What Is myotonic dystrophy?
Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a muti-systemic inherited disease that affects 1 in 8,000 people or 40,000 individuals in the US alone. Although often viewed as a muscle disease, this description is misleading. Individuals affected by DM may have many different types of issues, including skeletal muscle problems, heart function abnormalities, breathing difficulties, cataracts, issues with speech and swallowing (dysarthria and dysphagia), cognitive impairment, excessive daytime sleepiness, or diabetic symptoms. While the list of potential problems is long, one individual is unlikely to have all or even most of these symptoms. Myotonic dystrophy is one of the most variable and complicated disorders known. The systems affected, the severity of symptoms, and the age of onset of those symptoms vary greatly between individuals, even in the same family. In general, the younger an individual is when symptoms first appear, the more severe symptoms are likely to be. However, prognosis is as variable
