Neurologic Diseases: An Overview of Disorders of the Nervous System

The brain, the spinal cord and the nerves make up the nervous system, which together controls everything the body does. When part of it goes wrong, a person can have trouble moving, speaking, swallowing, breathing or learning, or problems with memory, the senses or mood.

There are more than 600 neurologic diseases. The main kinds are:

• inherited, caused by faulty genes: Huntington's disease, muscular dystrophy;
• developmental, problems in how the nervous system forms: spina bifida;
• degenerative, in which nerve cells are damaged or die: Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease;
• diseases of the blood vessels that supply the brain: stroke;
• injuries to the spinal cord and the brain;
• seizure disorders: epilepsy;
• cancer: brain tumours;
• infections: meningitis.

Sources

• MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, "Neurologic Diseases." https://medlineplus.gov/neurologicdiseases.html
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.