ALS does not affect the senses sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch. Most people are able to think normally, although a small number develop dementia, causing problems with memory. Muscle weakness starts in one body part, such as the arm or hand, and slowly gets worse until it leads to the following:. There is no known cure for ALS. A medicine called riluzole helps slow the symptoms and helps people live slightly longer.
Two medicines are available that help slow the progression of symptoms and may help people live slightly longer:.
Physical therapy, rehabilitation, use of braces or a wheelchair, or other measures may be needed to help with muscle function and general health.
People with ALS tend to lose weight. The illness itself increases the need for food and calories. At the same time, problems with choking and swallowing make it hard to eat enough. To help with feeding, a tube may be placed into the stomach.
A dietitian who specializes in ALS can give advice on healthy eating. Breathing devices include machines that are used only at night, and constant mechanical ventilation.
Medicine for depression may be needed if a person with ALS is feeling sad. They also should discuss their wishes regarding artificial ventilation with their families and providers. Emotional support is vital in coping with the disorder, because mental functioning is not affected. Groups such as the ALS Association may be available to help people who are coping with the disorder. Support for people who are caring for someone with ALS is also available, and may be very helpful.
Over time, people with ALS lose the ability to function and care for themselves. Death often occurs within 3 to 5 years of diagnosis.
About 1 in 4 people survive for more than 5 years after diagnosis. Some people live much longer, but they typically need help breathing from a ventilator or other device. Increased difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, and episodes of apnea are symptoms that require immediate attention. Please use ER for emergencies only.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS damages the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. These nerves control the ability to move muscles. ALS slowly gets worse. Over time, it often becomes harder to walk, speak, eat, swallow, and breathe. But some people live for many years, even decades, after they learn that they have ALS. Finding out that you have ALS may be overwhelming.
You may feel many emotions and may need some help coping. Seek out family, friends, and counselors for support. Treatment for ALS helps you stay active as long as possible. Your doctor may prescribe medicine to prevent muscle cramps or stiffness, improve appetite, and relieve depression and pain. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or motor neuron disease.
Doctors don't know what causes ALS. In about 1 case out of 10, it runs in families. The first sign of ALS is often weakness in one leg, one hand, the face, or the tongue.
The weakness slowly spreads to both arms and both legs. This happens because as the motor neurons slowly die, they stop sending signals to the muscles. So the muscles don't have anything telling them to move. Over time, with no signals from the motor neurons telling the muscles to move, the muscles get weaker and smaller. ALS doesn't cause numbness, tingling, or loss of feeling.
To find out if you have ALS, your doctor will do a physical exam and will ask you about your symptoms and past health. You will also have tests that show how your muscles and nerves are working. It can be hard for your doctor to tell if you have ALS. It may not be clear that you have the disease until symptoms get worse or until your doctor has done more testing. Just because you have muscle weakness, fatigue, stiffness, and twitching doesn't mean that you have ALS.
Those symptoms can also be caused by other conditions. So talk to your doctor if you have those symptoms. Tests to confirm ALS or look for other causes of your symptoms include:. If your doctor thinks that you have ALS, he or she will refer you to a neurologist to make sure. There is no cure for ALS, but treatment can help you stay strong and independent for as long as possible. Treatments may include:. This can help you with coughing, swallowing, and talking after weakness in the face, throat, and chest begins.
These can help you stay mobile, communicate, and do daily tasks like bathing, eating, and dressing. Some examples are canes, walkers, wheelchairs, ramps, handrails, raised toilet seats, and shower seats.
You can also get braces to support your feet, ankles, or neck. These may help slow the progression of ALS, relieve your symptoms, and keep you comfortable.
There are medicines that can help with many of the symptoms you might have. These symptoms may include muscle problems stiffness, cramps, twitching , drooling and extra saliva, depression and mood swings, and pain. Palliative care is a type of care for people who have a serious illness. It's different from care to cure your illness, called curative treatment. Palliative care provides an extra layer of support that can improve your quality of life—not just in your body, but also in your mind and spirit.
Sometimes palliative care is combined with curative treatment. The kind of care you get depends on what you need. The muscular issues may cause people to experience fatigue, poor balance, slurred words, loss of grip strength, or to trip or fall when walking. During the middle stages of ALS, muscle weakness and atrophy spreads to other parts of the body. Some muscles become paralyzed, while others lose strength. Some infrequently used muscles may become permanently shortened, causing contractures in which joints e.
People may also develop problems in walking, and in swallowing dysphagia and chewing food, which increases the risk of choking. Other problems associated with increasing muscle weakness include difficulty in speaking and breathing dyspnea , and possibly uncontrollable and inappropriate laughing or crying, a reaction called the pseudobulbar affect. Most ALS patients retain higher mental and reasoning abilities, and are aware of their progressive loss of muscular function. As ALS progresses, most voluntary muscles become paralyzed.
As the muscles of the mouth and throat, and those involved in breathing, become paralyzed, eating, speaking, and breathing is compromised. During this stage , eating and drinking are usually require a feeding tube. Breathing is assisted via a ventilator.
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