Lou Gehrigs Disease

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a motor neuron disease that was first described in 1869 by the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot.  ALS is a degenerative neuro-disease that typically attacks both the lower and upper motor neurons and interferes with the brains messages to the muscles. It causes degeneration throughout the spinal cord and the brain.  Essentially, ALS makes you lose control of your voluntary muscles.  Early symptoms include a painless weakening of a hand, foot, arm, leg and speech, swallowing or walking difficulty.

It is still not completely understood what causes ALS.  Right now, there is only one known cause of ALS.  That cause is a mutation of a specific gene, the SOD1 gene and this mutation only account for 1 or 2 percent of all ALS cases, or 20% of the familial or inherited cases.  This mutated gene makes a defective protein that is toxic to motor nerve cells. 

Familial ALS makes up for 5-10% off of the cases.  The remaining cases come on spontaneously and without explanation which means that these random attacks on otherwise healthy adults could happen to anyone, anytime.