June is ALS awareness month!
ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a rapidly progressive neuromuscular disease that attacks the nerve cells that transmit electrical impulses from the brain to the voluntary muscles in the body – your arms, legs, face etc., Once these electrical impulses are no longer received, the muscles lose strength, atrophy and die.
ALS affects approximately 5 out of every 100,000 people worldwide. You cannot 'catch' ALS and there are no known risk factors, although 1 in 10 cases is due to a genetic defect.
For more information on ALS or to find out why ALS is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, check out the ALS Society of British Columbia's Frequently Asked Questions site.
Here are also some helpful sites with more information and book titles you may want to borrow from the library:
- ALS Canada
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Mayo Clinic)
- ALS Fact Sheet (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – Interactive Tutorial (National Library of Medicine)
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (MedlinePlus)
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (TPL's blog)
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