Why should people care about ALS. It is a disease that affects a relatively small amount of the world population. People should care because it is a brutal disease. ALS hits hard and it kills. People should care about ALS like they should care about any other disease, empathy. We should care because it makes other people suffer.
The ice bucket challenge has done a great job of spreading the name of ALS. Everyone knows that the ice bucket challenge is raising awareness towards ALS. But that is about all that it does. I knew that the ice bucket challenge was about ALS but I had no idea what ALS was, who was effected by it, and what could be done to treat it. After taking this course, reading our article, and discussing ALS in class my understanding of the disease has grown immensely. Something needs to be done than just get the name ALS out there. What ALS is and what it does to people needs to get out into the world and become common knowledge.
An interesting yet sad truth about ALS is that we are not exactly sure what causes it. We know that ALS leads to motor neuron death and we know that there are many players that might cause this. This is where research into ALS can be very exciting and very daunting at the same time. There are many paths to choose from and who knows which one will lead to better treatment. One thing is for sure however the more we know about ALS the more likely we will be able to create a more effective treatment for this terrible disease.
ALS: Caring on Ice
