from NBC News:
Gilbert Gottfried, the beloved brash comedian, died Tuesday from a disease that his publicist identified as a rare genetic muscle disorder.
Gottfried, 67, had type II myotonic dystrophy, a kind of muscular dystrophy, said Glenn Schwartz.
It isn't clear when Gottfried was diagnosed with the disease, which has no cure or treatment and typically appears when people are in their 20s and 30s.
Elizabeth McNally, the director of the Northwestern University Center for Genetic Medicine, said the "slowly progressive" condition is often overlooked and undiagnosed.
“People can have symptoms for quite a while even before they notice it,” she said.
Symptoms of the disease, such as breathing or heart muscle weakness, tend to develop more as people age, she said, so some patients may not be diagnosed until their 40s, 50s or 60s, or they may confuse their symptoms with other age-related health problems.
