Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) Each year about 5,000 people are diagnosed with the deadly disease called Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS. ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Yet one person has managed to survive for more than forty years with ALS. It is a disease that currently has no cure. ALS is a incurable disease that affects millions of people every year. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a part of rare neurological diseases in other words it is part of a group that attacks the motor neurons. It's not only the deadliest of the diseases but also the most common. Most victims live three to five years after being diagnosed with this deadly disease. About 15,000-20,000 Americans currently are affected by ALS. Nerves slowly die during the …show more content…
ALS or more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease is a extremely deadly disease that slowly progresses and attacks the upper and lower motor neurons. Neurons are nerve cells that control voluntary movement. When these nerve cells are destroyed the brain loses the ability to control the muscles. Then the muscles can no longer move so they get hard and waste away. It usually starts in the limbs and moves to other parts of the body. Eventually it spreads to the lungs and eventually patients need breathing assistance to stay alive. Symptoms can vary from falling to not being able to pick up a pencil or to turn a key. Symptoms are not the same for all patients most patients don't follow the same progression patterns either. They all depend on the person and the severity of the case. Either way ALS is extremely deadly and unable to be treated. There are no specific reasons why humans get ALS but part of it can be in your genes or it could just be part of nature. ALS can be inherited from your parents or it can have no specific reason for occuring. One way you can get ALS is through your genes. The case can be familial which is passed through your family and to you. Ten percent of all cases are familial. The other ninety percent is sporadic which means that they have no obvious reason for occuring. This is all how nature works and how our complex bodies interact with
Shawnpal Kahlon Ms. Billimoria April 11, 2016 Sue Rodriguez Summary of case Sue Rodriguez was a 42 year old woman suffering from ALS, a terminal disease the slowly destroys the body’s nerves and shuts down all of its function. For Sue the disease had progressed to the point where she could no longer perform everyday tasks she once could such as, picking up a fork, eating cereal and taking a shower. To deal with this, sue hired a personal assistant to help her eat, bathe and sleep.
ALS became known as “Lou Gehrig disease”. Gehrig said his final goodbyes to his fans and baseball on July 4, 1939, with a short tearful speech. " Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Thanking his parents, wife,and teammates with "I might have been given a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for. Thank you."
“Lou Gehrig’s Career, and his Disease” Do you know where the name Lou Gehrig’s Disease came from? Most people know this Disease as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) which means the same thing. Effects of this disease: is symptoms that may include fasciculations, cramps, tight and stiff muscles. Lou Gehrig Was 36 when he had this disease. Lou to retire early because of this disease, Lou died two years after retiring from this disease.
Quiet and unassuming, Gehrig struggled to make friends with many of his colorful and spotlight-hungry Yankee teammates, especially Ruth. But his hardworking nature and ability to play through incredible pain certainly earned their respect, and earned him the nickname "The Iron Horse”. Lou Gehrig diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) shined a light on the condition. Using his skill on the field and his attitude off he has developed a legacy and a name for the disease known today as "Lou Gehrig's disease“. On June 19, 1903 Henry Louis Gehrig was born in New City in the Yorkville Manhattan area.
In his speech, he talked about being the luckiest man on the face of the earth. It is ironic since he got ALS and his career was ended because of it. Lou Gehrig was one of the best baseball players to ever live, however his career was cut short after being diagnosed and later dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Henry Louis Gehrig was born on June 19, 1903, in New York City. His parents’
What is it like to have ALS or a CTE? Either a progressive neurological disease that attacks your motor skills or one that attacks the cognitive parts of the brain. Each one has its own particular attack strategy. On one hand the body is rendered completely motionless while being completely conscious of the outside environment. On the other, the body stays unharmed while it slowly loses the mind, both are equally devastating.
It turned out to be Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disease that kills you slowly.
“So, I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for,” Lou Gehrig made that as his closing remarks in his “Farwell” speech two weeks after announcing he had ALS (“Farewell”). ALS, or Lou Gerhig’s disease, is a degenerative neurological disease that weakens and, eventually, renders muscles useless and has many other symptoms and causes that are still being discovered, including brain concussions from football and other sports. Described by scientists as far back as 1824, it wasn’t until 1869 when French neurologist Jean-Marie Charcot first wrote and published reports of the characteristics linked to ALS (“About,” ALSA.org) (“About,” Wordpress). It wasn’t until when Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with the disease. In 1938, after having a difficult time with playing baseball, Gehrig visited the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he was diagnosed with ALS (“Lou Gehrig”).
Imagine how devastating it would be to be unable to play the sport you love because of an illness. For professional baseball player Lou Gehrig, that is exactly what happened. Gehrig played baseball for the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939 (“Biography”). At the end of his baseball career he was diagnosed with a disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS. ALS is a neurological disease that attacks the body’s neurons that control voluntary muscle movement (“Amyotrophic”).
Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth” (Gehrig). It creates ethos because he lived with ALS and not everybody
It is a difficult task to say goodbye to something or someone beloved, but it is even more grueling to do so with optimism and grace. On July 4th, 1939, Lou Gehrig said his final goodbyes to baseball in his infamous “Farewell Speech.” After 17 seasons in the MLB with the New York Yankees, Gehrig was forced to part from his career after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), now commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a neurological disease that breaks down nerve cells, reducing functionality in the muscles and impacting physical function with no known cause (“What Is Als?”). Throughout his speech, Gehrig is personable with the crowd at Yankee Stadium to express the impact of the baseball community on his life.
In the autobiography, Laughing at my Nightmare, the author, Shane Burcaw, is diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, and the book deals with Burcaw’s life with spinal muscular atrophy. In order to understand spinal muscular atrophy, one must know the causes, the variations of spinal muscular atrophy, as well as the outlook of the disease. To begin with, one of the key concepts of spinal muscular atrophy is the causes of it. According to WebMD, spinal muscular atrophy is a noncommunicable disease, which means that a person with this ailment cannot infect other people with spinal muscular atrophy due to it being heredity.
Imagine being unable to walk, unable to speak, unable to move and unable to breathe. Imagine being in a state of complete paralysis where the only thing that keeps on functioning is your brain, and you live chained to a machine doctors call life support. Imagine being told that you have an incurable disease that will inevitably kill you. Maybe next month. Maybe next year.
It will very slowly shut down each individual part of you body until you die. For this reason the person that is diagnosed with this type of disease is forced to take life slow and be very
A person does inherit a tendency to develop the disease. It may appear when the body goes through hormonal and physical changes or after dealing with highly stressful situations (MHA,