Lou Gehrig's Disease
Approximately 5,000 people a year in the United States develop Lou Gehrig's disease. Lou Gehrig's Disease is also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a fatal neurological disease that affects the motor neurons, causing the person affected to lose control of voluntary movement. About 90 percent of people with ALS die from loss of the ability to breathe on their own within three to five years from onset of the disease. Approximately 10 percent of people with ALS live for 10 or more years with the disease.
Cause
The cause of Lou Gehrig's Disease is a mystery to the medical community. It is not understood why a person gets the disease. There are some clues that may lead to the discovery of the cause of ALS in the future. People of all ethnicities and all age groups can get the disease, but it is diagnosed more often in men than women, and the majority of cases are found in people who are between 40 and 60 years old. Genetic factors and glutamate may play a role in Lou Gehrig's disease.
Genetic Factors
Five to 10 percent of ALS cases are familial, meaning that another person in the family has previously been diagnosed with the disease. The remaining 90 to 95 percent of cases are not familial. Of the 5 to 10 percent of familial cases of ALS, 20 percent are linked to a mutation in the SOD1 gene. Being that only a small amount of cases are linked to the mutated gene, more research needs to be done to determine the cause of ALS.
Glutamate
ALS patients have higher amounts of glutamate in their spinal fluid than people who do not have the disease. The high levels of glutamate cause neurons to die. Research is being conducted to evaluate what causes the high levels of glutamate. If researchers can determine the cause of the increased levels of glutamate, they may be closer to figuring out the cause of ALS.
