ALS: The Ice Dumbert Challenge

Steve Gleason’s battle with ALS hasn’t been easy, yet he shows us what courage really is. Steve remained strong and determined to beat ALS. What sets Steve Gleason apart from most others is that instead of becoming self focused on beating ALS, he became determined to beat it and help others win the fight. His choice to fight this disease is impressive enough but his work to bring worldwide awareness to ALS through his own organization, Team Gleason (slogan, “No white flags”) goes beyond

Furthermore technology contributes money and awareness for organizations. In the past there was an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which is where people pour buckets of ice cold water on their head in order to spread awareness for ALS. “2.2 million twitter

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. ALS is also named Lou Gehrig’s disease because he was the first person to bring ALS to a national attention in the 1930’s. Lou Gehrig’s amazing professional baseball career was ended short by this horrific disease. There are multiple treatments for ALS, but no cure for this fatal disease. In 2014, ALS was brought to major attention by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Although Lou has the disease named after him, there are several other notable individuals who have been diagnosed with ALS. These individuals include Stephen Hawking, Jim Hunter, Steve Gleason, George Yardley

Recent studies show that some athletes are now actually being diagnosed with either of these diseases as early as in their late 20’s. For example, Pete Frates, a former baseball player for the Boston College, was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 27. He first realized something was wrong when he was struck on the left wrist with a baseball and never fully recovered from the lingering weakness. He was diagnosed on March 13, 2012 and immediately started to raise awareness. In 2014 he launched the Ice Bucket Challenge along with the help of his friend Pat Quinn to raise money for ALS research. In addition, Chris Henry, who was a football wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, was diagnosed with CTE at age 26. He is the only known player to have had CTE and was still active in sports. He was diagnosed after he had fallen from a pickup truck and died on December 16, 2009. Although his family had no knowledge of this, they did notice the mood swings, headaches, and anger management issues that he did not have before. Medical research show that athletes such as Pete Frates and Chris Henry are being diagnosed at an early age because they frequently suffer from head trauma and concussions. Athletes often do not realize the potential danger they are putting themselves in each time they play and get a brain

This is why the Ice bucket challenge was invented. The ALS disease is an incurable cancer that many scientists don’t know what causes it. Some doctors think it is caused by a defective gene that prevents the body from producing a normal amount of an enzyme called superoxide dismutase.

Just imagine, you are a 44-year-old married man with 2 young children and you were diagnosed with ALS and that your diagnosis is terminal. You were told that you would lose all muscle function, never will be able to hold your kids or your loving wife again, or enjoy life with your loved ones. You will first lose the use of your legs; you will not be able to walk anymore and you will have to use a wheelchair to move around. Next you will lose the use of your arms and no longer able to feed or dress yourself. You will experience vocal cord spasms and eventually lose your voice, you would no longer be able to tell your kids, “I love you”. You will lose your bowel function and must

Imagine you are a 78-year-old man, a beloved professor from Brandeis University. Every day you take notice of the increased difficulty of breathing, more so than the usual, or the out-of-breath feeling from climbing a flight of stairs. About two or three weeks later, you start to feel the muscles in your body cramping up, even while partaking in slight activity, And then you know it’s serious after you gave up dancing. After multiple testing, your results come back and you have ALS, also known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Even if one does the Ice Bucket Challenge ten times it still will not be anywhere close to what actually having ALS feels like. ALS is also known as the Lou Gehrig disease, Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS on his 36th birthday. Lou was a professional baseball player and played for the New York Yankees. After retiring in 1939 he became a parole officer and later passed away in 1941, two years after being diagnosed. When someone has ALS their nerve cells slowly die in their

Everyday, an average of 15 people are diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS) also commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Across the world there are more than 5,600 cases of ALS every year. People all around the world are open to being diagnosed with ALS, it affects people of all ages, races, and gender. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis has affected millions of families and individuals since 1869. However, what is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, what does life look like for someone with ALS , and what research is being done for a cure?

I started being able to pick up objects that weighed more than seven pounds. My muscles were not as strong as they were before I got diagnosed, but I believed that I could regain all the frail muscle I had into strong, beautiful muscles. Tomorrow would be the second day of school for me. I took off almost three months of school and all my sports were postponed until I started getting better. “Bri, you are making a spectacular recovery, this is the first case this whole hospital has seen where only one dose of Riluzole has almost cured you from ALS!” he exclaimed to me. He told me to take it slow, only pick up items less than five pounds and be careful with cuts or sores getting infected. I went home that day with a smile on my face and a hop in my step. It was satisfied to know that I was the first person to have this type of recovery. Even though I still have the diagnosis of ALS, I go back to doing my normal things. Now I play for my school soccer team and this past season I got over $2,000 in donations for me and my condition, I donated all the donations I received to the ALS Association for people that are going through this disease that can’t afford the medication

Mental health is a fragile thing and terminal conditions such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) greatly impact it. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that attacks a person’s physical function. It progressively saps a person’s strength and leads to the failure of organs. Unfortunately, this disease is not fully understood and is difficult to diagnose (Rosenfeld & Strong, 2015, pp. 318-319). Knowing fully well that this disease is a death sentence, ALS patients generally have a negative outlook and this significantly influences their mental health. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis can be diagnosed mainly through the medical perspective and has been extensively researched to determine the components and controversies it contains.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting both the upper and lower motor neurons in the cerebral cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord. It is the most common motor neuron disease in the adult population with a prevalence of two to seven cases per 100,000 individuals. Survival rates in persons with ALS show considerable variation. Five-year survival rates vary from 7% to 40%, whereas 10-year survival rates range from 8% to 16% (cite).

After the support of a global trend, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, it raised over $115 million to help fund researches. With this fund, scientist recently had a new discovery. They have found a new ALS gene which is the NEK1 gene, which is one of the most common genes in ALS. This provides the scientist with a specific gene they have to target

Why don’t more people know about this deadly disease? Why is there not more funding pouring in from around the nation? After all, a disease that claims the lives of about 1,920 people ages 65 and up per day (700,000 per year) (“Facts And Figures”) deserves a little more attention. Remember, this number is just the deaths and doesn’t even include the over five million people who currently live with Alzheimer’s (“Facts and Figures”) or those who must step up daily and reteach their loved ones the most pedestrian of tasks time after time. So join me, as I travel through this

Global warming has become a world wide issue and an issue that is causing great controversy. It is an increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution (Dictionary). Global warming is a natural process, but because of increase in certain activities this process is taking a faster and more dangerous route creating global problems. Global warming was first theorized in 1894 by Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier a French mathematician, who noticed the earth was gradually increasing in temperature. He came to the conclusion that the earth’s atmosphere was trapping solar radiation caused by the sun and reflecting this radiation back to