How Know if You Have Als

ALS

• What is ALS?
• What are the symptoms of ALS?
• Who gets ALS?
• What causes ALS?
• How is ALS diagnosed?
• Is at that place a cure for ALS? How is ALS treated?

What is ALS?

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or motor neuron disease, is a progressive, degenerative disease that destroys the nervus cells that command voluntary muscle move. These cells, called "motor neurons," run from the brain through the brainstem or spinal cord to muscles that control movement in the arms, legs, chest, throat and mouth. In people with ALS, these cells die off, causing the muscle tissues to waste away. ALS does not affect a person'south sensory functions or mental faculties. Other, nonmotor neurons, such as sensory neurons that bring information from sense organs to the encephalon, remain healthy.

Generally, ALS is categorized in ane of two ways: Upper motor neuron disease affects nerves in the encephalon, while lower motor neuron disease affects nerves coming from the spinal string or brainstem. In both cases, motor neurons are damaged and eventually dice. ALS is fatal. The average life expectancy afterward diagnosis is two to v years, but some patients may live for years or even decades. (The famous physicist Stephen Hawking, for instance, lived for more than than l years afterward he was diagnosed.) There is no known cure to end or contrary ALS.

Each person with ALS experiences a different proportion of upper and lower motor neurons that dice. This results in symptoms that vary from person to person. The disease progresses, affecting more nerve cells every bit time goes on. As musculus tissues deteriorates, the muscles go weaker and cloudburst (wither) and the person's limbs may begin to expect thinner. However, the muscles can also get spastic (moving involuntarily) and this may atomic number 82 to increased muscle tone in some parts of the body.

What are the symptoms of ALS?

The initial symptoms of ALS can vary considerably from person to person, equally can the rate at which ALS progresses. Not all individuals with ALS develop the aforementioned symptoms or the aforementioned sequences or patterns of progression. However, all people with ALS will experience progressive muscle weakness and paralysis.

In the early stages of ALS, the symptoms may be so pocket-size that they are disregarded. Mutual symptoms include:

• Weakness in muscles of the hands, arms or legs
• Impairment in the use of arms and legs
• Twitching and cramping of muscles, particularly those in the hands and feet
• Weakness in the muscles that command oral communication, swallowing or breathing
• Slow or slurred spoken communication (chosen dysarthria or "thick speech") and difficulty in projecting the voice

In more advanced stages, ALS causes shortness of breath and difficulty in breathing and swallowing, which is what eventally lead to a person'due south death.

Who gets ALS?

Nearly lx% of the people reported to take ALS in the United States are men, and 93% of patients are Caucasian. Based on US population studies, a niggling more than 5,600 people in the The states are diagnosed with ALS each year – approximately 15 new cases per twenty-four hours. Information technology is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans have the illness at any given time.

Most people develop ALS between the ages of 40 and 70, with an average age of 55 at the fourth dimension of diagnosis. Notwithstanding, rare cases of the affliction do occur in persons in their 20s and 30s. Approximately 50% of people diagnosed with ALS live at least three or more years subsequently diagnosis. About 25% alive 5 years or more than and upwards to ten% live more than than 10 years.

What causes ALS?

Although the cause of ALS is non completely understood, contempo inquiry suggests that multiple circuitous factors contribute to the death of motor neurons. Specific hazard factors for ALS have not been conclusively identified, but ongoing enquiry is exploring the possible role of genetics and/or environmental factors. Research published in 2009 suggests that smoking tobacco may raise a person's take a chance for ALS.

Any one or more of the following factors may be responsible for the disease:

• Defective glutamate metabolism
• Free radical injury
• Mitochondrial dysfunction
• Gene defects
• Programmed jail cell death or apoptosis

• Cytoskeletal poly peptide defects
• Autoimmune and inflammatory mechanisms
• Aggregating of protein aggregates (clumps)
• Viral infections

Information technology is also likely that specific cistron mutations and/or heredity modifies the disease and the likelihood of developing information technology.

How is ALS diagnosed?

Diagnosing ALS is difficult because there is no unmarried medical test for information technology. Also, since many neurologic diseases crusade similar symptoms, these other conditions must be ruled out first, through clinical examinations and medical tests. A comprehensive diagnostic workup includes most, if not all, of the post-obit tests and procedures:

• electrodiagnostic tests including electomyography (EMG) and nerve conduction velocity (NCV), evaluating areas that are involved such equally the bulbar region, (the head, cervix and encephalon for speech and swallowing), besides as the cervical region (artillery, diaphragm), thoracic region (muscles of breathing) and the lumbar region (legs)
• blood and urine studies, including loftier-resolution serum protein electrophoresis, thyroid and parathyroid hormone levels and 24-hour urine collection for heavy metals, in order to rule out any immunological or inflammatory disease
• spinal tap
• Ten-rays and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• CT Scan of the cervical spine
• musculus and/or nerve biopsy
• thorough neurological examination

Individula doctors will determine which of the above tests to conduct, usually based on the physical exam and the results of previous medical tests the patient has had.

Is there a cure for ALS? How is ALS treated?

Currently there is no known cure or handling that halts or reverses the progression of ALS. However, the FDA-approved medications riluzole (brand names Rilutek, Teglutik) and edaravone (Radicava) have been shown to modestly slow the progression of ALS. In improver, there are several promising clinical trials existence conducted worldwide that are yielding important information on how to combat this disease.

While the search for an constructive treatment and cure continues, multidisciplinary teams beyond the globe are assisting patients and their families to adjust to the many challenges of living with ALS. These teams of specialists use devices and therapies to help patients manage their ALS symptoms and to allow people with the affliction to maintain their independence and quality of life. This multidisciplinary approach has besides been shown to prolong survival of people who accept ALS.

Treatments and interventions may include:

• proper torso positioning
• exercise regimens, physical and occupational therapy
• devices and supports to aid people walk
• braces and splints for the legs and arms
• customized wheelchairs
• dwelling assessment to brand information technology easier to become around in the house

• technological devices that aid people communicate
• suggestions for easier-to-swallow foods and liquids
• support from a nutritionist
• feeding tubes
• diaphragm pacers
• devices to help support breathing

Many people with ALS and other neuromuscular diseases decide to take function in enquiry studies to help exam new medications and treatments aimed at treating the disease. To learn more than nearly these studies, visit the Us National Institutes of Wellness Clinical Trials Registry.

Learn more than most ALS from the additional content below, and by visiting Hospital for Special Surgery'southward ALS Plan.

Dorsum in the Game patient stories

Web log posts

In the news

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Source: https://www.hss.edu/condition-list_amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis.asp