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ALS - Lou Gehrig

 

            
            
             Imagine you are a 70-year-old woman. Day by day, you take notice of the increased difficulty of breathing, more so than the usual out-of-breath you feel from climbing a flight of stairs. About two or three weeks later, you start to feel various muscles in your body cramping up, even while you remain only slightly active. Cautiously, you wait a few weeks to see if the ailments persist before calling the doctor. Finally, you"re running to the bathroom at least once an hour from extreme bowel movements, which you can not explain either. Enough is enough; you decide to call your physician. After various testing, your results come back you have ALS, short for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
             Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease, was first described in scientific literature in 1869 by the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. In the U.S., ALS is known as Lou Gehrig's disease due to the fact that the famous baseball player, Lou Gehrig, died from the disease in 1941. Lou Gehrig played for the New York Yankees and is claimed to be one of the best baseball players ever. He acquired ALS in 1939 at the age of 38. .
             The cause of ALS is not completely understood. Researchers and physicians suspect viruses, neurotoxins, heavy metals, DNA defects, immune system abnormalities, and enzyme abnormalities. Also, physicians are looking deeply into a Deficiency of nerve growth factor as a major cause of ALS. Researchers know that an excess of a neurotransmitter called glutamate clogs the synapse of the nerve cell preventing transmission of neural impulses. The cause of this neurotransmitter problem remains a mystery, although there are several theories which may provide an explanation.
             ALS is diagnosed through a process of elimination and may take several months. Early .
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             ALS symptoms may be similar to a number of other neuromuscular diseases. Diagnostic tests .
             include MRI, EMG, muscle biopsy, and blood tests.


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