5 Feet Apart— a popular teen romance movie like any other. Described as a diluted version of the hugely loved The Fault In Our Stars, it’s a story of two teenagers battling the same illness and their journey through it all. 

    Unlike its counterpart, 5 Feet Apart centers on two teenagers with cystic fibrosis. In it, like its namesake, the two are forced to stay six feet apart due to their restriction in an attempt to prevent spread of contact. Cystic fibrosis, sometimes called CF, is a condition where thick mucus builds up in the lungs. It’s a hereditary condition and can be life threatening for people who have it— life spans generally tend to be shorter than normal, healthy people, averaging at around 50 years. 

     So what exactly is Cystic Fibrosis (CF)? Cystic Fibrosis is a genetically inherited disease found in about 30,000 people in the US. The genetic disease causes persistent lung infections and limits the ability for a person to breathe overtime. A person with CF must always be careful with minimizing their contact with germs because their thick and sticky mucus can trap germs, like bacteria, in the lungs. When the mucus traps germs in the lungs, it leads to complications in the lungs, such as breathing, chronic coughing, inflammation, and other complications. CF falls into the category of being a single-gene inheritance disease, due to a DNA change of one specific gene, the Cystic Fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. When mutations and problems in the CFTR gene, the protein for the gene is not made and can’t perform its proper function in the body. Resulting in the diseases of Cystic Fibrosis. 

    Cystic fibrosis is a disease that is progressive. It is a complex disease and the types and severity of the disease differs from one person to another. Diving more in depth with CF effects, chloride in the body attracts fluids to the cell surface resulting in mucus to become thick and sticky. The thick and sticky mucus causes clogging in certain organs, malnutrition, frequent respiratory problems and chronic lung diseases. That’s why it's best for people with CF to stay away from those with the disease as it can cause a cross-infection, putting the other at a greater risk of worsening symptoms and breathing properly. 

    It’s always best to treat the disease to improve the quality of life for the patients. Though, there is no cure for Cystic Fibrosis, treatments exist to help better control and ease the symptoms. Some treatment for CF includes vest therapy, nasal and sinus surgery, oxygen therapy and more. For example, vest therapy, an inflatable vest attached to a machine, for one vibrates at high frequency to loosen the thickness of mucus in the chest. The patients that follow these treatments continuously are able to live longer and the complications pop up less often. As the medical field advances, so will the treatment of cystic fibrosis. We can hope to see a lower rate of diagnosis as well as a higher life-expectancy and better quality of life for those who have it.