ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is no cure and the disease is always fatal. ALS is also commonly known in the US as Lou Gehrig’s Disease (Gehrig was a famous New York Yankees baseball player who, on May 2, 1939 pulled himself out of his 2130th consecutive game and was subsequently diagnosed with ALS) and MND across other parts of the world; it attacks cells in the brain and spinal cord called motor neurons that carry messages from your brain to your muscles.
As motor neurons die off, left behind are scars in the brain and on the spinal cord preventing control of muscle movement. As muscles go unused, they atrophy or “waste” away. Sometime during the course of motor neuron death, symptoms of ALS such as loss of ability to speak, eat, move, and breathe began to appear. This dreadful disease tends to affect motor neurons that control voluntary movement. For example, the ability to speak and swallow is voluntary and so is breathing. If you don’t think so, hold your breath for 20 seconds and do not speak! Involuntary muscle movement, such as the beating of your heart, blinking, and bladder control are generally not affected.
Gradually all voluntary muscles are affected, and individuals lose their strength and the ability to speak, eat, move, and breathe. Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure, typically within 3 to 5 years from symptom onset. About 10% of people with ALS survive for 10 or more years.
Adapted from the Texas chapter of the ALS Association and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:
https://alstexas.org/understanding-als/
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-fact-sheet#:~:text=Amyotrophic%20lateral%20sclerosis%20(ALS)%20is,chewing%2C%20walking%2C%20and%20talking.
As motor neurons die off, left behind are scars in the brain and on the spinal cord preventing control of muscle movement. As muscles go unused, they atrophy or “waste” away. Sometime during the course of motor neuron death, symptoms of ALS such as loss of ability to speak, eat, move, and breathe began to appear. This dreadful disease tends to affect motor neurons that control voluntary movement. For example, the ability to speak and swallow is voluntary and so is breathing. If you don’t think so, hold your breath for 20 seconds and do not speak! Involuntary muscle movement, such as the beating of your heart, blinking, and bladder control are generally not affected.
Gradually all voluntary muscles are affected, and individuals lose their strength and the ability to speak, eat, move, and breathe. Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure, typically within 3 to 5 years from symptom onset. About 10% of people with ALS survive for 10 or more years.
Adapted from the Texas chapter of the ALS Association and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:
https://alstexas.org/understanding-als/
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-fact-sheet#:~:text=Amyotrophic%20lateral%20sclerosis%20(ALS)%20is,chewing%2C%20walking%2C%20and%20talking.