Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, also known as EDS, causes a defect in the connective tussue is one's skin, muscles and ligaments. The protein that acts as "glue" and keeps the body together is known as collagen. EDS is heterogeneous. There are six different types of EDS. They differ by symptoms. EDS is genetic, so if a family carries a certian type of EDS, only that type will pass on.

Today I learned just how severe EDS can be. Growing up, my sister always told me about how there are people that, if bumbped, can get severe bruising. Of course I believed her, being so young. When I got older I had my doubts but turns out its really true. This disease is one of the six major groups of EDS, the vascular group to be exact. In this group, someone who has the disease can have an aterial rupture at any given moment. I tried to picture myself living with vascular EDS and I wouldn't know what I would do if I knew that at any moment, my life could end. And if that wasn't bad enough, you'd have to worry about not getting bruises from every little thing that touches your body. And to top it off, there aren't any real treatments for it. The best this someone could do is go to the doctors every week for a chek-up. Knowing myself I couldn't live like that.

Please escuse this journal entry for being a day late. As stated in my first journal entry, the video that showed me this genetic disorder was Britians Got Talent. However it has been a long time since I saw the video and i referenced it. After watching the video again, I can now confirm that the video is a part of the Guinness World Records and the man in the video is Garry Turner. For the image of EDS I chose a picture that displayed the effects of EDS very well. I believe that the man in the image is  Garry Turner, who is aslo is the video. When I was writing down information for the text box in the portfolio, I was getting my information form the Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation (ednf.org). I was intrigued to find out that the collagen that held the bodies tissue together was not working correctly due to a shortage of it. It also amazed me that there were six different types of EDS. Going into this project, I was thinking that there wasn't a very big downside to this genetic disorder. Turns out that people with EDS get cuts and bruises easier and they heal much slower. They also have very weak joints and muscles.

When told to choose a disease, I had no idea what disorder to choose. I searched "wierd genetic disorders" and "rare genetic disorders" on google. I had read through miltiple lists and I had no idea what i was reading. There were names of diseases that I had no idea how to pronounce the names of the diseases. I don't know why, but I had a flashback of a youtube video I had seen a couple months ago. I believe the video was a clip of Britians Got Talent. The man in the video displaying his talent, was his skin. he had a disease called  Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. This disease allowed him to move and stretch his skin in ways a normal human couldn't. It was this video that made me interested in the disease, so I choose it with the intension of learning more about it, not just presenting it to the class.