OT ALS does represent with Scarring/plaques/sclerosis

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ALS does have lesions. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Sclerosis =

scarring or hardening. Multiple sclerosis = more than one area of

scarring. ALS is also one of the diseases that is mistaken for ms.

It has similar symptoms and the scarring. Many ALS patients are

initially diagnosed or thought to have ms.

And Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as " Lou

Gehrig's disease, " is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that

affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons

reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to

the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the

motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death. When the motor

neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle

movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively

affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become

totally paralyzed. Yet, through it all, for the vast majority of

people, their minds remain unaffected.

A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language. " A " means no or

negative. " Myo " refers to muscle, and " Trophic " means nourishment---

" No muscle nourishment. " When a muscle has no nourishment,

it " atrophies " or wastes away. " Lateral " identifies the areas in a

person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal

and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it

leads to scarring or hardening ( " sclerosis " ) in the region.

As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the

muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms

of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving

the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no

longer receive the messages from the motor neurons that they require

to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs

begin to look " thinner " as muscle tissue atrophies.

What Types of Nerves Make Your Body Work Properly?

(from Living with ALS, Manual 1: What's It All About?)

The body has many kinds of nerves. There are those involved in

the process of thinking, memory, and of detecting sensations (such as

hot/cold, sharp/dull), and others for vision, hearing, and other

bodily functions. The nerves that are affected when you have ALS are

the motor neurons that provide voluntary movements and muscle power.

Examples of voluntary movements are your making the effort to reach

for the phone or step off a curb; these actions are controlled by the

muscles in the arms and legs.

The heart and the digestive system are also made of muscle but

a different kind, and their movements are not under voluntary

control. When your heart beats or a meal is digested, it all happens

automatically. Therefore, the heart and digestive system are not

involved in ALS. Breathing also may seem to be involuntary. Remember,

though, while you cannot stop your heart, you can hold your breath -

so be aware that ALS may eventually have an impact on breathing.

Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the recent

years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding

the physiology of this disease.

While there is not a cure or treatment today that halts or reverses

ALS, there is one FDA approved drug, Rilutek®, that modestly slows

the progression of ALS as well as several other drugs in clinical

trials that hold promise.

Causes

ALS is not a disease with a single

cause. Many factors appear to play

important roles in its ultimate

development:

- familial/genetic: SOD-I and NEFH

- excess glutamate

- environmental risk factors

- immune system abnormalities

- nerve growth factors:

IGF-I (Myotrophin),

BDNF, GDNF

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> > Yes I realize other diseases show lesions. ALS is one.

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