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 …show more content…
Lou Gehrig was born in New York City in the year 1903. Lou was born into poverty, his dad could not keep a job and could not stay sober while his mother worked hard but could not make enough to support Gehrig and his three siblings. The Gehrig family took advantage of Lou’s excellent athletic ability in baseball and football and sent him to college. At Columbia University Lou played fullback for the football team and pitcher for the baseball team while studying engineering. Although Gehrig was pitching, the New York Yankees liked the way he swung the bat so they offered him his first professional league contract. Gehrig had a much decorated major league career in the MLB. He set the record for most consecutive games played, 2,130, which is about 13 years of games. He set multiple batting records that include most Runs Batted In in a season, most home runs in one game, and winning the Triple Crown Award (Having the most home runs, RBIs, and batting average in the MLB). Lou also won six World Series titles in his baseball career with the Yankees. In 1938 Lou noticed that he was not playing baseball as well as he should be. At this time he also noticed that he was having trouble tying his shoes and other simple tasks so he scheduled a doctor’s appointment. In 1939 Lou was officially diagnosed with ALS, ending his …show more content…
Professors of neurology do not even know why Stephen has been able to live this long with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Professor Leo McCluskey has some ideas of why Stephen Hawking has lived past the normal person with ALS. One idea is that Hawking is just astounding and an outlier. McClustley’s other idea is that Hawking has the juvenile-onset type of disease. This means that the disorder progresses very slowly. He says this because in most patients who were diagnosed in their teens live into their 40’s, 50’s, or 60’s. Even though Hawking has been confined to a wheelchair ever since he was 21 years of age, he has still been able to bring ideas about black holes and quantum gravity to the public eye. For the past 30 years Hawking has been able to speak through with his trademark computer system. He operates his computer system through his cheek and is able to communicate very well. Having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis did not slow Hawking down. He spent 30 years as a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and he is currently the director of research at Cambridge’s Center for Theoretical Cosmology. Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1963, but he has been able to make a family of his wife and three children. His children were born after his diagnosis in 1963; he had kids
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.
June 19th, 1939 one of the New York Yankees and baseball's most famous first baseman, Lou Gehrig, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis after six days of extensive testing. Fifteen days later on July 4th, 1939 Lou Gehrig flew to Yankee stadium in New York and gave his famous, “Farewell to Baseball” speech. The speech wasn't just for Yankees fans, but for all fans of baseball. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS for short, is a a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function, usually killing the person in two to five years. Gehrig knew he didn't have long. That's why fifteen days after his diagnosis Gehrig was standing at home plate in Yankee stadium telling all baseball fans of his retirement due to illness. In under 300 words, using ethos, logos, and pathos, Gehrig transformed how baseball fans viewed him, not just as a player, but as a person. Gehrig showed the world how strong willed and fearless a person can be in the face of adversity.
“ 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 disease got its name from the famous baseball player, Lou Gehrig. He was an all star first baseman and a king of home runs. His professional baseball career with the New York Yankees was cut short due to this horrible disease in 1939. He died from it in 1941, at the age of thirty seven. Doctors do not know what causes ALS and why it occurs.
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?).
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 is a disease which is prevent the body from producing normal things. Most people who develop ALS are between the age of 40 and 70, with an average age of 55. The athletes is between 20 and 30. “Lou Gehrig, he was a baseball player, he had ALS in his 30 years old”. “Dou Revie, he was a football player, he had ALS when he was 29”. People who have ALS gradually become more disabled, they can’t walk, speak, eat and anything in
In 1939, the famous baseball player for the New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with the incurable neurodegenerative disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. This time period is when ALS came to the forefront of the mind of sports fans. On June 2, 1941 , Lou Gehrig lost his heroic and inspiring fight against the paralyzing disease, ALS. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is now also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease in the United States, mainly because of Lou Gehrig’s impact on American culture during his time. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is very fatal to its victims. There are many aspects of this disease that must be spoken about on occasion, but the biggest point to be made is that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis can attack
ALS is also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a disease in which the brain, nerves, and spinal cord deteriorate. It attacks every part of the body except the brain. Causing major body malfunction along with muscle weakening. Which includes lack of strength, the ability to move arms, legs and body, eventually you lose the ability to breathe. The average time of life after being diagnosed is two - five years. It was believed to be inherited or maybe an infection. After years of research scientist have found a major
ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease because he was one of the first famous athletes to talk about the disease he had. Although it isn't contagious, it is genetic. There is currently no cure, only minimal treatment to stop the progression. The average person lives 2-5 years after being diagnosed. Both the upper and lower motor neurons die and stop sending messages to the brain and the muscles gradually weaken.
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
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).
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
There are many known diseases in the world that we live in today affecting a wide range of individuals of different ages, ethnicities, and genders. With each type of disease comes a diagnosis, prognosis, and potential for a cure from one of life’s many ailments. Over the course of time, technology has began to lead the way in discovering as well as treating many disease in which doctors previously knew little about. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, was first described in 1869 by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. In 1939 ALS brought international attention when Lou Gehrig abruptly retired from baseball after being diagnosed with the disease(6).