"Down Syndrome" Awareness Month

Today I'd like to honor all the children and their families that are experiencing "Down Syndrome". My heart goes out to all of you.

So let's take today to shed some light on this devastating disease. And maybe discover a way to prevent it.

As we know "Down syndrome" is a genetic disorder caused when "abnormal cell division" resulting in an "extra full" or "partial copy" of "chromosome 21. This extra genetic material causes the developmental changes and physical features of "Down syndrome".

Each year, about 6,000 babies are born with "Down syndrome" in the United States. That's an estimated 1 out of every 700 babies will be born to have this condition. And according to the World Health Organization . . . an estimated 1 in 1,100 will be inflicted worldwide.

Okay . . . so let's take a moment to understand. Typically, a baby is born with 23 pairs of chromosomes. Where as babies with "Down syndrome" have an extra copy of one of these chromosomes, And that would be chromosome 21.

So you ask . . . what exactly are these "chromosomes" you speak of????

Well . . . a "chromosome" is a thread-like structure located inside the nucleus of animal or plant cells. Each "chromosome" is made of "protein" and a" single molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid" (DNA).

Now, this was interesting to me because with the cancer I was diagnosed with 11 years ago . . . my cancer had a direct cause of "chromosome 13".

In my case, it was the direct result of an acquired change to the DNA of "chromosome 13" and this change was a "mutation". When I was first tested, it was with a method called "fluorescence in situ hybridization" (FISH), and it was found I had "Del 13q" which was "deletions" on the long arm of chromosome 13.

So with the similarities . . . I decided to see is there was a connection. And guess what? . . .

Brain abnormalities of Down syndrome are associated with chromosome 21 "deletions"!!!!

So let's explore the possibilities . . .

We know there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body. And that chromosome 21 is both the smallest human autosome and chromosome, with 48 million nucleotides (the building material of DNA) representing about 1.5 % of the total DNA in cells.

In researching my own cancer years ago . . . I had discovered one of the biggest factors to my chromosome 13 change . . . was the "bad" bacteria I'm always talking to you about.

You see . . . this "bad" bacteria fuses 2 diploid cells to generate a tetraploid zygote with "double" the normal chromosomal content. And as with my cancer or "Down syndrome" there's are abnormal "cell divisions".

These cells then go through a chromosome "loss process", "without" undergoing "meiosis". Now "meiosis" is a process where a single cell divides twice to produce four cells containing half the original amount of genetic information. And these cells are our sex cells - sperm in males and eggs in females.

So simply said . . . "bad" bacteria stops the normal process of cells division and disrupts genes.

So my question would be . . . is this the main factor that science is missing as to why there's an abnormal cell division of chromosome 21 content causing Down syndrome?

And is it possible to alter this end result of an extra copy of chromosome 21 by eliminated the cause to my theory?

With that being said . . . I will continue to research and bring "out of the box" thinking to all illness and disease.

I truly believe there is an answer out there and hopefully a cure someday for all these beautiful children.

As always, feel free to contact me here