ALS DISEASE Oral Notes :: essays research papers

ALS- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisLou Gehrigs disease- Yankee B-Ball player 1903-1941Neurodegenerative disease- Unknown sweat breaks tissue down in nervous system.Motor Neurons- they control vim movementAffects nerves from the brain to the spinal cord (upper motor neurons) then the trim down spinal cord (lower motor neurons) which control muscle movement. With this disease, for unknown reasons, these neurons die, meaning a progressive loss of the ability to move nearly any of the muscles in the body.Lou Gehrigs disease affects voluntary muscles, controlled by conscious thought, such as the arm, leg, and trunk muscles.ALS DOES NOT affect the heart muscle, or the smooth muscle of the digestive system, bladder, and other internal organs. Most keep eye movement as well.Amyotrophic- means the loss of muscle bulk.Lateral indicates the spinal cord organism affected.Sclerosis describes hardened tissue that develops in the place of healthy nerves.50,000 approximately people in the US, 5,0 00 new cases each year.Onset between ages 40-70, usually.Men project a slightly higher chance of developing ALS.Normally, neurons in the spinal cord and brain convey messages from the brain to muscles to give movement to the arms, legs, trunk, neck, and head. When the motor neurons die, the muscles squirtt move, with weakness in result. Loss of bulk is also a symptom. Loss of Lower motor neurons can make twitching.Two forms are known- familial and sporadic.Familial accounts for about 10% of all Lou Gehrigs cases.Sporadic LGD has no known cause.The earliest sign of LGD is weakness in arms or legs, and the throat and mouth muscles.-Speech slurred, hard to chew and swallow. Other early signs are twitching and muscle loss.Later symptoms lead to the loss of the ability to walk, use arms and hands, to let out clearly or at all, to swallow, and to hold the head up. Eventually coughing and breathing become difficult.