Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy is not a single disease. It is a family of more than 30 genetically distinct conditions that share one outcome: progressive weakness of the shoulder and hip muscles that, over years or decades, erodes independence.

Stiff-Person Syndrome sits in a strange place in medicine. It is rare enough that many neurologists encounter only a handful of cases in a career, yet for those living with it, the muscle rigidity, unpredictable spasms, and relentless anxiety can make ordinary life feel genuinely unmanageable.

If you're reading this because a son, a nephew, a student, or a patient has just been diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, you've probably already noticed a gap. On one side there's the clinical explanation — "a mutation in the dystrophin gene" — delivered in a ten-minute appointment.