General Medicine

» ericmaze - Phenynlketonuria (PKU)

I am a 34 year old with PKU. I am the youngest of five children. My brother who was second born also has PKU. Unfortunately, he was not caught in time and has mental retardation. PKU is a neurological disease that results in mental retardation within the first few weeks of birth if not treated immediately. PKU is when the enzyme that breaks down the two amino acids, phenylalanine and tyrosine, is not present in the body. The build up of phenylalanine creates these sever problems that PKU has. It is because of these sever problems that a person who has PKU must undergo a very strict diet. Every day for the rest of the person's life they must maintain a certain level of protein in the body. The person must watch all of the protein that they intake in one day. You would never realize the amount of protein that is inside each food, until you start counting grams of protein inside each of the pieces of food that is on your plate. For example, milk,steak, and diet soda are just some items that I can not eat or drink. Even ice cream, and fish are foods that I can not eat. This is just a few things that I can not eat because I have PKU.

-- posted by ericmaze