a degenerative disease that causes joint destruction and physical handicap, and there is no cure.

Treatments have improved throughout time, as has the prognosis for patients suffering from RA. Physicians can now better regulate and prevent flare-ups, allowing patients to live reasonably normal lives.

The brain in schizophreniaThis is a complicated mental disorder that makes it difficult for persons who have it to distinguish between reality and imagined experiences, behave correctly in social circumstances, and have normal emotional responses to everyday situations.

Despite the fact that hereditary factors have been recognized as one of the causes of the condition, mental health specialists are still unable to define precise causes.

People suffering from schizophrenia frequently spend their lives in controlled solitude as a result of the disease's high psychological obstacles, which prevent them from having friends or working.

Antipsychotic drugs are the most commonly used form of treatment, and because this is a chronic illness, patients usually need to take these medications, which have several adverse effects, for the rest of their lives.

Poliomyelitis is a disease that affects the central nervous system and can result in partial or complete paralysis. It is caused by the transmission of the poliovirus. Though poliovirus immunizations have helped prevent the disease's spread in many parts of the world, it remains a major worry today due to its severely devastating effects.

There are three types of poliomyelitis, each with a different level of complexity and health risk: subclinical infection, which causes mild discomforts and runs its course in 72 hours; nonparalytic poliomyelitis, which causes pain, stiffness, and fatigue and typically lasts one to two weeks; and paralytic poliomyelitis, which targets the brain and spinal cord and can cause full or partial paralysis or even death.

cerebral palsy (CP)There are numerous varieties of cerebral palsy that impact brain and nervous system processes. This condition is caused by anomalies or injuries to the brain during fetal development and can occur up to two years of age when the brain are still developing.

This condition is classified as spastic, dyskinetic, ataxic, hypotonic, or mixed, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. These symptoms include muscle tightness, tremors, speech difficulties, delayed growth, and swallowing difficulties.

Cerebral palsy is no cure, however, there are treatment programs that involve therapy, surgeries, and even drugs to help reduce the intensity of symptoms. Because this is a chronic, disabling disease, long-term care is frequently required.

COPDCOPD is a disorder that makes breathing increasingly difficult due to chronic damage to the lungs and constricting airways, and it is frequently caused by smoking. Coughing and breathing problems frequently worsen as the disease advances, and many COPD patients also have chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema.

COPD patients have difficulty breathing over time, and the irreversible damage to the lungs impairs one of the body's most vital systems. The World Health Organization has called COPD one of the top single causes of death (along with HIV/AIDS), but the good news is that, while this is a chronic, debilitating, and generally fatal condition, consequences can be controlled and slowed down with medication and a healthy lifestyle.

Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia that affects how people think, behave, and recall events in their lives. Early-onset Alzheimer's disease strikes persons before the age of 50 and progresses quickly, although the most frequent types of the disease affect those in their latter stages of life. Initially, symptoms include forgetfulness and trouble accomplishing more than one activity at a time.

As the disease worsens, patients have increasing difficulty remembering individuals, locations, and events, and they frequently become confused in social situations.

As a result, they behave wildly and unpredictably. Those with advanced Alzheimer's disease cannot grasp language and cannot conduct daily duties such as eating or bathing. There is no cure for this ailment, and patients often survive 3-20 years following diagnosis with the disease that eventually kills them.