Gilbert Gottfried, a stand-up comedian, died of an uncommon and often-overlooked condition.

Gilbert Gottfried, the renowned outspoken comedian, passed away on Tuesday after battling a disease his publicist classified as a rare hereditary muscular disorder.

According to his longtime friend and publicist, Glenn Schwartz, Gottfried, 67, had type II myotonic dystrophy, a kind of muscular dystrophy.

Gottfried's diagnosis of the condition, which has no cure or therapy and normally strikes persons in their 20s and 30s, is unknown.

In a statement, his family stated he died after a "long illness."
The "slowly progressing" illness is commonly missed and untreated, according to Elizabeth McNally, director of the Northwestern University Center for Genetic Medicine.

"People can have symptoms for a long time before they realize it," she explained.

Because symptoms of the condition, such as difficulty breathing or cardiac muscle weakening, tend to worsen with age, she added, some patients may not be recognized until their 40s, 50s, or 60s, or they may confuse their symptoms with those of other age-related health issues.

"The first thing I notice in patients is that they have difficulties getting out of seats and going upstairs," McNally explained.
Slurred speech, jaw locking, and prolonged muscle contractions are some symptoms that make it difficult to release a doorknob, for example.

Some individuals, according to McNally, may have difficulties taking care of themselves in the future, such as brushing their teeth or taking showers.

Heart issues are typical in both types of myotonic dystrophy, according to McNally.

"The risk of abnormal cardiac beats can be extremely considerable," she said, adding, "Sometimes people underestimate how much that can happen." There's some evidence in textbooks that it doesn't happen often with type II diabetes, but in my experience, it happens frequently in my type II patients."

Gottfried died of recurrent ventricular tachycardia, a cardiac rhythm disorder that affects the lower chambers.

"Instead of beating normally and consistently, the heart basically goes electrically berserk and beats really quickly, and it can't beat effectively," McNally explained. "What can happen is the person can die if that doesn't correct itself rapidly, within a matter of seconds."

Doctors can use pacemakers or defibrillators to treat patients in some cases, she said.

She stated that "a good cardiologist should typically anticipate" ventricular tachycardia. "If it happens, the patient should have a defibrillator to treat it so they don't die."

Both types of the disease affect about one out of every 8,000 persons, while type II is thought to be more common.