Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Jean-Marie Charcot was the first to recognize ALS as a distinct neurological disease with its own unique pathology. In ALS, nerve cells degenerate and deteriorate, and are unable to transmit messages to muscles. In around 90% of the cases of ALS, the cause remains unknown. Studies have concentrated on the responsibility of glutamate in motor neuron degeneration. Glutamate is one of several neurotransmitters in the brain. While there is no known cure for ALS, strides in medicine have allowed for the development of a wide variety of medications to treat the various symptoms of ALS, as well as dietary, physical therapy, and breathing techniques, all of which can lessen symptoms and increase life expectancy.
Description of ALS
“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” (“Farewell”, n.d.) These were the words on Henry Louis Gehrig on July 4th, 1939 at Yankee Stadium. For most of his life, Lou Gehrig had been just that…lucky. Gehrig was a baseball superstar. He had appeared in 7 all-star games and won 6 World Series titles (“All-Star Game”, n.d; “Lou Gehrig”, n.d.). His record of streak of 2130 consecutive games played had earned him the nickname, “the iron horse”. However, it is not for these accomplishments that Gehrig is most known. Gehrig is most known for the disease that took his career, his life, and finally, his name.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement (Dugdale, Koch, and Zieve 2010). In ALS, nerve c...
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There is no cure for ALS at this time and treatment is focused on management of the symptoms, involving a combination of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech, respiratory, and nutritional therapies. Moderate exercise may help maintain muscle strength and function. Drugs can also treat excessive saliva and drooling, and speech therapy can help compensate for loss of muscular control of the mouth. As the disease progresses and muscular degeneration spreads throughout the body, various devices may provide support, such as ankle braces, neck collars, reclining chairs, wheelchairs, and hospital beds. Respiratory support and feeding tubes are required when the person loses cont...
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was not brought to International or national attention until Famous New York Yankees baseball player, Lou Gehrig, was diagnosed with it in 1939. Jon Stone, the writer and creator of Sesame Street, was also diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is very deadly and it physically handicaps a person as it progresses. There are two types of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Sporadic and Familial. Sporadic is the most common cause in some cases and Familial is inherited, which is rare. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is one of the most aggressive muscular atrophy disorders, it has many signs and symptoms, and it can be treated but cannot be cured.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is also referred to as a motor neuron disorder (MND), as it is characterized by the continual degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons. These motor neurons, as previously stated, are responsible for voluntary muscles in the body, and as the neurons degenerate, or die, the neurons are unable to send messages to the muscles. When muscles can no longer receive signals, they become unable to function, and in turn, weaken and waste away. Eventually, the brain loses its ability to start and control voluntary movement, resulting in paralysis.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease in which the motor neurons in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord are attacked and killed over time. Also known as Lou Gehrigs disease (after the hall of fame baseball player), ALS belongs to a group of disorders described by the decay and death of motor neurons called the motor neuron diseases. Although there are many symptoms associated with ALS that appear to occur quickly and randomly, the progression of the disease has been known to vary according to the individual.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a degenerative disease affecting the human nervous system. It is a deadly disease that cripples and kills its victims due to a breakdown in the body’s motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells in the brainstem and spinal cord that control muscle contractions. In ALS, these neurons deteriorate to a point that all movement, including breathing, halts. Muscle weakness first develops in the muscles of body parts distant from the brain, such as the hands, and subsequently spreads through other muscle groups closer to the brain. Such early symptoms as this, however, can hardly be noticed.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an adult onset neurodegenerative disease. It is characterized by the death of motor neurons in the motor cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord. 90% of all cases of ALS are sporadic with no familial history, while 10% of cases of ALS have familial history. 20% of cases of familial ALS cases are linked to mutations in the SOD1 gene. Currently, the pathogenesis of the disease is unknown. However, multiple studies show that there are several mechanisms contribute to the progression of the disease. These include mitochondrial dysfunction, glutamate excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, axonal dysfunction, reactive astrocytosis, protein aggregation, and mutant SOD1 expression.
Talbot, K., Turner, M. R., Marsden, R. and Botell, R. (2010) Motor Neuron Disease a practical manual, first edition, Oxford University Press
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS, is a disease of the nervous system that controls muscle movement. With ALS, your motor neurons (cells that control muscle cells) are lost. As these are lost, the muscles become weak and eventually will quit working all together.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a neurological disorder that affects roughly one in 200,000 people (DiDonato et al., 2003). As such, ALS is among the most common neurological disorders found in humans. It typically occurs mid-life and kills motor neurons, which leads to paralysis and death. Most cases of ALS do not show a genetic linkage. However, five to ten percent of cases are, in fact, inherited in an autosomal recessive manner (DiDonato et al., 2003). This inherited ALS is referred to as familial ALS (FALS), and twenty percent of these cases are connected to mutations in the SOD1 gene.
Lou Gehrig's disease, also called: ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive disease, meaning the disease gets worse over time. It affects nerves in the brain and the spinal cord by causing death of the neurons which control voluntary muscles. As the muscles get weaker, it gets harder to walk, eat, breathe, and talk (4).
Lou Gehrig’s Disease or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a collection of rare neurological diseases that affect the motor neurons that control the voluntary muscle movements. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative illness that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS is a disease that belongs to a wider group of disorders that are known as motor neuron diseases. This is caused by gradual deterioration and the death of motor neurons. ‘Amyotrophic’ comes from the Greek roots that mean ‘without nourishment to muscles’. ‘Lateral’ means ‘to the side’ and refers to the position of the destruction in the spinal cord. ‘Sclerosis’ means the hardening of the spinal cord.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a destructive neurodegenerative disease. It is a deadly disease that affects the motor neurons, which are nerve cells that controls muscle movements. The nerve cells are found in the brainstem and the spinal cord. Due to ALS disease the motor neurons die over time and stop sending signals to the muscles throughout the body. Since the brain can no longer control the voluntary movement of the cells, the muscles become weak which causes an inability to control movement.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a disease that everyone should fear. Once the disease is in your body, there is no found cure but riluzole therapy is something that may extend life expectancy. Odds are for every 100,000 years, 2 people acquire the disease, with the majority being of the male sex. “Most people who develop Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis are between the ages of 40 and 75, with the majority after age 60, although it can occur at a younger age.” Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis may still be developed at a young age but it is very rare. Stephen William Hawking turns out to be a very rare man. http://www.alscenter.org/living_with_als/facts_statistics.html
ALS - is a progressive neurological disease that causes premature degeneration of motor neurons, which results in progressive
During our everyday lives, we do a lot of things such as learning new information at school, write notes, walk our dogs at the park and communicate with other people around us. The one responsible for all of these actions that we do is the nervous system in our body. Our nervous system, which consists of the brain, spinal cord and the nerves, serves as the command center of our body. A person will be in a lot of trouble if something goes wrong to their nervous system. It can affect the way a person moves, speak, breath and even learn. Neurological diseases is the term used to describe an illness that involves the nervous system. There are “more than 600 neurological diseases” (Jankovic et al., pg.186) however, on this paper, we are only going to focus on a certain type of degenerative diseases which is the Corticobasal Degeneration.