{"id":1222,"date":"2014-03-17T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-05-09T11:04:20","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T11:04:20","slug":"downs-syndrome-awareness-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/2014\/03\/downs-syndrome-awareness-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Down’s Syndrome Awareness Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n

This week is Down\u2019s Syndrome Awareness Week and this week we\u2019ll be highlighting how stem cells can be used to help people with Down\u2019s.<\/p>\n

There are around 40,000 people in the UK who have Down\u2019s Syndrome and 1:1000 babies born in the UK will have Down\u2019s, that\u2019s around 8,000 a year[1]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Down\u2019s Syndrome occurs at conception and is caused by an extra chromosome in the baby\u2019s cells. Down\u2019s is an irreversible condition, there is no cure. People with Down\u2019s do not suffer from the condition and they are not ill, it is not a disease[2]<\/sup>. \u00a0However, people with Down\u2019s Syndrome are more likely to suffer from certain health problems because they have Down\u2019s, problems which can be helped or even cured with stem cells<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One such problem is Congenital Heart Defect<\/a>. A congenital heart defect means that it is a heart defect that you are born with. Around 50% of children with Down\u2019s Syndrome will be born with a congenital heart defect, of those 60% will need hospital treatment[3]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Another health issue faced by those with Down\u2019s is an increased likelihood of developing leukaemia<\/a>, in fact children with Down\u2019s are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop the illness than those without Down\u2019s[4]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Both congenital heart defects and Down\u2019s Syndrome can be diagnosed in pregnancy, giving parents the\u00a0opportunity to bank their baby\u2019s umbilical cord blood<\/a>. The opportunity to do this only presents itself once and can give parents extra security knowing they have a stem cell match for their child and the opportunity to access emerging and regenerative therapies.<\/p>\n

Many parents of children with Down\u2019s worry about the increased risk of their child developing dementia<\/a>. \u00a0It is a common belief that children with Down\u2019s develop dementia and at an early age. A recent study showed that children with Down\u2019s were no more likely to develop dementia than those without Down\u2019s[5]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/sup> http:\/\/www.downs-syndrome.org.uk\/about\/general\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/sup> http:\/\/www.downs-syndrome.org.uk\/about\/general\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/sup> http:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/Conditions\/Downs-syndrome\/Pages\/Complications.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/sup> http:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/cancertopics\/pdq\/treatment\/childAML\/HealthProfessional\/page8<\/a><\/p>\n

[5]<\/sup> http:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/Conditions\/Downs-syndrome\/Pages\/Complications.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week is Down\u2019s Syndrome Awareness Week and this week we\u2019ll be highlighting how stem cells can be used to help people with Down\u2019s. There are around 40,000 people in the UK who have Down\u2019s Syndrome and 1:1000 babies born in the UK will have Down\u2019s, that\u2019s around 8,000 a year[1]. Down\u2019s Syndrome occurs at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cells4life.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}