11727Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, particularly motor neurons. Motor neurons transmit signals from the brain and spinal cord to every muscle in your body. When a person has ALS, they are not able to generate enough motor neurons and the brain cannot initiate and control muscle movements. After a while, when the disease gradually worsens, the patient has difficulty speaking, swallowing, breathing, etc. These kinds of tasks are essential to the body, so when it gets to a certain point, the patient dies. There are several other names for this condition, such as Lou Gehrig's disease and motor neuron disease (MND). DiagnosisSigns and SymptomsThe first symptoms of ALS are muscle weakness, which is normal. These types of symptoms may involve difficulty swallowing, cramps, or stiffness in certain muscles. As the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to control all voluntary movements. Typically, sensory nerves and the autonomic nervous system are unaffected, meaning people with ALS can hear, see, touch, smell, and taste properly. The types of muscles you are able to control at the first symptoms depend on which motor neurons are damaged first. The most common motor neurons that are damaged early are those called “limb onset,” which affect the arms and legs. As might be expected, people with "limb onset" experience difficulties when walking and running, such as stumbling, stumbling, or dragging their feet. Other types of “onsets” that ALS patients may experience are “bulbar onset” and “respiratory onset.” Patients with bulbar-onset ALS have difficulty speaking... middle of article... National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The research is carried out in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health. The goal of this research is to find the cause(s) of ALS, to understand the mechanisms involved in the progression of the disease and to develop effective treatments. Other research is being done by scientists to create biomarkers for ALS that could serve as tools for making a diagnosis. These biomarkers could potentially come from cerebrospinal fluid, the brain or spinal cord, or from an electrophysiological measure of the ability of nerves and muscles to process an electrical signal. als.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/amyotrophiclateralsclerosis/detail_ALS.htm http://www.alsa.org/about-als/diagnosing- als.html