Neurological disorders can compromise the complex thinking and emotions that make us human, the routine perception and movement that we take for granted, and even the control of bodily systems that are normally beneath our conscious awareness. Trauma, infections, toxic exposure, birth defects, degenerative diseases, tumors, gene mutations, systemic illness, vascular events, nutritional deficiencies, and adverse effects of essential treatments for diseases like AIDS and cancer can all disrupt the functions of the nervous system. We often think first of neurological disorders that afflict older Americans- stroke, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Batten disease, Canavan disease, to name just a few. Disorders like epilepsy and brain tumors, which can strike at any age, also occur frequently.
Some neurological disorders are very common.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that head trauma kills more than 50,000 people each year and more than five million survivors suffer disabilities. Physicians tell us that pain is the most common symptom that brings people to a doctor. A recent journal from the American Academy of Neurology, for example, suggests that migraine headaches affect about twenty percent of women. Diabetic neuropathy commonly accompanies diabetes. Epilepsy, autism, cerebral palsy, dystonia, the neurological aspects of AIDS and several other disorders also affect many people.