Adrenoleukodystrophy is a life changing health condition that is passed down from mother to son if the mother was a carrier of ALD. This disease is full of horrible symptoms that cause the young child a lot of pain. The first symptom is changes in muscle tone, especially muscle spasms and spasticity. This means that the muscles will have a sudden involuntary contraction or a violent movement of one of his limbs.
Another common symptom is having a successionally decreased understanding of verbal communication or aphasia and a slow deterioration of the knowledge the child has learned before being diagnosed caused by the deterioration of the myelin sheaths which leads to the degeneration of the brain. Hyperactivity might show up during school also. Then there is a worsening/deterioration of the nervous system, possibly coma, decreased fine control of motor skills, which inevitably leads to paralysis.
Once the paralysis kicks in, the child will have seizures (a sudden attack of illness such as a stroke or an epileptic fit), difficulty swallowing (which could cause liquid to go into the lungs and cause pneumonia), and trouble seeing which leads to blindness. Another variation of this disease is Adrenomyelopathy, which comes into effect in the middle age of the affected male. This disease starts with the inability to control urination or urinating at inconsistent times during the day or night.
Then the male might have muscle problems or leg stiffness. And due to the loss of the myelin sheaths, the affected male would have problems with their thinking speed and visual memory. These diseases are easily identified as Adrenal Gland Failure or Addison’s Disease. The only difference is that this disease has little to no relation to the loss of myelin sheaths. Overall, ALD and Adrenomyelopathy are very rare and life changing, not only for the person who has it, but also for the people who have to take care of that person.