Lou Gehrig's Disease

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis known by an another name as Lou Gehrig’s disease affects a maximum of 2,000 people a year from the age of 50 - 70 years. The word amyotrophic was derived from the Greek descendants. The Signs of lower motor neuron and upper motor neuron damage is not detailed by any other disease process other than ALS. It attacks the neurons present in the CNS. They function in transmitting messages from the central nervous system to the voluntary muscles - the ones which can be controlled, like limbs. At earlier stage, they cause mild muscle problems. Some patients may show symptoms like trouble in walking, trouble in writing and speech problems. Gradually the strength is lost and the patient has difficulty in movements. When

It was described in the year1869 by neurologist named Jean-Martin Charcot. It is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which affects around 2,000 people per year in England and Wales, with a peak age of onset between 50 years and 70 years(1) In the United States when a baseball player named Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with the disease in 1939. It is also named as Charcot disease to honor the first person to describe the disease, Jean-Martin Charcot .It causes nerve cells to gradually break down and die. Amyotrophic comes from the Greek language. "A" refers to no, "Myo" to muscle, and "Trophic" to nourishment meaning "No muscle nourishment." When a muscle gets no nourishment, it "atrophies" or wastes away. The word "Lateral" are the areas in a person's spinal cord where the portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. ALS occurs more in men than in women by a factor of between 1.2 and 1.5. (2) As the muscle degenerates it causes scarring or hardening (sclerosis) in the particular region. Degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death of the neurons. When it occurs, the ability of the brain to initiate and muscle movement control is lost. Since voluntary muscle action gets affected, people may lose their ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. It may also be said that it is neurodegeneration with prodilection for the cortico motor neurons in the motor cortex and the bulbar and spinal motor neurons. Mainly the motor neurons are selectively targeted for degeneration in this disease. In 1993, missense mutations in the gene which encodes the antioxidant enzyme Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) were discovered in subsets of patients diagnosed with familial ALS .Its pathogenesis is complex and multifactorial and disease commonly characterized by stiff muscles, muscle twitching, and gradually worsening