...Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s Disease Frederick Aladad Abstract Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that portrays progressive muscle paralysis, and eventually ends with death. As many as twenty thousand to thirty thousand people in the United States have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and an estimated five thousand people in the United States are diagnosed with the disease each year (Shiel, 2012). The etiology of the disease is unknown, but it plays a genetic factor. Less than ten percent has been shown to be inherited in families. ALS begins with the client with muscle weakness, stiffness, eventually to paralysis, then death caused by respiratory failure. Dysphagia occurs at onset in about one third of case, although generally it occurs in later stage of the disease (Noh, 2010). The nursing diagnosis is risk for aspiration related to impaired swallowing. Intervention for the diagnosis includes positioning the client in a 90 degree angle while in bed, a wheel chair or a chair. There is no known cure for the disease, but symptoms can be treated. Riluzole is administered to slow the progression of the disease. Pathophysiology Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease that begins with rapid, progressive muscle weakness. It attacks the neurons that are responsible for moving voluntary muscles. Once the person is diagnosed with the disease...
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...I have been tasked with writing a paper about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The ALS Association website has described ALS in a very clear and concise manner and I would like to share that with you know. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. A-myo-trophic 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 wastes away. "Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region. As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles...
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...Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis There are many types of diseases that attack the muscles, and doctors are still discovering new ones each day. This year there has been a wide spread of different challenges going around. One of the challenges was the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, this challenged spreaded awareness of the muscle disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS has often been referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It is a progressive disease that affects the nerves in the brain and the spinal cord. The name of this muscle disease may sound really hard to understand, but really it is quite simple. Amyotrophic can be broken down into three parts and looked at separately. “A” means no, “myo” means muscle and “trophic” means nourishment. When these three are put together it means no muscle nourishment. When a muscle has no nourishment, it begins to waste away and become weak. The lateral in the name is stating the position of where the disease is located on the spine. Since it is later this would be the disease is found on the outer sides of the spinal cord. The sclerosis part of the name means the hardening of the muscle in that area. In the body there are motor neurons; which are located in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord. These motor neurons are control units and communication links between the nervous system and the voluntary muscles in the body. The motor neurons in the brain send messages that are transmitted to motor neurons in the spinal...
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...“Lou Gehrig’s Disease” Sicknesses have been part of our daily lives for humanity, since time began. Everyday doctors and scientists are working to find new cures and treatments to help improve modern medicine. ALS-amyotropohic lateral sclerosis- is one of those puzzles that is in the process of being solved. According to “Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , in 1869, it was first discovered by Jean-Martin Charcot “the father of neurology”, but did not gain attention from the public eye until 1939, when a famous baseball player by the name of Lou Gehrig was diagnosed (par. 2). Lou Gehrig’s disease, otherwise known as ALS, is an extremely complex disease that breaks down the nervous system, symptoms of ALS are very difficult to discover, and this syndrome is fatal. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS is a complex disease that breaks down the nervous system. ALS Association Create A World Without ALS says that in a-myo-trophic, the “a” means no or negative, “myo” is talking about or referring to the muscle, “trophic” means nourishment, and when you combined the three parts it means no nourishment (par.1). Lateral is the area within the spine where the brain sends a message to the muscles telling them what to do. Sclerosis is hardening, when the disease starts to progress, the lateral areas in the spine will begin to harden and stop being able to receive and send messages. It is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons...
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...sociology courses Morrie was teaching. Morrie Schwartz was Mitch Albom’s favorite college professor. At the start of the novel Albom recalls a memory from his college graduation day: he is saying goodbye to Morrie and gives him a tan briefcase with his initials on it. They hug and when Mitch steps back he sees that Morrie is crying. Mitch promises to stay in touch with Morrie but he never does after college. Since his graduation, Mitch has become a newspaper reporter and husband. He leads a very fast paced life and is constantly working and traveling. He has become so engrossed in his work that it consumes his life. The novel recommences about sixteen years after Mitch’s graduation day; Morrie has since been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Since Morrie’s diagnosis, he began jotting down ideas and thoughts onto scrap paper, yellow pads or even envelopes. He also wrote philosophies about living knowing death was very near. One of his friends was so taken with his writing; he sent them to the Boston Globe reporter, who wrote a feature story about Morrie. The story intrigued one of the producers of the show, “Nightline”, who then did a feature story about Morrie. Mitch happened to see the “Nightline” show and recognized his old professor. He called him to set up a visit. In reference to the relational leadership model, the meetings they have every Tuesday is the process in which Morrie sends a message to Mitch and gets him to understand the bigger picture...
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...ALS is a degenerative motor neuron, mostly idiopathic disease. The acronym (ALS) stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. There are a few potential causes of ALS. The first is mitochondrial dysfunction, which is when the mitochondria do not produce sufficient energy, resulting in muscle weakness. Second is inflammation. Next is apoptosis, which translates to cell death. Two other possible causes of the disease are protein aggregation and free radicals. Diagnosing ALS is based on history and examination of patient and family members. In a patient with early onset ALS, one would see progressive upper and lower muscle weakness of motor neurons. Most commonly this is seen in hands, arms, feet and legs. Some people may experience twitching, cramping. Eventually, the patient will have impaired use of arms and legs. In the later stages, one has shortness of breath, difficulty swallowing and thick speech. For example, In Tuesdays with Morrie, the main character Morrie suffering from ALS began falling, tripping, and had to begin using assistive devices such as a cane, then a walker, and eventually was wheelchair bound. Morrie eventually needed a respirator at night by nasal cannula. Very close to the time he passed, Morrie was unable to speak and swallow (“Symptoms”). A diagnosis for early signs and symptoms of ALS in Morrie’s case would be; walking impairment related to insufficient muscle strength as evidence by tripping, falling, and use of assistive devices (Ackley 2010 p. 894)...
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...Football players more likely to develop neurodegenerative disease, study finds By Nadia Kounang, CNN updated 4:38 PM EDT, Wed September 5, 2012 [pic] (CNN) -- Just hours before the 2012 NFL season kicks off, a new study suggests that professional football players are three times more likely to have neurodegenerative diseases than the general population. When researchers specifically looked at Alzheimer's disease and ALS -- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease -- that risk increased to four times greater than the rest of us. The study, published Wednesday in the medical journal Neurology, surveyed nearly 3,500 retired NFL players who were in the league between 1959 and 1988. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Centers for Disease Control, had been following this group of players since the early '90s, when the NFL asked the institute to evaluate them for their risk of cardiovascular disease. This time, the authors decided to look at the neurological outcomes of the players by specifically evaluating the autopsies of 334 players. "We looked at all the death certificates, and Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and ALS had significant contribution to the death," according to study co-author Elliot Lehman. When tallying those specific diseases, the authors found that among the 334 players, seven had died from Alzheimer's and another seven with ALS. Three players had died with Parkinson's disease, but the authors...
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...Amanda Hernandez Mrs. Blevens CSU Expository Reading and Writing September 23, 2014 Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as “ALS”, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS is a terminal disease that has no cure what-so-ever. Toxic proteins leak from the brain into the spinal cord. Motor neurons in ALS is what causes a person to die. The motor neurons in ALS is what initiates a person’s muscles to function, but with ALS the muscles weaken and eventually stop working and finally the patient becomes paralyzed. Also a person’s speech starts to slur and eventually end up losing their ability to talk. Recent medical research has discovered that athletes are getting ALS at a younger age due to head injuries and concussions from teen years and younger. For an average person, the diagnosis age is from age 50 to 70 years old. For athletes, the diagnosis age is mid 30’s. It is also more common for men because men continue playing sports after high school. Multiple concussions and hits to the head can lead to CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Another discovery is that ALS is a genetic disease. Memory loss, appears as well. CTE’s cause dementia in athletes due to repeated hits in the head. Concussions are a major part in ALS and...
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...ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) comes from the Greek language. “A” means no “myo” meaning muscle, and “trophic” meaning nourishment, which basically says no muscle nourishment. When famous baseball player, Lou Gehrig got diagnosed with ALS, they renamed the disease after him, and in his memory. This disease is a very hard disease to diagnose. There is no special test or procedure to establish whether somebody does or doesn’t have ALS. There are 5,600 people in the U.S. who are diagnosed each year, and there are at least 30,000 Americans who have this devastating disease at anytime. Most people get diagnosed between 40 and 70 years of age, but that’s not always the case for all people. 60% of patients with ALS are men and 93% of patients are Caucasian, but this disease can strike anyone throughout the world with no racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic boundaries. When people are first getting diagnosed with ALS, there isn’t one specific test so the doctors do many different things to test what the outcomes are. The doctor will first do a complete medical history, and physical exam plus a neurological examination. Most patients will have an EMG done since that is one of the most important things in the diagnosis process. The earliest signs of ALS are most often weakness in the arms or legs. Those symptoms are usually more pronounced on one side than the other at first. The initial symptoms of ALS can vary and not all people...
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...Stephen Hawking Story Life Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England. His parents are Frank and Isabel Hawking. In his pregnancy life stage (9 months to birth) his parents had struggles as in they didn’t have much money. It was the beginning of World War II and the onslaught of German bombs. So these political issues probably affected Isabel Hawking as she had stressful pregnancy and probably because of not having much money, she was not having a proper healthy diet. Childhood (4-9 years): He started his schooling at the Byron House; he later blamed its “progressive methods” for his failure to learn read while at the school. So which means his intellectual milestones was happening slowly. This is probably due to his illness. In St Albans, when he was 7, he went to St Albans High School for Girls for a few months; at that time, younger boys could attend one of the houses. This could affect his life as in intellectual way because he changed school lots of time, which means he probably had to catch up a lot of things. That will also affect his emotionally and socially developments because it might be hard for him to find right friends otherwise his motivation will emotionally gone down. Adolescence (10-18 years): When he was 10 years old he attended Radlett School for a year and from September 1952, St Albans School. His family placed a high value on education so that’s why his father wanted him to attend the well-regarded Westminster School, but he...
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...There are many people who could be nominated for their artistic contributions, advances in technology, medical contributions and scientific advances. But one person sticks out in my mind as a genius of the Western culture. Through his disability I believe Stephen Hawking has stood out as a genius of our Western culture. Even with being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, he has provided ground breaking work in cosmology and physics. He has written several different books to allow science more attainable to the average person. Stephen Hawking was the oldest of four children, born to Frank and Isobel Hawking on the 8th of January, 1942 in Oxford England. He was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo. This has been a large source of pride for Hawking. He was born into a smart family his mother was one of the first female students at Oxford University. His father was also a graduate of Oxford, being a well known researcher of medicine, his specialty in tropical diseases. The birth of Stephen came at a bad time to his parents, for they had little money and was during World War II. Stephen’s father was hoping he would follow his steps and research medicine, but from an early age Stephen showed more interest in the sky and science. In his early academic life, Stephen was seen as a bright child but was not an exceptional student. He was more interested in things outside of school. He enjoyed board games and even constructed a computer out of recycled...
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...One way, out of several, that I received the news by way of mass media was through the social media web site “Facebook.” From this particular site, I was, like so many other people locally and nationwide, learned about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or as it is commonly known as, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. I saw what has become viral around the nation and world, hundreds upon hundreds of people, ranging from my family, peers, or some type of celebrity, doing what we now refer to as the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.” Although I did see the countless number of individuals getting “called out” by another individual or group and them doing the same, and thereby causing them to dump a bucket of ice on their head to raise awareness for ALS, I also saw a number of people donate to research for the ALS foundation as well. From this stemmed a wide array of information about what ALS actually is other than people dumping ice cold water on their heads. There were several major news stations either posting or reposting on the site as to the amount of money raised for the ALS foundation and these ranged from FOX News, to CNN to The Wall Street Journal and even the spoof articles of The Onion. That being said, I was able to view interviews with those who had ALS or the family members who had been affected by the condition. I could also listen to or view podcasts from radio hosts such as Dave Ramsey. Though I was viewing all of these different news and media information, I was doing so through...
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...LS Lou Gehrig’s Disease Samantha Candela Chamberlain College of Nursing NR 283 Professor Hommelson May 28, 2016 Lou Gehrig’s Disease Lou Gehrig’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is commonly known as ALS. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord (2016). The body’s motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord then to the muscles throughout the body. In ALS the motor neurons slowly degenerate eventually leading to a person’s death. When the motor neurons die our brain loses the ability to initiate and control muscle movement. As the neurons die, a person’s body loses voluntary muscle action. This causes people to lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. There are two different types of ALS, sporadic and familial. Sporadic is the most common form of the disease, with 90 – 95 percent of the cases (2016). Familial means the disease is inherited, accounting for 5 to 10 percent of the cases. According to The ALS Association a population study has show that a little over 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year (2016). 60% of the people with ALS are men and 93% are Caucasian. People usually develop ALS between the ages of 40 – 70, but has occurred when a person is in their twenties and thirties (2016). ALS is 20% more common in men than in women. Heredity is also a risk factor with 5 to 10 percent of people with ALS inheriting the disease (Mayo, 2014). A recent study...
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...Throughout history there have been an array of diseases and illnesses, everything from the common cold to epidemics that have decimated populations. Medical Science has progressed to the point that many diseases are now treatable, curable, or even extinct. Yet even with this incredible progress there are still many diseases that remain not only without a cure, but without even effective treatments. One of these diseases is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease as it is commonly known, is a degenerative disease affecting the nervous system and the only outcome is death. Let’s take a look at the symptoms and how the effect they have on ALS patients. The early symptoms are slight and hardly noticed, they are easy for victim’s to ignore and even easier for physician’s to misdiagnosis. Early symptoms include muscle weakness, fatigue, and a heavy or numb feeling in the arms and legs. These symptoms begin slowly as simply dropping things or tripping frequently. Then the symptoms begin to cause a lot more problems that are much more difficult to ignore. Patients begin having trouble with things we do every day without really even having to think much about them. As this disease progresses into the more advanced stages victims experience difficulty with swallowing, breathing will become difficult and leave the patient at high risk for pneumonia and they lose the ability to speak. The only abilities spared by this devasting disease are brain function, eye...
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...When a loved one dies, it may seem like the world is going to end. Although it is emotionally taxing, death never makes that person go away. In Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, Mitch was a popular newscaster who was engulfed in modern society. When Mitch saw his former sociology teacher, Morrie, on a nighttime television talk show, he went to his house to reconnect. He found himself visiting every Tuesday to discuss different life lessons from Morrie. Because Morrie had a terminal illness, ALS, he gained a new appreciation for life, making him wiser and more intoned with what truly matters. A major topic portrayed through out this book is death. During one of the final Tuesdays Morrie muttered these words to Mitch, “Death ends a Life not a relationship”(174) encapsulated Morrie’s teachings. Morrie teaches Mitch that just because someone died, does not mean they are not still present. The idea that life does not end a relationship is exemplified with Mitch’s relationship with his uncle, Morrie’s relationship with his mother, and Mitch’s relationship with Morrie. After Mitch heard his uncle had pancreatic cancer, at the age of forty-four, he was devastated. Mitch heard about his uncle when he was in his mid twenties, trying to pursue his dream of being a famous pianist. Mitch admired his uncle so much and had modeled himself after him. As Mitch watched his uncle die a slow death, he felt helpless. After his uncle passed away, he realized that he could die at any moment and...
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