What Is ALS? What Are the Types and Causes?

 

ALS is short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. You might also have heard it called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the baseball player who was diagnosed with it in the 1930s. A French doctor named Jean-Martin Charcot discovered the condition in 1869.

ALS is a progressive disease, which means it gets worse over time. It affects nerves in your brain and spinal cord that control your muscles. As your muscles get weaker, it gets harder for you to walk, talk, eat, and breathe.
ALS and Motor Neurons

It’s a disease that affects your motor neurons. These nerve cells send messages from your brain to your spinal cord and then to your muscles. You have two main types:

    Upper motor neurons: Nerve cells in the brain.
    Lower motor neurons: Nerve cells in the spinal cord to muscle.

These motor neurons control all your voluntary movements -- the muscles in your arms, legs, and face. They tell your muscles to contract so you can walk, run, pick up your smartphone, chew and swallow food, and even breathe.

ALS is one of a few motor neuron diseases. Some others include:

    primary lateral sclerosis (PLS)
    progressive bulbar palsy (PBP)
    pseudobulbar palsy

What Happens When You Have ALS

With ALS, motor neurons in your brain and spinal cord break down and die.

When this happens, your brain can't send messages to your muscles anymore. Because the muscles don't get any signals, they become very weak. This is called atrophy. In time, the muscles no longer work and you lose control over their movement.

At first, your muscles get weak or stiff. You may have more trouble with fine movements -- such as trying to button a shirt or turn a key. You may stumble or fall more than usual. After a while, you can't move your arms, legs, head, or body.

Eventually, people with ALS lose control of their diaphragm, the muscles in the chest that help you breathe. Then they can't breathe on their own and will need to be on a breathing machine.

The loss of breathing causes many people with ALS to die within 3 to 5 years after they're diagnosed. Yet some people can live more than 10 years with the disease.

People with ALS can still think and learn. They have all of their senses -- sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. Yet the disease can affect their memory and decision-making ability.

ALS isn't curable. Yet scientists now know more about this disease than ever before. They are studying treatments in clinical trials.