MPS1: A Family's Fight Against a Rare Genetic Disorder | Mick Unplugged with Chad & Alicia Bohley

So MPS1 is a genetic disease. It's classified as a lysosomal storage disorder. So, in easy to understand terms, our son was born with this. He was born missing an enzyme that breaks down cellular waste, so it affects his entire body. The way that we explained it to our 7 year old daughter at the time was that think of your whole body as a house. Every week, the garbage man comes to pick up the trash. If he didn't, it would just accumulate throughout your house and you would become essentially a hoarder. That's what's happening in his body. His body is not able to break cellular waste because he is missing an essential enzyme. So instead of being able to recycle it throughout his body and use it, it's accumulating on his bones, his skin, tissues, his organs, and it's affecting everything.