Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Signs and Symptoms

What exactly is ALS?

ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a neurological disease affecting the brainstem, spinal cord, and the cerebral cortex and it is also called as Lou Gehrig's Diseases. It's part of the Motor Neuron Disease group of diseases (MND). Its cause is unknown. ALS commonly causes upper extremity muscle weakness and atrophy. Some people's lower extremities show similar muscle reactions. Dysarthria and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) can develop. ALS may cause breathing issues. It has no influence on the person's intelligence, personality, IQ, or memory. There still no cure for this illness but with proper ALS treatment the illness can be slowed.

ALS Affects the Body

They receive information from outside the body and deliver it to the brain. The brain sends a message to the body via motor neurons (moving nerves.) Motor neurons are located in the brainstem, spinal cord, and cerebral cortex, all impacted by ALS. If you have an itch, discomfort, or other bodily stimulation, your sensory neurons will send a message to your brain. The brain then sends a signal to move, scratch, or otherwise react to the emotion. In ALS, motor neurons are delayed, disturbed, or destroyed. Motor function, involvement may vary from side to side.

Oral motor (mouth and throat) difficulties are another important consequence of ALS. Dysarthria is a disorder in which the muscles regulating speech are difficult to regulate, resulting in sluggish or difficult-to-understand speech. Increased choking and a slowdown of the capacity to transfer liquids or food from the mouth to the stomach impair the swallowing muscles (dysphagia).

Fasciculations (involuntary muscular contraction of a single motor neuron, a twitch) in the tongue, hands, and arms may occur when the brainstem is implicated. Muscle paresis (weakness) caused through cranial nerves (nerve that originate in the brain) may be spastic (not able to relax) and flaccid (unable to move) (unable to contract). Motor function of various cranial nerves may be found in the cranial nerve table below. These are the functions that ALS affects. The cranial nerves that are most damaged by ALS are shown in bold.

Visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, and olfactory capabilities remain unaffected. Until late in the disease, the motor functions such as eye movement, bladder continence, and bowel function are usually unaltered. Throughout the course of the disease, cognition (or the ability to think) is unaffected.

ALS Signs and Symptoms

Individuals' ALS symptoms manifest and progress in different ways. Some people will first detect difficulties with their extremities, while others will discover problems with their voices. Depending on which muscles weaken first and how the disease progresses, ALS presents and develops in a variety of ways. Among the signs and symptoms are:

• General muscular weakness with a gradual onset and usually little discomfort.

• Dropping objects, stumbling, and falling due to unusual tiredness of the arms, legs, or complete body.

• Control issues in the hands and arms

• Slurred or nasal speech, difficulty speaking, eating, swallowing, and/or breathing

• Muscle twitches (fasciculations) or cramps (spasms) in the shoulders, tongue, or legs

• Arm, leg, or diaphragm muscle weakness

• Uncontrollable bursts of laughter or tears

ALS is a disease that worsens with time. The early signs and symptoms are generally minor, if not completely undetectable. The hands, voice, or legs may be the first areas to show symptoms. Clumsiness or alterations in fine motor function or writing in the hands might be the first signs. Bulbar onset refers to changes in speech, swallowing, and saliva management. Limb onset refers to changes in the legs that are shown by stumbling or trouble walking.

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Donations from the Ice Bucket Challenge helped fund some of the study