Symptoms, progression of ALS explained
The disease strikes across racial and socioeconomic lines, generally between the ages of 40 and 70

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects brain and spinal cord nerve cells and ultimately leads to the loss of voluntary muscle control. As motor neurons, which reach from the brain to the spinal cord to the body’s muscles, degenerate and eventually die, the brain loses the ability to initiate and control muscle movement. In turn, the muscles atrophy or waste away, often leading to total paralysis in later stages.

Every year about 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. About 30,000 Americans struggle with the disease at any given time. More people die from ALS each year than from Huntington’s disease or multiple sclerosis.

Early symptoms could include painless muscle weakness in an arm, leg, hand or foot or difficulty swallowing or walking.

Usually the disease doesn’t affect the patient’s mental faculties.

ALS is not contagious. Although most patients live an average of two to five years after being diagnosed, about 20 percent live five years or longer. About 10 percent live more than 10 years and 5 percent 20 years beyond diagnosis. For a small number of ALS patients, the disease has stopped progressing and symptom reversal has occurred in a small number of patients.

The disease strikes across racial and socioeconomic lines, generally between the ages of 40 and 70. The cause has yet to be understood. And while there is no cure or treatment to stop or reverse the disease, one drug approved by the Federal Drug Administration modestly slows down the disease’s progression. Several other promising drugs are in clinical trials.

Some therapies can help ALS patients manage the symptoms and maintain their independence as long as possible.

New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig brought the disease to the nation’s collective consciousness in 1939, when he abruptly retired from baseball after being diagnosed with ALS.

The Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association has scheduled a fundraising walk for May 6 at Mission Park in Ventura. For more information about the walk and to register visit www.alsala.org.

The above information was taken from the ALS website at www.alsa.org.

—Michelle Knight