ALS is a race. But not a normal race, not even close. This race does not have a definitive starting point, and you can be certain that the finish line is not clearly marked. Once it begins, (and I say “it begins” because it is not your choice whether you want to begin or not) you simply must continue the race until you are physically unable to keep moving forward.
Assuming we have not yet reached this physical end, we will continue as best we can until we can continue no more. ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and if you polled the audience, I would bet money that not many would have any idea what “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” actually was. Perhaps we poll the same audience and ask about Lou Gehrig’s disease─ a few more light bulbs come on, yet simply knowing the name is not the same as knowing the disease.
ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that tends to develop between the ages of 40 and 70 and is eventually fatal. Simply put, the motor nerves in your body that signal your muscles to move slowly break down until you no longer have the ability to coordinate your movements at all. Affecting roughly 30,000 Americans at any given time, ALS might not receive quite as much attention as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, but these 30,000 people are still need our help.
There is currently no cure for ALS, and the only drug that is currently prescribed to treat it is called Riluzole which may extend a patient’s life only briefly, perhaps for a few months. Maybe a cure is still a ways off, but why haven’t researchers found anything that could help?
With each passing day, patients with ALS continue to fight for their strength. It is very difficult to know that your mind is intact, but you must deal with simple things like writing a letter or brushing your teeth becoming increasingly difficult. It may sound easy to just say ALS causes you to lose control over your muscles, but the human body is much more sophisticated. When the body is in working condition, it is extremely complex, and when things go wrong, they too are extremely complex. In class, we learned that researchers believe the main factor that causes the nerves to break down is overstimulation due to the presence of a molecule called glutamate.
Glutamate is important for all human─ whether in sickness or in health─ you need glutamate to survive. In the brain, glutamate is one of the key signaling molecules that is involved in many functions such as cognition, memory, and learning. Just like television, the signal itself is not useful without the proper receptors to receive and translate the signal. Back in the brain, there are two main receptors that receive glutamate as a signal. These are two protein complexes called AMPA and NMDA.
For many years, researchers believed that the AMPA receptors were the main culprit in causing ALS, but recent discoveries have shown that NMDA receptors seem to play a role as well. When glutamate binds to the NMDA receptor, pores in your cells are opened which allows calcium to flow between the nerve cells. These “calcium connections” between the nerves not only help to transmit your thoughts, but they are thought to be responsible for how memories develop.
In healthy individuals, these processes work as they are supposed to, but with ALS patients, these NMDA receptors become overactive, and this hyperactivity leads to the eventual death of the nerves.
As I said before, there is still much to learn about ALS, but by no means is it a lost cause. Many researchers are investigating the disease and are developing new treatments in the ultimate search for a cure. What I have listed here is just the tip of the iceberg; there is so much more to ALS that is worth caring about, just like the people that are currently coping with the disease. We are now nearing the end of our theoretical race, and even typing here to share this story is hard. The finish line is out there─ the end will come when we least expect it, and we will come to rest. There is no cure yet, but we will be patiently waiting. Eventually, ALS will come to an
Final thoughts on ALS written by Steven Dotzler
A-L-S: Can it E-N-D?
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