Canavan disease is a rare and devastating fatal childhood neurodegenerative disorder affecting the formation of myelin, the white matter of the brain. Canavan disease is a progressive leukodystrophy.

All children with Canavan disease are severely disabled... they are unable to hold up their heads, sit, walk, or talk. Even with profound physical challenges these children are like any other children in many ways. They are happy, smart, and love their friends and families.

Canavan is an autosomal recessive genetic disease. There may be no known family history to warn parents that they might be carriers of Canavan disease. Both parents must be carriers for them to pass it on to their children. If both parents are carriers, with each pregnancy there is there is a 25% chance that the child will be affected.

Developing a cure and treatment for Canavan disease has the potential to help millions of people young and old. Although rare, Canavan disease is considered by many leading researchers to be the 'perfect model' for approaching therapeutic methods to truly aid in the treatment and cure of many of the neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's, ALS, Alzheimer's, and stroke as well as other childhood genetic illnesses.

Absolutely, we welcome your help! Please contact Ilyce Randell or Peggy Shapiro-Nyeholt at 1-800-833-2194 or 847-222-0736 for more information.

Max Randell made medical history in September 1998 when he became the youngest person in the world to receive experimental gene therapy for a neurodegenerative disease. Max was one of four children (of 15 treated) to generate new myelin as a result of this trial. All the participants showed quality of life improvements.

Ilyce & Michael Randell and Peggy Shapiro-Nyeholt & Jim Nyeholt - Parents and grandparents of Max Randell, a victim of Canavan disease are the co-founders of Canavan Research Illinois.

A malfunction in the immune system is certainly a part of Crohn's disease. This may be an inability to "turn off" the immune system after it "turns on" for an appropriate reason. Or, the immune system may "turn on" for the wrong reason. Immunosuppressive medications used to keep individuals from rejecting transplanted organs have been shown to be effective in treating Crohn's disease. These factors have led many researchers to characterize Crohn's disease as autoimmune.

Heartworm disease is a serious disease in cats especially in males, and outdoor cats. It is diagnosed in both indoor and indoor-outdoor cats. It is suggested that the reason for finding heartworm positive cats is that cat's nature may swallow different mosquitos or any thing that flies which may be the vector. The clinical signs and diagnosis is different from that in dogs.

Bowen's disease is a precancerous lesion, the malignant cells being restricted to the top skin layer. It appears as a red, scaly or crusted lesion, and may be located anywhere on the skin, including non-sun-exposed skin surfaces.

Legionnaire's disease is a form of pneumonia caused by a bacterium, Legionella pneumophilia. It was first discovered following an outbreak at an American Legion convention in a Philadelphia hotel in 1976. However, after the organism was isolated, some earlier pneumonia outbreaks were investigated and it was verified that earlier cases had occurred.

Between 80 percent and 90 percent of patients get better on their own in about a week. The other 10 percent to 20 percent get worse, with many ending up in intensive care and requiring mechanical ventilators to help them breathe. About 6 percent die.

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, neurological disorder characterized by a decline in cognitive function that results in dementia (impaired memory, thinking, and reasoning). Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of memory loss (dementia), affecting approximately 4 million people in the United States. Unless a cure is found the number of persons affected in the US alone could reach 14 million by the year 2050.

Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. The disease is classified by the World Health Organisation as an infectious or parasitic disease. Borrelia burgdorferi belongs to the bacterial genus ‘Borrelia’. These in turn are members of a larger family of bacteria called Spirochaetes.

Our trained applicator will notify you if your lawn shows signs of disease. He'll also advise you on the best treatment. Because lawn diseases are unpredictable and treatments are so variable, there is no guarantee of results. Application of lawn

Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong digestive disorder, found in individuals who are genetically susceptible, that results in damage to the small intestine by interfering with the absorption of nutrients. Celiac Disease is unique in that a specific food component, gluten, has been identified as the culprit. Gluten is the common name for the offending proteins in specific cereal grains that are harmful to persons with CD.

Contact with small animals such as rabbits, hares, rodents, birds, and their ticks transmit tularemia. Handling carcasses of infected animals (hunters while skinning) transmits it, ingesting undercooked infected meat, drinking contaminated water and inhalation of dust from contaminated soil, grain or hay. It is also transmitted by tick bites and rarely through bites of an infected coyote, squirrel, skunk, hog, cat, or dog.

Heartworm disease (dirofilariasis) is a serious and potentially fatal disease in dogs. It is caused by a worm called Dirofilaria immitis. Heartworms are found in the heart and large adjacent vessels of infected dogs. The female worm is 6 to 14 inches (2.3 to 5.5 cm) long and 1/8 inch (5 mm) wide; the male is about half the size of the female. One dog may have as many as 300 worms.

Symptoms of Alzheimer's can include significant lapses in memory, dramatic mood changes, emotional outbursts, inability to retain new information, difficulty performing familiar everyday tasks, impaired judgment, decision-making abilities and other cognitive functions, general disorientation and confusion, and overall personality change. The symptoms gradually develop and become progressively worse. Eventually, the person is unable to care for him/herself.