Men are overwhelmingly the victims. Some other forms of MD can be carried and passed on by either gender and have an even distribution between sexes. This devastating form is responsible for nearly two-thirds of all MD cases. Death almost always occurs before the child leaves his teens. But onset usually occurs later and progresses much more slowly.
Patients often live well into middle age.
Leaving infants' hands and feet flaccid and slow to develop muscles, myotonic dystrophy also chronically contracts those muscles. Mental retardation, hormonal imbalances, premature baldness, and cataracts in middle age are common. Videos Chat Home page The MDA's funding of cure research started over 50 years ago. But thanks to the the association's work, longtime telethon host Jerry Lewis, and a Who's Who cast of performers on the annual MDA Telethon, research for MD and another 40 neuromuscular diseases has turned a critical corner. The landmark discovery of the gene responsible for Duchenne's MD happened in 1986.