Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Picture sitting up to reach for an object but are incapable of moving a muscle. Although completely aware of the surroundings, being unable to interact with any of it as if trapped in a shell, or loved ones noticing increasing instability and offbeat behaviour. These are the lives of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS but more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. ALS affects those with the disease by causing full body paralysis. However the disease leaves the brain completely intact. Contrary to ALS is a CTE, a disease that attacks the brain. The build of a specific toxin in the brain is the culprit that leads to the disease which causes brain damage. Concussions are another serious factor

Other times when sitting to watch a sports game, the last thought that crosses through the mind is whether a player will be injured or will have consequences later in life. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is gaining awareness because of current uprise in athletes developing it at a very young age such as Lou Gehrig a famous baseball player. This disease affects the body by causing loss in muscle movement. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a disease affects the mind not the body and is a progressive degenerative disease. CTE has many diseases that fall under its category such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, Huntington's disease and Dementia. The most common factors for these diseases are concussions and head trauma because athletes

The repeated brain trauma triggers progressive decay of the brain tissue, including the build-up of an abnormal protein called Tau. Symptoms that can be followed with the disease are memory loss, confusion, aggression, depression, anxiety, and suicidality. These changes can occur months or even years later after the last brain trauma involvement. Currently, CTE can only be diagnosed after death by postmortem neuropathological analysis. Right now there is no way to use any type of brain imaging methods to diagnosis CTE. The most common age group for an athlete to get this disease would be roughly around their 20’s or 30’s. This disease can be found most commonly in people who participate in contact sports. For example, tackle football players and boxers are most typical to be diagnosed with CTE because of the hard hits they can receive while playing the sport. Some of the symptoms that athletes can get when having CTE would be trouble speaking, emotional instability, and memory lose.

It is a progressive incurable fatal neurological disease. In the body we have these things called motor neurons which control muscle movement. When the process of Als starts these motor neurons die 1 after the other. As of today there is no known explanation on how people get Als. Although there is some sort of explanation on why young athletes get the disease. It has to do with toxic proteins that are found in the brain, these toxins start to form after suffering consecutive blows to the head. They start to form in the brain and then they slowly leak down the spinal cord which triggers Als. It all starts with the first symptoms of feeling muscle weakness, trouble chewing and slurred speech. In any random body part the feeling of it starts to go away. Which then spreads to the rest of the body parts and then ultimately leaving paralysed. It leaves the person unable to do anything, but there are some things you still use such as vision, hearing and the strangest of them all the brain. The average range of those diagnosed is from 40 to 70 years of age. The life expectancy after contracting the disease is from 2-5 years but in some cases the person has lived up to 10

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is most commonly found in pro athletes, military victims, and boxing/MMA(Mixed Martial Arts). Lately people in the NFL and people looking into the NFL have been finding some players to have some kind of brain disease or damage because of the

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.

Though the cause of ALS is unknown, many people believe that sports are to blame. Recent studies show that people who have suffered from head trauma are most likely to get diagnosed with ALS at a much younger age. However, some people suffer from repeated blows to the head and not develop the disease. Lou Gehrig was only thirty-six years old when he was diagnosed with ALS; it is said that Lou Gehrig obtained many head injuries and failed to get the rest he needed in order maintain his streak of 2,632 consecutive games. Was not getting the necessary rest to recover a main factor that lead to the development of ALS in Lou Gehrig? Athletes that box or play football are at a higher risk of developing ALS because they are constantly receiving repetitive blows to the head. The reason why athletes develop ALS at a younger age might be because of the constant head

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

“Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a progressive disease of the brain found in athletes who have a history of repeated brain trauma…” (Harris) CTE is closely associated with Alzheimer’s, another gradual, deteriorating brain disease that destroys the individual’s ability to remember, make decisions, and eventually takes away the ability for people to complete every day functions. Alzheimer’s is usually diagnosed around the age of 65 or older as a result of brain cell failure. (Alzheimer’s Association) CTE, on the other hand, affects individuals younger than 65. Generally, with CTE, people who are athletes are diagnosed around forty or fifty years of age. The athletes who are most affected with CTE, are those who have played

Diagnosed at such a young age, usually non-athletes get diagnosed with ALS at the age of 40-70 with average age at 55. Non-athletes don't suffer with injury to the head as much as Athletes do. Athletes however, tend to be diagnosed with ALS between 20’s and 30’s. CTE was discovered in 3 of 14 high school players and 48 of 53 college players. One Athlete named Junior Seau, who committed suicide in May, two years after retiring as one of the linebackers in the NFL. Seau suffered from the type of Chronic brain damage. The family of Seau stated “ a lot of head-to-head collisions over the course of 20 years of playing in the NFL, developed the detention of his brain and ability to think logically” (paragraph 4), resulted to the disease of CTE.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS is a disease caused by concussions and head trauma. ALS is a rare neurological disease that mainly involves nerve cells, which control voluntary muscle movement, such as breathing, talking, or chewing. With this being a progressive disease that has no cure it has made a tremendous impact for check ups after blows to the head. A hit to the head does not always mean you have a concussion, but with symptoms and side effects the athlete should not take a chance and get it checked out immediately. This is more of a physical incapacity disease. ALS has become a common disease for athletes in the mid-twenties, and life expectancy is very slim once the diagnosis has taken place. The main reported life periods for ALS athletes has been 3-5 years, but with medication and treatments it has had higher life expectancies about 20% have 5 years, 10% have 10 years, and 5% have 20 years. The athletes lives have changed from the beginning of the diagnoses till the end of the lives they do live with the disease. Being a scary thing to think about athletes do tend to have the ability to walk away at retirement perfectly clear from ALS, which is a win.

The word “Amyotrophic” comes from the Greek language meaning “no nourishment”. ALS causes muscle weakness, problems with coordination, stiff muscles, loss of muscles, muscle spasms, over reactive reflexes, and fatigue. The symptoms of ALS increase rapidly, which makes an individual lose control of the muscles and begin having slurred speech. The arms and legs begin to feel weak and tired unexpectedly, while also experiencing cramps. When a medical professional diagnose someone with ALS they have about 2-5 years to live on average. Although about 10% of people with ALS live up to 10 years with the disease, while 25% live up to 5 years and 50% live up to 3 years. The average age that an individual is diagnosed with ALS is 55, but varies from the ages of

While ALS attacks the body except for the brain, CTE is a disease that attacks the brain and can only be diagnosed after death. According to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, the way CTE works is from a protein called tau. This protein clumps, spreads throughout the brain and ends up killing the brain cells. During the disease, the victim's mood and behavior are affected as well as changing their impulse control, causing depression, aggression, and paranoia. The causes of CTE

Lou Gehrig was not the first person diagnosed with ALS, but he was diagnosed with ALS when the media started to begin and there was television . ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. The disease affects all motor skills and muscle movement in the body which causes the muscles to become malnourished. When diagnosed with ALS, the face, arms, and legs slowly begin to paralyze and lose control of speech. The average time of life after diagnosis is two to five years and the average age to get ALS is fifty-five. However athletes are being diagnosed with ALS at ayounger age. Researchers think it’s probably due to the fact that they get hit in the head more often. ALS is without a doubt the most horrific disease because your brain is perfectly fine and you watch yourself slowly die without being to do anything about

However, those professional athletes competing in sports with a good deal of physical contact are in harm’s way of experiencing multiple concussions during their career as an athlete. According to recent research, scientists have discovered a neurodegenerative disease also known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE (Hard Knocks: The Science of Concussions). This disease was found in the brains of former athletes who have died mainly boxers and football players (What is CTE?). These athletes were those who have received continuous concussions or played in positions where they were vulnerable to experience a good amount of physical impact (Hard Knocks: The Science of Concussions). The repeated banging of the brain against the skull causes a gradual degeneration of the brain tissue, and also the forming of an unusual protein known as tau (What is CTE?). These activities in the brain can take place months or even years after the last concussion or retirement from the sport. Some of the symptoms associated with CTE include: memory loss, confusion, depression, aggression, hindered judgment, and dementia (What is CTE?).