What progress is being made toward a cure for A.L.S.?

[JLM]

I just lost a dear cousin to A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig's disease) after she'd been going steadily down hill for almost a year since diagnosis. From what I can gather this has to be one of the cruelest of diseases, where the victim eventually loses the ability to swallow or even breathe. Does anyone know if any progress has been made toward a cure or even extending life and mitigating the effects. We hear a lot about cancer, heart and stroke and diabetes but very little about A.L.S. I will be making a meagre contribution to a fund that is concerned with a cure for this dreadful affliction.

 

[SLM]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. A.L.S. is a dreadful disease. It's very painful to watch a family member degenrate. I know something about that, I've been watching my mother degenerate with M.S. for the past ten years.

No contribution is meagre, all contributions can be made use of, whether for research towards a cure or to the ALS Society for care provision.

 

[JLM]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. A.L.S. is a dreadful disease. It's very painful to watch a family member degenrate. I know something about that, I've been watching my mother degenerate with M.S. for the past ten years.

No contribution is meagre, all contributions can be made use of, whether for research towards a cure or to the ALS Society for care provision.

Keep a positive thought with regard to your mother, I'm not sure of the details but apparently there has recently been some successful surgeries performed abroad, but not yet performed in Canada. Hopefully based more on fact than emotion!

 

[SLM]

Keep a positive thought with regard to your mother,

Thank you. Actually she's positive enough for the both of us, lol. She's taking the glass half full approach, so good for her.

I'm not sure of the details but apparently there has recently been some successful surgeries performed abroad, but not yet performed in Canada. Hopefully based more on fact than emotion!

Yes, the Liberation Treatment they call it. The government actually announced a few months back that they would be providing funding for trials in Canada. So that's a good thing, especially since, if I'm not mistaken, one of if not the highest incidence of MS in the world is in Canada.

Ironically though, just prior to her actual diagnosis and based on her symptoms at the time, it was speculated that she could have ALS. I'm quite glad that was not the diagnosis.

 

[JLM]

Yes, with M.S. there's hope, with A.L.S. (unless you are Stephen Hawking) not much to date. I had an aunt who was diagnosed with a form of M.S. while in her 50s and was more or less crippled for the rest of her life, but ironically died of old age at 92!