Cystic fibrosis awareness week

Hi lovlies,

So today marks the beginning of Cystic Fibrosis awareness week in the UK.
My aim is to raise as much awareness as I can so I have decided to blog post days this week to help people to learn about this illness.  Today I'm going to explain what cf is and how it affects sufferers.

What is cf? 

Cystic fibrosis is a life threatening, inherited disease caused by a faulty gene. This gene controls the movement of salt and water in and out of your cells, so the lungs and digestive system become clogged with mucus, making it hard to breathe and digest food.
The illness affects the lungs and pancreas and well as playing a damaging effect on our liver, bones and sinuses.

Due to the increased mucus it is easier for cf suffered to develop regular infections which add to the damage to our lungs and cause reduced life expectancy if they cannot be treated successfully.

The average life expectancy of someone with cf is 40, however children that are being born with cf today are living much longer and healthier lives due to the new treatments that are being developed.  

What causes CF? 

People have cystic fibrosis because a faulty gene is passed from the parents to the child.
Cystic fibrosis can't be caught or developed. If you are not born with cystic fibrosis you will never have it, but you could be a cystic fibrosis gene carrier. However, some people with cystic fibrosis are not diagnosed until later in life.

How is it diagnosed?  
Increasingly cystic fibrosis is being diagnosed through screening, but some babies and older children (and even adults) are diagnosed following an unexplained illness.


Screening- 
Newborn screening 
This test involves a heel-prick sample of blood.
Carrier testing 
A simple mouthwash test can determine if you are a carrier of the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis.
Antenatal testing
Used early in pregnancy.

Other tests 
There are a number of other ways of testing for cystic fibrosis, such as the sweat test (people with cystic fibrosis have more salt in their sweat) or a genetic test, where a swab is rubbed gently on the inside of the cheek to look for the faulty gene.

I was diagnosed when I was six years old after having a sweat test.

What's treatments are there? 
There are many different treatments that people with cf can do to control symptoms.
For example, physiotherapy which is done to shift and hopefully help to bring up mucus. This will help to clear our lungs each day.
Inhaled medication is used to control or prevent infections.
Tablets- Antibiotics to help battle an infection.
Enzymes to help digest food.
And many others which help with bones and liver problems.




Awareness is extremely important because this illness if not that well know. Each year new medication and trials and developed and carried out and this is due to more people becoming aware of this illness and raising money so that these developments can be funded. It would mean the world to me if you would either spread awareness of donate yourself.

To donate go to - https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/get-involved/ways-to-donate/online-donation



Thanks for reading,

Peace love Iz x