Mantle himself had a humorous take on his condition in his 50s, having surpassed his father’s age - “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
That grim humor was Mantle’s reaction to the sword of Damocles presented by an inheritable disease. But not everyone deals with the prospects of getting a deadly disease so cavalierly. Some live lives filled with dread, while others become adventurers, taking serious risks in the belief that they are living on borrowed time.
Researchers estimate there are more than 7,000 different types of rare diseases and disorders, with 30 million people in the United States having a condition. That’s roughly 10 percent of the United States population, and while that sounds like a huge number, each of the so-called rare diseases are usually afflicting a relatively small portion of the population. A disease is called a rare disease if less than 200,000 people in the United States are afflicted.
WHAT IS RARE?
The rare disease field is typically confined to about 350 rare diseases, which account for about 80 percent of all cases. These include such well-known conditions as: