Wilson's+Disease

Wilson's disease, which can also be called hepatolenticular regeneration, is a recessive genetic disease in which your body takes in and stores too much copper. The copper is stored in the liver, brain, eyes, kidneys, and sometimes other organs. Having too much copper can cause organs to stop working, tissue damage,liver disease, liver failure, brain damage, and death. The copper usually starts to build up at birth and symptoms of Wilson's disease usually start to show between ages six and twenty, but may also start later.
 * Wilson's Disease** By Mary Kate B.
 * What is Wilson's disease?**


 * What are the symptoms of Wilson's disease?**
 * a brown ring around the cornea of the eye[[image:Iris_eye_225px.jpg width="203" height="188" align="right" caption="A brown ring around the cornea"]]
 * slow movements
 * difficulty walking
 * loss of IQ points
 * confusion or delirium
 * difficulty moving arms and legs
 * stiffness
 * emotional or behavioral changes
 * yellow skin
 * vomiting blood
 * unpredictable and jerky movements
 * uncontrollable movement
 * personality changes
 * phobias
 * distress[[image:images.jpg width="221" height="169" align="right" caption="Yellow eyes"]]
 * yellow color of the white part of eyes
 * weakness
 * speech impairment
 * dementia
 * splenomegaly (the spleen gets bigger)
 * abnormal posture of arms and legs
 * enlargement of the abdomin
 * tremors of the arms and hands
 * decreased movement and expressions of the face

To treat Wilson's disease, you can't eat foods that are high in copper and you need to take medicine for your entire life. This means you should steer clear of foods, such as mushrooms, chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, shellfish, and liver because they have a lot of copper. Zinc salt can also help and be used. It blocks the copper from the stomach and doesn't have serious side effects. Also, penicillamine and trientine can be used to increase the removal of copper through urine, but both have serious side effects. Some side effects of penicillamine are shortness of breath, vision problems, swelling, and others.
 * How do you treat Wilson's disease?**

[|A list of foods you can/ can't eat with Wilson's disease] (scroll down to the table)

There are many ways to be tested for Wlison's disease. One way is the blood/ urine test. This is when you are checked for extra copper in your blood/ urine. Another way to be tested is a brain scan. You are checked for any symptoms for the disease that are related to the brain. Another test is an eye exam, where you are checked for a brown ring around the cornea of your eye (This is one of the symptomsfor Wilson's disease). The last way to be checked for Wilson's disease is [|liver biopsy]. Liver biopsy is when a sample of liver tissue is taken from your liver by a needle. Then it is examined for excess copper. Though you may puncture a lung, cause internal bleeding, or damage your liver/ possibly other organs and you will feel pain, this can also help discover cancer, infections, irregular levels of liver enzymes, liver disease, and a large liver.
 * How can you be tested for Wilson's disease?**

This is a video about someone's experience with Wilson's disease; [|Wilson's Disease]

If each parent has a recessive gene for Wilson's disease,there is a 25% chance the child will have Wilson's disease.
 * How is this disease passed from one generation to the next?**