ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis], also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a neurological disease characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. The loss of motor neurons causes muscles to waste away, resulting in the inability to move, speak, swallow—and ultimately, to breathe. It is always fatal.
It is a disease that strikes without apparent cause and for which there is no cure. ALS strikes without regard for age, race or gender. It strikes new victims at the rate of 5,000 a year in the U.S. alone—and it strikes the families of victims with a devastating sense of helplessness.
These are just a few of the many faces of ALS: |
