Scientists Work on Ways to Treat Ataxia

Ataxia is a genetic disorder that affects motor coordination in those affected with it. It causes a gradual weakening of the muscles that are in charge of coordinating motor movement. This causes the person afflicted with the condition to lose control of their body gradually. This is usually seen in a decline in their ability to coordinate their gait, poor or slurred speech, worsened posture, and loss of coordination in the movement of the hands and eyes. It affects the eyes because it causes atrophying of the muscles that coordinate and control eye movements. It causes the person afflicted with the condition to lose their ability to control the movement of their eyes which impairs their sight slowly.

Ataxia is a hereditary disease that is passed through chromosomes in the DNA. Currently, there is no drug therapy or ataxia treatment. However, there are physical forms of therapy that ease the symptoms of the disease. The physical therapy that is commonly provided is designed to stave off the worsening of the loss of muscle control and coordination. Through regular exercise in a doctor controlled and assisted manner, the patient suffering from ataxia can reduce the muscle atrophy that they are exposed to. This is extremely important in making sure that their lives are of better quality despite the disease. Optic nerve atrophy treatment is currently also non-existent. The best optic nerve atrophy treatment currently available in the medical spheres is a diagnosis of the underlying condition. If the underlying condition is treated, the atrophy of the optic muscle can be stopped. The body can then be allowed to apply its own regenerative and restorative measures to reverse the effects. While there is no guarantee that things will go back to how they were, it provides the hope that the person may see as well as they did before.

Scientists have been working on ways to diagnose ataxia in earlier stages. They have been researching the possibility of genetic mapping of newborns to catch this condition in its early stages. As it currently seems, ataxia treatment is still a far way off. There has been some evidence that stem cell therapy may have beneficial effects towards the condition but this research has its challenges. First, stem cell research has been extremely controversial making stem cells hard to acquire. Second, stem cell therapy is still in research and development phase. Recently, a lot of successful cases of treatment with stem cells have been reported, and scientists seem to have made a significant achievement in this regard.