Download to read offline
Final Project
- 1. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis AmyotrophicLateral Sclerosis ALS Lou Gehrig’s Disease what’s in a name ? a myo trophic lateral sclerosis “without” “muscle” “nourishment” “side (of the spinal cord)” “hardening” or “scarring” So, Amyotrophic means that the muscles in the body are losing nourishment. When muscles lose nourshment, they become weaker and smaller. Did you walk to school today? Eat lunch? Breathe? All of these things become difficult when you have ALS.
- 2. Motor neurons are nervecells that control muscle movement (They aren’t quite like trucks. They don’t move.) WITHOUT ALS WITH ALS motor neurons motor neurons exist in the brain and spinal cord start to break down, and eventually die motor neurons pass messages from the brain to the muscles If the motor neurons are dead, the brain can’t send signals to the muscles When the messages reach the muscles, they tell the muscles Because the motor neurons are not sending the brain’s messages to the muscles, the person how to move cannot move
- 3. who has ALS? RICKFRIEDMAN / CORBIS 30,000 Americans have ALS at this very moment - MLB Photos / Getty Images That’s almost enough people to fill Fenway Park during a game. LOU GEHRIG Lou Gehrig, a New York Yankees German-American baseball player, is the a famous figure in history to have been diagnosed with ALS.l One of the most common names for ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, 1903-1941 Stephen Hawking is an English physicist at the University of Cambridge. He was diagnosed at the age of 21, but lives today, at the age of 71. 1942- Dan Kitwood / Getty Images Stephen Hawking
- 4. WHO develops als? Most people whodevelop ALS are between the ages of 40 and 70 Patients are expected to live 2-5 years longer after they are diagnosed. however, ALS occurs throughout the world without racial ethnic socioeconomic boundaries
- 5. so how dopeople get ALS ? the bad news No one is really sure. the good news Some people have ideas. Some scientists from Johns Hopkins Universtiy say that ALS has a lot to do with something called neurotransmitters neurotransmitters are a lot like your iPhone, but instead of sending iMessages to friends, they send messages to specific cells just like text messages too many neurotransmitters is a bad thing. )You want to have just the right amount(
- 6. how NEUROTRANSMITTERS work 1 Anelectrical signal enters the A XON NEUROTRANSMITTERS are held inside V E S IC L E S 2 The signal causes the VESICLE to release the NEUROTRANSMITTERS The other cell receives the NEUROTRANSMITTERS and the message 3
- 7. how NEUROTRANSMITTERS work WITHALS The scientists think that sometimes, in some people, there are too many glutamate neurotransmitters ) glutamate is just one type of ( NEUROTRANSMITTER Remember? too many neurotransmitters is a bad thing.
- 8. = Long story short This causes a chaineffect That KILLS motor neurons And if motor neurons are dead, muscles cannot move does this sound familiar ? (Hint: check back to the second page!)
- 9. There is alot that is still unknown about ALS, and life with ALS can be hard. But there’s hope. Stephen Hawking once said “ I have had motor neuron disease for practically all my adult life. Yet it has not prevented me from having a very attractive family and being successful in my work... I have been lucky that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope. “
- 10.