Formal Paper : Lou Gehrig 's Disease

Formal Paper: Lou Gehrig’s Disease Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a fairly common disease in America, as nearly 4,600 people are diagnosed with the disease annually and someone is diagnosed every 90 minutes. The majority of people that have been diagnosed with ALS are middle to older aged caucasian men in between their 40’s and their 70’s, yet the diagnostic is not exclusive to any race, color, or age. “Over a period of months or years, patients with ALS develop severe, progressive muscular weakness and other symptoms caused by loss of function in both upper and lower motor neurons. Sphincter control, sensory function, intellectual abilities and skin integrity are preserved.” (Walling, 2013, pg. 1) This is a very crippling disease that can be transmitted in many different ways. The different types of Lou Gehrig 's disease: Sporadic, Familial, and Guamanian. Sporadic, which is the most common type of ALS, is the kind that has been sporadically obtain, meaning, it was not genetically passed down from generation to generation. Unlike Sporadic ALS, Familial ALS is given to future generations through genetics and by family members that have Lou Gehrig 's disease. The disease is typically passed through the genes of males, there has been very few time that the genes were passed to a female. The third type of ALS is an extremely high incidence of ALS was observed in Guam and the Trust Territories of the Pacific in the 1950 's. ALS is said to be both a genetic and environmental