Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (als)

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a disease of the brain and spinal cord’s nerve cells that regulate voluntary muscle movement. With ALS, the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord (neurons) waste away and aren't able to send messages to the bodies muscles. In time, the patient's chest muscles will no longer work and breathing will become difficult or impossible. The arms, legs, and body will no longer be able to move and twitching and weakening will begin to occur as well.

Signs and symptoms include difficulty breathing and swallowing which can lead to choking easily, drooling, and gagging. Head drop (due to muscle weakness), fasciculation, slowly progressing muscle weakness, paralysis, speech problems, voice change, and weight loss are some other symptoms of ALS. When the muscles begin to first weaken, it commonly starts in one part of the body first (hand, arm, etc.) then slowly spreads which will lead to struggle with lifting, climbing stairs, and walking. These symptoms do not occur normally until after the age of 50, but they can begin in younger people. ALS doesn’t affect the senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, tastes), but it can rarely affect the bladder and bowel function, or the person’s ability to think or reason. Signs of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis include muscle tremors, spasms, twitching, atrophy of muscle tissue, clumsiness or stiffness while walking, loss of gag reflex, and emotional incontinence.

The initial diagnosis of Lou Gehrigs may be determined by a number of tests. Blood and breathing tests, electromyography, cervical spine CT, genetic tests, swallowing and nerve conduction studies, and a spinal tap are just a few of the tests done performed to make the final diagnosis of ALS.

There is not a known for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, but there are a few drugs that can help the quality of life be much better. Riluzole slows the diseases progression