ALS

What is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis? Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS is a potentially fatal disease that affects the brain, spinal chord, and the nerves in your body. A French neurologist named Jean Martin discovered ALS. It is described as a neurodegenerative disease. Neurodegenerative mean the neurons throughout the body shut down and stop reacting and working. The nerves also become weak. The degeneration starts in the brain and spinal chord, then it spreads to the rest of the body. ALS was brought to attention to the world in 1939 when a fantastic Yankee player died of this disease; his name was Lou Gehrig. ALS gets its other name from him and it is the one that most people may know it by: Lou Gehrig's disease. Image: A comparison of how ALS attacks the motor cells and muscles. It shows your muscle and neurons before and after ALS Symptoms ALS is very dangerous because most of the time the symptoms go undetected for a very long time, and once detected ALS kicks in very strongly causing in most cases immediate death or shortness of life.

The Main symptoms of ALS are.

- Weakness in the hand, legs, swallowing, breathing and speech muscles. - Twitching (fasciculation) and cramping of the muscles in hands and legs. - Loose control of legs and hand muscles - Difficult to project your voice - In more advanced cases, breathing problems

The early symptoms of ALS could be very different, one person may trip over carpets, edges, etc; other person may have trouble speaking. In 60% of the cases ALS causes muscle weakness.

ALS only attacks motor neurons; hearing, touch, taste and smell are not affected, Most of time the eye muscles are not affected. And it attacks the hand and feet first.

The average time that a person survives with ALS is from 3 to 5 years but sometimes it could go up to 10 or more years, and there is now scientific explanation of how long will you survive with ALS.

Genetics and Forms of ALS

Only few families get ALS passed down their genes (about 20%). This type of ALS is called FALS. ALS is a mutation of a specific gene. The specific gene is unknown. The whole idea of genetics is partially understood but most of it is still a mystery. There are three types of ALS, sporadic, familial, and Guamanian.

Sporadic: The majority of all cases in the US are sporadic. About 90 to 95% of the cases are sporadic.

Familial: Is the form of ALS also known as FALS

Guamanian: was founded in the 1950's on an island in the Pacific called Guam. There was an occurrence rate on Guam and small surrounding islands. Who Gets ALS? ALS is a genetic disorder that attacks the function of muscles and cells. About 5,600 people are diagnosed with ALS every year (15 cases a day) 60% of the people with ALS are men and 94% of the people with ALS are Caucasian. There are researches that prove that over half of people with ALS live 3 or 4 years, 20% live 5 or more years and about 10% live up to 10 years. There has recently been an study that the drug Rilutek®, helps patients with ALS live longer further information or side affects on Dilute are yet to be studied.

ALS and You

-The early symptoms of ALS are harmless, but once the disease has developed vital signs like breathing or swallowing could be affected. -In most cases the brain and mental actions are not affected -ALS IS NOT CONTAGIOUS -More People die of ALS than Huntington's disease and multiple sclerosis -ALS occurs in the whole world with no racial or sexual discrimination -ALS could strike anyone, even you -Scientist is working in a drug to help patience’s with ALS livelonger

Famous People Who Have Died From ALS - Baseball Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Jim "Catfish" Hunter -Senator Jacob Javits - Actors Michael Zaslow and David Niven - Creator of Sesame Street Jon Stone - Television producer Scott Brazil - Boxing champion Ezzard Charles - NBA Hall of Fame basketball player George Yardley, - Pro football player Glenn Montgomery, - Golfer Jeff Julian and golf caddie Bruce Edwards - British soccer player Jimmy Johnstone - Musician Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) - Photographer Eddie Adams -Entertainer Dennis Day -Jazz musician Charles Mingus, - Composer Dimitri Shostakovich - U.S. Army General Maxwell Taylor.

Discussion Questions (answer on separate sheet of paper)

1. If you were diagnosed with ALS how would you modify your home to accommodate your disability?

2.Do u know anyone with ALS or if not, have you seen anyone who was diagnosed with ALS? What were or would they be like? What could or couldn’t do?

3. If you wanted to donate money to ALS what type of ALS research would you contribute to? Why?

4. If you were diagnosed with ALS and invited to join a drug trial to test the drugs effectiveness, would you? What affects from the drug will tell you if it is working? What if your symptoms got worse? Is it worth trying?

5. If somebody in your neighborhood or family was diagnosed with ALS what could you organize to help them or raise money to contribute to research?

Bibliography "ALS" The ALS Association " ALS information" http://www.alsa.org/

Page by: Juan Pablo and Joseph