Signs and symptoms
... In people with Wilson''s disease, copper begins accumulating in the liver immediately after birth, but signs and symptoms rarely occur before the age of 5 or 6 and sometimes not until age 40 or 50. Th...

Causes
... A number of foods, especially liver, shellfish, nuts, avocados and mushrooms, contain abundant amounts of copper. When you eat these foods, the copper is absorbed by your small intestine, bound to cir...

Risk factors
... If both parents are carriers of one abnormal Wilson''s gene, they have a 25 percent chance of having a child with two normal genes, a 50 percent chance of having a child who also is a carrier, and a 2...

When to seek medical advice
... Wilson''s disease can be insidious; it may be years and sometimes decades before signs and symptoms appear. If you do have signs of the disease — difficulty speaking, problems with balance, trem...

Screening and diagnosis
... Diagnosing Wilson''s disease can be challenging for several reasons. First, symptoms of Wilson''s disease are often indistinguishable from those of hepatitis, alcoholic cirrhosis and other chronic liv...