5 Astonishing facts on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, causes damage to motor neurons, which regulate voluntary movement in your body. It is a progressive condition that leads to paralysis, respiratory failure, and death over time. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease that is named after a famous baseball player who died of the condition in the late 1930s. While there is currently no treatment for ALS, emerging discoveries are opening up new research opportunities for those who are affected. 

 Here are some interesting facts for you on ALS:

1.  Approximately 5 to 10% of ALS cases are inherited

About 95% of ALS are ‘sporadic’, meaning that the cause is unknown. Certain people are more vulnerable to ALS due to genetic abnormalities. The rest 5% are ‘familial’ which means the disease is passed down from generation to generation. Some genes are shared by the two types. If a parent has familial ALS, their child has a 50% risk of adopting the mutation and developing the disease. 

2. The symptoms of ALS don’t follow a specific pattern

If you have ALS, you might realize that you are dropping items more frequently, tripping, or stuttering your words at first, but the symptoms of ALS differ from person to person. Twitching, muscle spasms, stiffness in the arms and legs, excessive saliva, and outbursts of laughing or sobbing are some of the symptoms of ALS. Although the disease may appear to be slow-moving at first, ALS sufferers eventually acquire severe muscle weakness, become paralysed, and require aid breathing.

3. About 15% of ALS diagnoses are inaccurate

Because the symptoms of ALS are similar to those of other diseases and there is no specific test to confirm the diagnosis, it can take a year or more to receive a diagnosis. Consider seeking a second opinion if you or someone you know has been diagnosed with ALS. Men are affected by ALS at a younger age than women, but the gender gap narrows over time. People who have served in the military are twice as likely to get ALS for unexplained reasons.

4. Available treatments for ALS

Riluzole and Edaravone, two medicines, may decrease disease development and prolong life by a few months. Sudden outbursts of laughing or sobbing is a condition that affects some ALS patients and can be treated with medication. People with ALS are cared for by a neurologist, but physical and occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, nutritionists, and social workers or counsellors can assist patients to maintain function and independence for extended periods of time. There is currently no cure for ALS, however, there is extensive research into medications that may delay or stop the disease's course.

5. A period of no disease progression

It's not uncommon for people with ALS to have times where the disease stops developing for weeks or months for unspecified reasons. This is referred to as an "arrest." Some individuals can experience reversals, or improvements in function, in a few, rare situations. Sadly, these intervals rarely endure more than a few months until the symptoms recur and progression of ALS begins, though they can continue up to a year in exceptional circumstances.

My muscles are becoming weak, could it be ALS ?

If you are really worried about your more or less frequent muscular twitching and wondering, what if it turned out to be a horrific muscular degenerative ailment, such as ALS; should understand that muscular twitching is rather a common problem, affecting many millions of people across the globe and can as well be associated with stress or anxiety. Contrary to which, ALS is a neurodegenerative condition, which can be diagnosed with one of the many symptoms, like muscular twitching and is comparatively a rare issue. However, is should as well be noted that a person, who is often experiencing muscular twitching without any solid reasons can be vulnerable to the deadly degenerative conditions like ALS.

Muscles are important functional tissues of human anatomy and are often neglected over other vital organs of the body, such as heart, brain, etc. As a matter of fact, majority of muscular twitching cases have found to be evident due to muscular weakness anxiety; wherein often a muscle or a group of muscles feel unusually weak, rubbery and odd. Some people as well notice this issue, when they feel unusual weakness, numbness in their muscles, along with shaky and/or tired tissues. Many of them might as well have complaints about extreme weakness in their hands, feet, legs, arms, back and facial muscles; up to an extent that they suspect some serious medical concerns like MS, ALS, etc.

Although, both ALS as well as muscular anxiety sound to be similar, which is related to the muscular weakness; there is a big difference between the two! It should be noted down that ALS twitches are general resultant of dying muscles, due to a major disconnection of passage of information, between muscles and the brain; moreover, it would be body’s secondary response taking place only after the death of the muscles. Thus, ALS twitches will often be associated with immobility of that particular muscles, which can be noticed before the onset of twitching. Studies have further suggested that ALS twitches may often start through hand and leg, while may usually migrate in the forward direction; progressively, continuously as well as relentlessly. Contrary to which, muscular anxiety twitches can be random, affecting any muscles or group of muscles of the body and can migrate in a random motion throughout the entire body. Thus, if it’s an ALS, you won’t experience a twitch in your finger for an instance and then a twitch in the back for the next second!

If you are still concerned, whether it is an ALS or a muscular weakness; you can offer help from an expert, who will definitely ask you to undergo EMG, which will always be positive, if it is an ALS. Apparently, twitches without weakness and with negative EMG are not ALS for sure.

Thus, bottom-line of the discussion is as simple as, muscular weakness is due to the stress or anxiety and often can be related with deadly neurodegenerative conditions, such as ALS; but if your twitches are common, without any extreme weakness, are only appearing for few moments and are randomly migrating without any positive indication through EMG, then you do not have ALS!

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Stem Cell Treatment for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

Stem Cell Treatment for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)  Video

Advancells provides Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Treatment which is a progressive degeneration of nerve cells that control muscle movements by ALS Therapy.