Degenerative disease
Degenerative disease is the result of a continuous process based on degenerative cell changes, affecting tissues or organs, which will increasingly deteriorate over time.
In neurodegenerative diseases, cells of the central nervous system stop working or die via neurodegeneration. An example of this is Alzheimer's disease. The other two common groups of degenerative diseases are those that affect circulatory system and neoplastic diseases.
Many degenerative diseases exist and some are related to aging. Normal bodily wear or lifestyle choices may worsen degenerative diseases, depending on the specific condition. Sometimes the main or partial cause behind such diseases is genetic. Thus some are clearly hereditary like Huntington's disease. Other causes include viruses, poisons or chemical exposures, while sometimes, the underlying cause remains unknown.
Some degenerative diseases can be cured. In those that can not, it may be possible to alleviate the symptoms.
Examples
- Alzheimer's disease
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- Cancers
- Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
- Cystic fibrosis
- Some cytochrome c oxidase deficiencies
- Ehlers–Danlos syndrome
- Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva
- Friedreich's ataxia
- Frontotemporal dementia
- Some cardiovascular diseases
- Huntington's disease
- Infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy
- Keratoconus
- Keratoglobus
- Leukodystrophies
- Macular degeneration
- Marfan's syndrome
- Some mitochondrial myopathies
- Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome
- Mueller–Weiss syndrome
- Multiple sclerosis
- Multiple system atrophy
- Muscular dystrophies
- Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis
- Niemann–Pick diseases
- Osteoarthritis
- Osteoporosis
- Parkinson's disease
- Pulmonary arterial hypertension
- All prion diseases
- Progressive supranuclear palsy
- Retinitis pigmentosa
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sandhoff Disease
- Spinal muscular atrophy
- Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis
- Substance use disorder
- Tay–Sachs disease
- Vascular dementia