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Lou Gehrig's Disease: Amycotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – also referred to as Motor Neurone Disease in most Commonwealth countries, and as Lou Gehrig's disease in the United States– is a debilitating disease with varied etiology characterized by rapidly progressive weakness, muscle atrophy and fasciculations which is a spontaneous contraction affecting small number of muscle fiber. This is often referred “Lou Gehrig’s disease”. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Muscle cramps and muscle twitching all happens when people have ALS disease. First it damages the spinal cord pathway and through the motor neurons, bodies to move and is made up of the brain, nerve, and muscle. The things that we do every day like running all of that is controlled by the neuromuscular system. By the time that passes by the ALS disease causes these motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord to shrink and goes away, so muscle no longer receive signals to move. The result of this is that the muscle becomes smaller and weaker. About 2 out of 100,000 people will get Lou Gehrig’s disease. 5 out of 10% ALS cases in the United State are in Hereditary, means the disease runs through a certain families. At least 90% of cases are not inherited, this disease is called the Sporadic ALS disease.

Lou Gehrig’s disease does not always begin or become worse in the same way. The disease is different for every person who has it. The

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