Allocations Awareness

C3: Dysautonomia Foundation
The Dysautonomia Foundation is an organization that supports medical research and treatment for those afflicted with Familial Dysautonomia (FD), genetic disease present at birth in male and female Jewish babies, primarily causing dysfunction of the autonomic and sensory nervous systems. Dysfunction is a result of an incomplete development of the nerve fibers of these systems. Some of the bodily functions that this can influence are crying, breathing without enough oxygen, blood pressure, body temperature, stress, digestion as well as taste, perceptions of hot and cold, and reactions to pain. The prognosis of the disease depends on early detection, severity of symptoms, and the individual's response to therapeutic treatment for this disorder. Supportive treatment can enhance quality of life and the individual's life expectancy.

The Dysautonomia Foundation was founded by the parents of children with FD and is headquartered in New York City with sixteen chapters located throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Israel. The Dysautonomia Foundation supports clinical medical care for people with FD by Maintaining the Dysautonomia Treatment and Evaluation Center at New York University Medical Center and the Israeli FD Center at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The Dysautonomia Foundation supports research studies into FD and the FD gene. Basic scientific research regarding FD is currently being supported at a number of prestigious hospitals and universities. The Dysautonomia Foundation provides a continual flow of information to families and other professional persons who request medical, educational, and/or promotional material concerning FD.

If this disease has ever affected you or if it interests you, you should look into the Dysautonomia Foundation to get more information about FD and to possibly decide to allocate your chapter's Tikun Olam money that's been raised this year there.