Understanding Down Syndrome

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com Human genes are normally organized along forty-six chromosomes in our cells, twenty-three from each parent. But some people are born with an extra copy of the twenty-first chromosome. This third copy is a result of a mistake in cell division. The name for this condition is Down syndrome. A British doctor named John Langdon Down first described it in the eighteen sixties. An estimated three hundred fifty thousand people in the United States have Down syndrome. Many babies with Down syndrome have low muscle tone, so they need extra support when they are held. Their heads are smaller than average and they may have unusually shaped ears. Also, their eyes often angle upward. People with Down syndrome often have other conditions. These include problems with their heart and with their breathing and hearing. A lot of these conditions, though, are treatable. About one in every one hundred people with Down syndrome will develop leukemia, a cancer of the blood. But the National Down Syndrome Society says many of these cases are curable as well. As a result, people with Down syndrome are living longer. In the early nineteen eighties they lived an average of just twenty-five years. Today the life expectancy for someone with Down syndrome is sixty years. But with that longer life, people with Down syndrome may have an increased risk for Alzheimers disease at an early age. An estimated

Published 2009-10-05 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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