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Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that for which one in every 25 Americans carry a gene, which means around 12 million Americans are carriers. It is caused by a mutation in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator, causing an abnormal amount of mucus to be secreted, settling the lungs and pancreas. The Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) is a protein that allows for chlorine ions to be able to escape mucus-producing cells. It helps thin out the mucus to keep the airways clear. When that gene is altered, it causes life-threatening harm to newborn babies, where most of them wouldn’t last longer than a couple of months. Due to the benefits of modern diagnosis and treatment, the life-span of a Cystic Fibrosis affected …show more content…
By then, their lungs, pancreas, digestive system, and other organs would start to slowly give out from being coated with thick and sticky mucus. With the advancement of modern medicine, diseases like this have been able to be better diagnosed and treated. While no cure has been found to prevent the mutation in a newborn's gene, there are now ways to give the child a longer and more pleasant life. In some cases, patients have lived into their upper thirties with proper care and treatment. Scientists and doctors have made many discoveries about the disease through experimentation, which has helped the overall population of patients with Cystic Fibrosis with deal with symptoms and organs that are affected. Now there is even a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that helps spread awareness of the disease and have fundraisers to support testing to create new treatments. If sputum samples can be taken from patients with Cystic Fibrosis and compared to samples taken from patients without Cystic Fibrosis, they can be studied to see the effect of fungal and bacterial microbiomes in the lower airways. Then scientists will be able to get more information on the microbiomes and develop treatments to lessen the effect on Cystic Fibrosis affected …show more content…
The protein that is affected by CF regulates the amount of salt that is produced in a person’s sweat. Those with Cystic Fibrosis tend to have sweat that is much saltier that a person’s without CF. It is usually not a problem, except in the situations where there is prolonged exposure to heat with exercising. “Some 98% of men with CF are sterile, due to complete obstruction or absence of the vas deferens, the tube carrying sperm out of the testes” (Rosick, E., Davidson, T., 2015). Most of the time, males with Cystic Fibrosis will have normal levels of sex hormones and normal production of sperm, but they cannot leave the testes, so fertilization of an egg is impossible. Women with Cystic Fibrosis are usually fertile unlike that 98% of men , but have a harder time getting pregnant than someone without CF (Rosick, E., Davidson, T., 2015). In both sexes, puberty will usually be

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