Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Lou Gehrig's Disease

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Amyotrophic comes from the Greek language. “A” means no or negative. “Myo” refers to muscle, and “Trophic” means nourishment. No muscle nourishment… When a muscle has no nourishment, it atrophies or waste away. Lateral identifies the specific areas in a person’s spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that nourish the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it leads to scarring or hardening (sclerosis).
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is referred to Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is a progressive fatal neuromuscular disease that attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neurons are the largest among nerve cells, reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to muscles throughout the body with connections to the brain. When these neurons die, the ability of the brain to start and controlling muscle movement dies with it. During later staged, ALS patients are paralyzed due to voluntary muscle …show more content…
Familial Suggest genetic dominant inheritance and accounts for a very small number of cases in the United States
3. Guamanian An extremely high incidence of ALS observed in Guam and the Trust Territories of the Pacific
ALS is a motor neuron disease that was first identified in 1969 by French neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot. ALS is responsible for two deaths per hundred thousand population annually. The life expectancy of an ALS patient averages two to five years from the time of diagnosis.
Men and women are both affected by ALS. 90 percent of ALS cases have no hereditary pattern, however, 10 percent are familial. One-third of the patients become aware of the disease when theirs hands start to become clumsy, which causes difficulty in performing certain tasks. Some may experience weakness in the legs and trip because of mild foot drop. Difficulty in swallowing and slowing of the speech may occur. ALS MAY BE PRESENT FOR SOME TIME BEFORE ANY SYMPTOMS ARE NOTICED. An early symptom is
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