AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS
Also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive
neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. The
progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death.
When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement
is lost. With all voluntary muscle action affected, patients in the later stages of the
disease become totally paralyzed. Yet, through it all, for the vast majority of people,
their minds remain unaffected
Understanding ALS
- The onset of ALS is insidious with muscle weakness or stiffness as early symptoms.
Inevitable progression of wasting and paralysis of the muscles of the limbs and trunk as well
as those that control vital functions such as speech, swallowing and breathing follows.
- It is estimated that ALS is responsible for nearly two deaths per hundred thousand
population annually. More people die every year of ALS than of Huntington's disease or
multiple sclerosis.
- A little over 5,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. The incidence
of ALS (two per 100,000 people) is five times higher than Huntington's disease and about equal
to multiple sclerosis. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease
at any given time.
- The life expectancy of an ALS patient averages about two to five years from the time of
diagnosis. Half of all affected live more than three years after diagnosis
- About twenty percent of people with ALS live five years or more and up to ten percent will
survive more than ten years and five percent will live 20 years. There are people in whom ALS has
stopped progressing and a small number of people in whom the symptoms of ALS reversed.
- ALS occurs throughout the world with no racial, ethnic or socioeconomic boundaries.
- ALS can strike anyone. Someone you know or love will die from ALS unless a cure or
prevention is found.
- Present treatment of ALS is aimed at symptomatic relief, prevention of complications and
maintenance of maximum optimal function and optimal quality of life. Most of this, in the later
stages, requires nursing management of a patient who is alert but functionally quadriplegic with
intact sensory function, bedridden and aware he or she is going to die
- The financial cost to families of persons with ALS is exceedingly high. It is estimated that
in the advanced stages, care can cost an average of $200,000 a year. Patients' and relatives'
entire savings are quickly depleted because of the extraordinary cost involved in the care of
ALS patients.
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For more information, visit the following sites:
ALSA
The ALS Association (ALSA) is the only national not-for-profit voluntary health organization
dedicated solely to the fight against ALS. The mission of The ALS Association is to find a cure
for and improve living with ALS
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