Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Common Types of Hereditary Diseases

The gene theory is one of the fundamental principles of biology. It says that individual characteristics are transferred from parents to offspring during gene transmission. Genes are placed on chromosomes and comprise of DNA.
This principle of heredity was introduced by Gregor Mendel in the year 1860 and is also known as the law of independent assortment or Mendel`s law of segregation.
A genetic disease is one which is transferred from one or both of one’s parents to one or more of their children. It is caused by the presence of specific abnormalities or mutations in their genes.
Genetic diseases are also known as hereditary or family diseases. Some of the genetic diseases can easily be identified at birth but others can take a few more years to be diagnosed.
The most common genetic disease are Haemophilia, Sickle Cell Anemia, Cystic Fibrosis, Fragile X Syndrome, Thalassaemia, and Diabetes.
Genetic diseases can be diagnosed by the genetic test of blood and various tissues.

Some of these genetic diseases, when left untreated, can lead to serious complications. Various techniques and strategies have been adopted for the treatment of these disorders like genetic therapy or changing of the genes within the human body.

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