Posted on 10/30/2013 4:58:59 AM PDT by kimtom
The baffling case of Brooke Greenberg, a 20-year-old who never developed beyond the toddler stage, may provide clues to help scientists unlock the secrets of longevity and fight age-related disorders, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and heart disease. Brooke, who passed away last Thursday, had the body and cognitive function of a 1-year-old. She didn't grow after the age of 5 — and basically, she stopped aging entirely.
"Brooke Greenberg, even after her sad passing, may help to reveal answers to one of the major mysteries in human biology: Why do we age and is there any way to slow or suspend the aging process?" Dr. Eric Schadt, director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, tells Yahoo Shine.
Brooke may have been the only person in the world suffering from a mysterious genetic disease that her doctors called Syndrome X. "Finding out that her DNA makeup is completely different than anyone else brought to our attention that we could help," her father, Howard Greenberg, told Yahoo Shine in a previous interview. "So eventually, at the end of the rainbow, there will be something that comes out of all this. I believe everyone is here for a reason."
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
This story has always broken my heart. And there is still no definitive diagnosis, other than ‘Syndrome X’, for her and the handful of others with this condition. Prayers for her family.
That’s her little sister holding her, isn’t it.
And the brilliant “reporter” does not even mention the cause of death. (Or did I skim too fast at the link?)
I read this story last night on Yahoo and learned that she had passed on. Very sad.
About 10 years ago they had a special about her and her condition on one of the Science Channels. I wondered whatever became of her....
Is she the young girl that was on the Katie Couric show a few months back?
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