Someone said I have so many illnesses. I said actually, I have only one! What is Ehlers Danlos? Ehlers-Danlos (EDS) is a heterogeneous group of heritable connective tissue disorders, characterized by articular (joint) hypermobility, skin extensibility and tissue fragility. There are six major types of EDS. Individuals with EDS have a defect in their connective tissue, the tissue that provides support to many body parts such as the skin, muscles, and ligaments. The fragile skin and unstable joints found in EDS are the result of faulty collagen. Collagen is a protein, which acts as a "glue" in the body, adding strength and elasticity to connective tissue. Those afflicted with EDS have very complicated medical needs with treatments that can be quite complex. Eighty to ninety percent of those afflicted with EDS are women and is prevalent in an estimated 1-3 percent of the overall population (that rare!). Because EDS affects all areas of the body (all areas have connective tissue, after all), many people go years without proper diagnosis as they go from one specialist to another seeking treatment for specific body areas. By the time a proper diagnosis is received, many EDS patients have long and varied medical histories.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 01:31:44 +0000
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