What is Congenital Muscular Dystrophy?What is the life expectancy for someone with merosin positive CMD?

Hi,my name is Holly and I have Congenital Muscular Dystrophy.I have merosin positive CMD.I was wondering if someone could give me an idea of my life expectancy is and what CMD in general is.Thanks!!!!!

Congentil Muscular Dystrphy affects your voluntary muscles and it is a degenerative genetic disease. It is more fully explained on this web site.
http://search.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/qu...

Muscular dystrophy is very common illness now a days. It is an inherited disease and a disorder of body functioning. They are characterized by weakness and wasting of skeletal muscles without the breakdown of nerve tissue. In all forms of muscular dystrophy there is a slow loss of strength with increasing disability and deformity.
Clinical observation of non inflammatory wasting of muscles probe a physician to investigate the muscular dystrophy. The history more often gives absence of viral infections like polio myelitis. There are several classifications made under neuromuscular disorders.

Duchenne Muscular dystrophy
This affects young boys only. Usually it starts from the age of 3 year. Gradually the afflicted boys lose their independent ambulation. Sometimes seeks help of a wheel chair and may worse to become bedridden. The first symptoms are found as inability in walking, more often clumsy walking. Swelling of calf muscles observed with wasting of buttock muscles as the first sign of observation.

Fascioscapulohumeral Disorder

This type affects people between 6-40 years of age. It is characterised by a winging of the scapular which can be stabilised by scapulothoracic fusion. Facial muscle abnormalities also occur in few individuals. Sometimes upper arm muscles disturbance are noticed in few cases.

Myotonic dystrophy
Myotonic disorders are chromosomal disorders. They present their symptoms as inability of muscles to relax after contractures. Myotonic dystrophy is a multisystem disorder that affects skeletal muscle and smooth muscle, as well as the eye, heart, endocrine system, and central nervous system.

Myotonic dystrophy is characterized by cataract and difficulty in relaxing the muscles after contraction. Many patients often show cardiac conduction abnormalities. Adults may become physically disabled and may have a shortened life span. Congenital DM is characterized by hypotonia and severe generalized weakness at birth, often with respiratory insufficiency and early death; mental retardation is common.


Diagnosis
Diagnosis is made examining of muscle, muscle tests, and a family history. Genetic study is also essential in some cases.

Treatment
There is an universal belief that there is no specific treatment for muscular and myotonic dystrophy. Usually the physicians advice the patients to continue physiotherapy and sometimes assist them with devices like wheel chairs or other assistive devices. Homoeopathy finds solution to such problem.