Lou Gehrig, one of the greats in baseball, had his amazing record taken from him during the 1939 season when he gave the umpire the cards of the players and announced he would no longer play the game. The reason for this was Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease or ALS. This disease later became known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. ALS was first discovered by French Neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot in 1869. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis affects the brain and spinal cord nerve cells. “A-myo-trophic means no muscle nourishment” (ALS association: What Is ALS?).
This disease affects the nerve cells by enabling them to send electric impulses to the muscles which ultimately makes the muscle wither away and stop working. The nerves targeted are actually
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The two different forms are Sporadic and Familial. The Sporadic ALS makes up approximately 90 to 95 percent of the people who have this disease in the US. The other 5 to 10 percent cases of ALS in the US are made up by Familial ALS. When someone is diagnosed with Familial ALS it means that they inherited it.
ALS is usually diagnosed in people between 40 to 70 years old, and more common among caucasians. “For unknown reasons, military veterans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with the disease than the general public”(ALS association: What Is ALS?). Although, even with this statistic on it, anybody can get ALS. Symptoms for ALS are so generic that they are overlooked most of the time.
Some of the symptoms include slurred and nasal speech, difficulty chewing or swallowing, cramping, stiff or tight muscles, or muscle weakness (NINDS:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Fact sheet). The reason that the symptoms are so common to other diseases, causes many people to overlook the possibility of ALS. It’s not until more obvious weaknesses are present that physicians begin to suspect ALS. This basically causes people to be blindsided by the diagnose of this disease and at times it has been reported that people fall into
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
A. Although this disease can strike anyone, it is extremely rare in kids. According to the ALS Association, most people who develop Lou Gehrig's disease are adults between 40 and 70, but younger and or older people can develop this disease. People of all races and ethnic backgrounds are affected. ALS is a
People first need to know what ALS is. ALS is very difficult to diagnose. So far there is no
ALS was also called Lou Gehrig disease. The reason why it was called the Lou Gehrig diseases is because he was a famous MLB baseball player that was diagnosed with ALS and later on died from it. Lou Gehrig was born in New York City, on June 19, 1903. Lou devoted his whole life in Baseball and his family. Later on Lou was having a hard time tying his shoes and had a feeling that this can be his end of his career. In 1939, The doctor had a bad news for him which was that he was diagnosed with ALS.
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).
However, there are two types of ALS, which are Sporadic ALS and Familial ALS. Sporadic ALS can happen to anyone and makes up most of 90% to 95% of cases, while Familial ALS is inherited and that's about 5% to 10% of cases. Some ailments related to the disease are Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS), Progressive Bulbar Palsy (PBP), and Werdnig-Hoffman disease. PLS is a slightly less severe form of ALS, but it does affect the upper body. PBP is a muscle weakness of the body, however, the lower body is affected. Werdnig-Hoffman is a spinal cord disease that affects both children and infants. For all three types, there is no treatment or cure that will slow down the progression. In support of the patients with ALS, multiple support groups have been made, and in addition, patients will donate their brain to science to further the research in finding a cure. In result, ALS isn't the only disease that poses a big issue in sports, CTE also has a notable impact.
ALS got the name Lou Gehrig’s disease from a New York Yankee’s baseball player. Lou Gehrig had his first symptoms when his batting average had plummeted. He couldn’t hit long balls anymore. His strength was deteriorating. He also started to walk very slowly. After things started going downhill, he found out he had the disease which would later be named after him. He had ALS. On June 4, 1939 Lou said good-bye to his fans and Yankee Stadium. He was going to retire from baseball because of the condition he was in. He was dying of ALS. There have also been many other well-known people diagnosed with this disease. Stephan Hawking was diagnosed with ALS in 1963 when he was only 21 years old, and he is still alive.
ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a disease that attacks the muscles and impacts a person’s physical function. Overtime, the symptoms will
In the United States of America, there is an average of 30,000 ALS patients. Of those 30,000, 60% are of the male gender, 90% are Caucasian, and the age range of the majority affected is 40 to 70 years of age. In the United States, over 5,600 people are diagnosed with ALS every year.
With ALS, this disease process only last three to five years after being diagnosed, but patients with medical management have
It's a brave question because the answers are not very pleasant." When an individual is diagnosed with ALS, they begin a totally new way of life. Surprising, in many cases it can often be difficult to diagnose someone with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. However, with a history of their problems and a few other tools, it is possible. One of the most common ways to diagnose someone with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is by looking at their complications. Some of the most common early signs of ALS are a patient's legs may seem to be heavier than normal or
ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, it is also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease. This disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes muscle weakness, paralysis, and ultimately, respiratory failure. This disease has a lot of awareness from the world. Lots of people donate money , and have also done the ALS ice water bucket challenge.
Chemical imbalance. People with ALS generally have higher than normal levels of glutamate, too much glutamate is known to be toxic to some nerve cells.
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is the most common form and accounts for roughly 60% to 70% of all cases.
The manifestations of ALS are caused by the location of motor neuron death. When upper motor neurons die, the symptoms include problems controlling fine movements, spasms, dysphagia, dysphonia and dysarthria (Porth & Matfin, 2009). “Manifestations of lower motor neuron destruction include fasciculations, weakness, muscle atrophy, and hyporeflexia” (Porth & Matfin, 2009, p. 1284). Patients with early signs of ALS usually complain of feeling weak on one side, which is due to the slowing of electrical impulses to that group of muscles (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2010). Since the impulses are slowed, they are not receiving adequate electrical stimulation to move and the person feels weak. As the disease progresses, all the motor neurons die and are not regenerated so, the patient is left paralyzed, losing the ability to speak, swallow and breathe (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2010).