What is Lou Gehrig disease?

Answer 1

Lou gehrig disease is named after a baseball player who had the disease in the 1930s. The disease has another name - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS becomes worse over time. If you have the disease, it means your motor neurons are not working. Motion neurons send messages from the brain to the spinal cord and to the muscles. That is how they control your movements. As the condition develops, you lose your ability to talk, eat, walk and even breathe. Types of ALS:

• Familial ALS. It affects 5-10% of the people who have ALS. Children get the disease from their parents.
• Sporadic ALS. It affects 90-95% of the people with ALS.

Causes: Scientists are not sure about what really causes ALS. But they think some factors may lead to the disease.

• Environment. People who are exposed to certain germs have a higher risk of having the disease.
• Problems with the immune system. Your immune cells start to attack your motor neurons.

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Comments

If I clean my husband close and he has this disease could I have it

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No. This disease is not contagious.

Answer 2

My 26-year-old boyfriend was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig Disease...Till now, I still can't accept the truth that he's gonna leave me forever someday in the future. For the past 3 months, I've been doing research on what the disease is and possible solutions to cure it or at least alleviate the situation... But the more I read, the less I feel optimistic. There is no cure for it and even treatment will be of little help to slow down the proceeding of it. We went to the best hospitals in this country, only to get the same answer from the doctor that it is among the five terminal diseases in the world. If taken good care of, the life expectancy of the patient may be prolonged up to 3 years. Right now, I quit my job so as to do prompt home remedies when he needs me most. He takes riluzole tablets on a regular basis but I'm afraid that too much intake of the pills may further affect his neuros. I've known him since we are childs. And I just can't imagine my life without him. I just hope someone with similar experiences can give me some clue on how to handle this mess. The last thing I wanna do is give up on him but will my boyfriend be another Hawking? This really has been too much for me.

Comments

It's not that bad. Treatments could help control the symptoms and make it easier to live with the disease.

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Give him 1,000 mg of all natural L-tyrosine 500  daily..  500mg  in the morning, and 500mg at bedtime!  You take 500mg every morning too!  Let me know on Twitter @saratogajack..
Stay positive!

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I just found out that my 89 year old father have been diagnosed with ALS.. I’m devastated I know that ALS kills you slowly. I hope that doctors can find a cure in the future .