Huntington's Disease Huntington's disease, also known as Huntington's chorea is a genetic disorder that usually shows up in someone in their thirties and forties, destroys the mind and body and leads to insanity and death within ten to twenty years. The disease works by degenerating the ganglia (a pair of nerve clusters deep in the brain that controls movement, thought, perception, and memory) and cortex by using energy incorrectly. The brain will starve the neurons (brain cells), and sometimes make them work harder than usual, causing extreme mental stress. The result is jerky, random, uncontrollable, rapid m