Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Lou Gehrig

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

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

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

“A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language ‘A’ meaning no or negative. ‘Myo’ refers to muscle, and “Trophic” means nourishment-’No muscle nourishment’... ‘Lateral’ identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located.” (“What is ALS?”). Literally, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis means no muscle nourishment in the spine. In this disease, nerve cells in both the brain and spinal cord slowly die over a period of time. The cells, referred to as motor neurons, control the muscles throughout the body, resulting in death or paralyzation as they degenerate. At any given time, ALS can strike anyone. It is not contagious, however, in about 10% of cases, ALS runs in the family making it somewhat hereditary (“What is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?”). “The incidence of ALS is two per 100,000 people” (“Facts You Should Know). Most of the time, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), acts on middle-aged and older adults, however there have been noted cases of patients much younger. Considering that a friend or family member can be diagnosed with this horrible disease, everyone should pitch into ALS charities in hope to find a

The effects of ALS are certain cells in the brain and the spinal cord are needed to keep our muscles moving.

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

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.

What is It? Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal age-dependent degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain system, and cortex.39-12 A Plaracteristic of the disease is the loss of all voluntary motor function, with the exception of Ocular muscles and sphincter.8 The average age of onset is 55-60 years and the male to female ratio is 1.3 to 1.10 Following onset it is fatal after 3 to 5 years on average's once respiratory functions are paralyzed." It affects all races' I and is the most common of the human motor neuron diseases3'7' occurring in roughly one in every 2000 people." There are two types of ALS, sporadic and familial', with approximately 10% being

ALS, better known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is considered as a complex genetic disorder, in which multiple hereditary and environmental factors combine to cause this disease. This is seen as an illness of parts of the nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. In ALS, the motor neurons (nerve cells that control muscle cells) are gradually lost. When these motor neurons turn out to be lost, the muscles they control become weak and ultimately nonfunctional. We see that “amyotrophic” is rooted in Greek origin meaning without nourishment to muscles and refers to the loss of signals nerve cells normally send to muscle cells. “Lateral” simply means to the side and refers to the location of the damage in the spinal cord. “Sclerosis” means hardened and refers to the toughened nature of the spinal cord in advanced ALS. This progressive neurodegenerative disease, that was first discovered 150 years ago, is associated with a life expectancy of approximately three years after symptom onset. In the United States, ALS is also known as Lou Gherig’s Disease, named after the Yankees Baseball player who passed away because of it in 1941. In the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, it’s often referred to as motor neuron disease in reference to the cells that are lost in the disorder (ALS Association, 2015).

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.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting both the upper and lower motor neurons in the cerebral cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord. It is the most common motor neuron disease in the adult population with a prevalence of two to seven cases per 100,000 individuals. Survival rates in persons with ALS show considerable variation. Five-year survival rates vary from 7% to 40%, whereas 10-year survival rates range from 8% to 16% (cite).

The brain is a complex organ that controls all of our bodies’ functions. In a normal functioning brain, there are thousands of neurons that lead to the muscles so they can control movement and feeling throughout the body. A rare disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affects these neurons in the brain, specifically in the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that leads to the inability of the brain to signal muscle movements, which cause the person to be unable to walk, speak, eat or breathe, and ultimately leads to paralysis and death.

ALS is considered a neurodegenerative disease because it kills neurons, specifically, motor neurons. These neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord, and from the spinal cord to muscles throughout the body. Motor neurons provide muscle control and voluntary movements such as reaching for something, or bending your knee. When a person has ALS, these neurons become damaged and can eventually die. The death of motor neurons causes the brain to lose control over movement of muscles. People with

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.

C. Strictly speaking, ALS involves degeneration and death of both upper and lower motor neurons. While most patients have clear loss of both types of motor neurons, some patients have greater loss of upper motor neurons, while other patients have greater loss of lower motor. These differences do not change the diagnosis. In these circumstances, the more general term ‘motor neuron disease’ is appropriate (MDA).