When we talk about disorders that are inherited, we talk about those passing from one generation to another through family genes. Several of them can cause symptoms which can be easily managed and not affect person’s overall health, and others are more serious, affecting even the neurological system, making the entire body suffer.
Ichthyosis Vulgaris
The National Institute of Health claims that this condition is among the top common skin disorders transferred by familial genes. Its symptoms include scaly and dry skin (particularly on legs, and it can often be seen extended to palms, arms and torso). The symptoms also include mild skin thickening and itching.
A person has to inherit just one abnormal familial gene to develop this disease. It rarely affects the overall person’s health and often comes in winter months. It comes and disappears interchangeably for some time periods.
Xeroderma Pigmentosa
This condition is genetic and it makes the eye skin and tissue overly sensitive to UV light. Other symptoms of this illness can include sun over-sensitiveness in the form of sunburns and blistering after only short periods of sun exposure. Also, it causes skin discolorations, crusting, oozing and scaling of the skin and the appearance of tiny spider-like blood vessels under the skin. This condition predisposes the person to skin cancer and it is a serious condition which needs to be treated immediately.
Albinism
You probably heard about this one in more than one occasion. It’s an inherited skin condition characterized by lack of melanin, the pigment responsible for our skin tone. In a person suffering from albinism, the skin is lighter than average or – in some cases – completely white. The iris color can also be completely white.
Albinism has two different types. Type one is the one with defects in production of melanin. The second type is when the “P” gene is defected, resulting in slight coloring.
Ectodermal Dysplasia
In this disorder, multiple genes are defected. Symptoms can include decreased sweating or complete lack of it, caused by the small number of sweat glands. People may also have extra-light skin color due to the lack of pigment, suffer poor body temperature regulation, have extremely thin hair, not be able to produce tears, have bad or teeth prone to decay, poor hearing and vision, and many other conditions.
Ehlers-Danlos Conditions
This is a group of familial disorders affecting the joints, the skin’s connective tissue and blood vessels. There are six types of this disease and all are extremely rare. The hypermobility is the most common – it can be recognized by symptoms like velvety skin, loose joints, degenerative joint disease and premature osteoarthritis causing the chronic pain. Some other symptoms include fragile skin, muscle weakness and spasms, hernias, heart problems and easy bruising.
Incontinentia Pigmenti
Neurocutaneous disorder that affects teeth and skin pigmentation, and problems to the whole central nervous system is called Incontinentia pigmenti. Excessive melanin gives skin discolorations visible in the first few weeks after the birth. As the illness progresses, the motor development becomes slower. This condition causes loss of many neurons and brain tissue. Neurological difficulties remain even when the skin symptoms disappear.
Other Disorders
Neurofibromatoses can cause tumors and bone and skin abnormalities. A genetic illness affecting central nervous system and causing benign tumors is called Tuberous sclerosis.
