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. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurological disorder that involves the degeneration of motor neurons. Commonly, ALS is referred to as “Lou Grieg’s disease” after the New York Yankee Hall-of-Famer, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1939 (mayo Clinic, 2010). According to the national institute of neurological disorders, ALS is a rapidly developing, consistently progressive, invariably fatal neurological disease that’s attacking the nerve cells needed for controlling voluntary muscles, or movement.” (NINDS, 2010). The muscles go through atrophy, which means the muscles gradually weaken and wasting away. Furthermore, ALS affects the neuromuscular system, which “enables our bodies to move …show more content…
Gene mutations prevent the breakdown of toxic substances leading to their buildup in nerve cells, which eventually is cell death. (Genetics Home Reference, 2012) Other causes are disorganized immune responses, protein mishandling, and lead exposure. A disorganized immune response may trigger the ALS process because of the proteins in cells, which causes cell death of nerves. In the same fashion, Protein mishandlings can lead to the steady amassing of irregular proteins, causing cell death. Additionally evidence suggests that lead exposure can lead the progression of
Amyotrophic meaning, “no muscle nourishment” in Greek, lateral meaning where the neurons are in the spinal cord, and sclerosis meaning “scarring.” ALS, often known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” named after the New York Yankee who first brought awareness to the disease in the late 1930’s, is a neurodegenerative disease, which affects the neurons in the brain. The nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that are responsible for sending and receiving motor signals progressively die off, causing the deterioration of simple motor skills in patients with ALS, such as walking, talking, and eventually speaking and breathing, however thinking is not affected by ALS. Early symptoms cause the person to slowly lose mobility of limbs, but in a matter of a few years, the person loses the mobility of most of their body and will eventually lose the ability to eat and breath, which will ultimately cause death. ALS deteriorates the patient's body, however does not affect the patient's state of mind or sanity while the rest of the body shuts down. People usually get ALS between the ages of 40 and 70. However, there is a growing trend where athletes are getting ALS in their thirties. ALS can be contributed to genetic predisposition, which means that the gene that is responsible for ALS is already in the person’s DNA. In recent studies, however, it was observed that individuals who have had suffered multiple concussions or any other head trauma are
“ Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells (neurons) responsible for controlling voluntary muscles (muscle action we are able to control, such as those in the arms, legs, and face).” By what A.L.S association.org says. A neurological disease is a disease that affects the brain and gives it many diseases like brain tumors, epilepsy, and, Parkinson's. “A.L.S is a neurological disease that weakens the muscles to where you can barely move or speak” said alsa.org. You can only live up to two to five years with als. A.L.S is a very rare disease every 100,000 people get it. By what alsa.org said. That means 73,571 people has it in the Whole world right now. Als is a very rare
The article titled “The Voices of A.L.S. by Tara Parker-Pope has given me a better insight into A.L.S. In fact, it has made me more aware of it. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, affects parts of the nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. Motor neurons, among the largest of all nerve cells, reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to muscles throughout the body. When these motor neurons die, the brain can no longer start and control muscle movement. At this time there is no cure for the disease; however, over the past few decades, we have made amazing strides in our understanding of the brain, the nervous system, and genetics. Discoveries in each of these areas bring
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
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a terminal disease that degenerates the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neurons run from the brain, through the spinal cord, and into the muscles of person; this is what allows a person to have control over voluntary movement. When an individual is diagnosed with ALS, their motor neurons begin to degenerate, thus eradicating their ability to walk, eat, and eventually breathe.
Lou Gehrig’s Disease Thesis: Weakness in the hands, arms, legs or slurred speech. Imagine having these symptoms and not knowing what is wrong. Then the most dreaded words are uttered, “You have Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or other wise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a disease that attacks muscles and brain cells. “ALS was first found in 1869 by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot,but it wasn’t until 1939 that Lou Gehrig brought national and international attention to the disease” (About).
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a terminal disease, also known as Motor Neurons Disease, Charchot Disease and Lou Gehrig disease. ALS destroys the Central Nervous System (CNS) and causes damage to the upper and lower motor neurons in the brain. Signs and symptoms are characterized as: muscles weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching and reduced muscle reflexes. Eventually the patient will become paralyzed and rely on a tracheostomy and ventilator for breathing (ALS Association [ALSA], 2010).
There are 20,000 new cases of ALS diagnosed each year in the United States. This yields an incidence of 3 per 100,000 (Brown, 2006). There is no known cause for ALS in 95% of patients; however, 5% have an identifiable genetic mutation (Elman, 2016). The disease can present in individuals less than 30 years of age, but peaks between 40 and 60 years of age. Before the age of 65, more diagnoses are made in men; after the age of 65, gender incidence is equal. There is no clear-cut ethnic or racial predisposition in ALS (Ricks, 2016). The lifespan is approximately 3-4 years after diagnosis. However, in 10 % of
There are many factors that may determine how the disease affects an individual. The first factor is how much muscle and fat the victim had before Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis began wasting the muscles away. Smoking has been thought to double a person’s risk of developing ALS, although it has not yet been proven. Military service seems to also have an effect on who contracts ALS. Military men and women have the chance of being exposed to various metals, infections, exertion, chemicals and trauma that can affect the impact of
ALS is more commonly known as Lou Gehrigs disease. The progressive disease poisons the nervous system by a chemical that is released after a blow to the head; this chemical is known as Tou. Tou is released into the brain after a blow, poisoning the nervous system causing body muscles to shut down.
Some things that can cause ALS is a genetic mutation in the SOD1 gene when a baby is born. It can also develop over time. There is no known cure but some things that can help are medication and physical therapy. In most cases, patients die within 2-5 years of being diagnosed.
ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease is a classified as a degenerative neurological disorder that inhibits motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain to function properly. This disease eventually results in paralysis and imminent death over a period of time. ALS patients have anywhere from a few months, to a couple years to live after diagnosis since their nervous systems are slowly destroyed, rendering the body useless, and sustaining life impossible.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig Disease, it's a disease that affect the neurons in the brain and its ability to communicate with other neurons leading to complications to the spinal cord. This disease affects the victim in various ways it's a progressive disease meaning it starts off slowly
A distinctive characteristic of ALS is that although the motor neurons die, the brain, cognitive functions and sensory neurons stay intact (Porth & Matfin, 2009). This makes the disease especially devastating because patients become trapped inside their dying body, with a fully alert mind, but are unable to move. It is not known what causes the exact death of the motor neurons in the body, but “five percent to 10% of cases are familial; the others are believed to be sporadic” (Porth & Matfin, 2009, p.
ALS, which is known to be called “ Lou Gehrig's is the disease that is making the sports world react to many head traumatic injuries. ALS comes from the Greek language meaning, no muscle nourishment. When the muscles do not get the nourishment they need, they begin to break down or waste away, causing many problems and damage to the body. The brain and spinal cords are where the signals of the nerve cells are located, so while the muscles and nerves cells being to weaken and break down the body cannot get the signals it needs to do certain tasks needed in everyday life. Research has shown while the body begins to break down, every day the symptoms just start to get worse and worse over time.