Cystic Fibrosis Research Paper

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Pages: 4

Cystic Fibrosis: Effects on the Digestive System
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is hereditary disease that causes the body to produce thick and sticky mucus, which effects the body digestive system and the airway of the lungs. Cystic Fibrosis discovery was about 400 years in Germany, where kissing the brow of a child tasted salty. They say the children were cursed and that the child would die very early. American Pathologist Dr. Dorothy Anderson gave the first description of the disease calling it “cystic fibrosis of the pancreas in 1938. This was based on autopsy she did on children who died of malnutrition. About 10 years later Dr. Paul di Sant’Agnese noticed that infants suffering with dehydration had a higher than normal level of salt when their sweat was tested. This finding matches the finding of what the Germans had discovered many years ago.
Cystic Fibrosis is inherited genetic disorder that affects the lungs and the digestive system in a big way. CF is also a life-threatening disease that affects both children and adults. People with CF has a defective gene called cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator which cause the body to produce thick mucus. CF affect many system in
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Also symptoms can variety by age and the severity of the disease. In newborns and infants, symptoms include, little or no bowel movement at birth, poor weight gain and growth with a good appetite, bowel movements that appear greasy and bulky, difficulty with bowel movements, salty-tasting skin, and persistent cough. Young children, symptoms include, persistent coughing, frequent respiratory infections, wheezing, difficulty with gaining weight and malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. In adolescents and adults, symptoms includes “clubbing of the fingers, decline in lung function, osteoporosis, reoccurring lung infections, CF-related diabetes, constipation and malnutrition and vitamin