Human Anatomy and Physiology

Lou Gehrig Disease : A Methapor of Aging

Human Anatomy and Physiology

Lou Gehrig Disease

The popular book , Tuesday 's with Morrie narrates to us the capacity of time to deteriorate everything . Everything ages with time . And in the process one loses his or her abilities eventually . This is metaphorically implied in Mitch Albom 's choice of disease that will haunt Morrie to his death , the Lou Gehrig Disease

The disease properly known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neuromascular disease that affect primarily motor neurons of the body . These

motor neurons are components of the nervous system which are connected to our skeletal muscles and controls our bodily movements and functions as dictated by our brain (2008 . The term is in memory of the late baseball player , Lou Gehrig , who died with the disease in 1941 Lou was noticed in his games to have lost his strength , having pitches thrown at him turn as flyouts and not the expected home runs . He was also noticed to be dragging his legs while walking in a glof course with a teammate and this have raised concern among the rest of the team , more importantly on his career . When he was diagnosed to have the disease , he removed himself from the team (2008 . Because they know that his strength will not come back and will eventually diminish

Through time an ALS patient condition becomes severe , basically resulting to paralysis and even leads to respiratory deterioration . Anne Walling M .D , an associate dean for faculty development in the University of Kansas School of Medicine , described the situation of patients with ALS as

Speech therapy evaluation demonstrated moderate to severe weakness of laryngeal muscles . Within a month , the patient had slurred speech difficulty in swallowing liquids and fasciculations of the tongue During the next year , she lost the ability to speak or swallow , and developed weakness and fasciculations in her shoulders , arms and upper trunk . Communication was complicated by multiple daily episodes in which the patient laughed or wept inappropriately and switched from one emotion to the opposite within a few minutes . She became cachectic despite use of a gastrostomy tube and experienced increasing problems with balance , respiration , nutrition and hydration (Walling M .D , 1999

The patient here is diagnosed with a bulbar ALS . It primarily affects a patient 's laryngeal muscles which affects his or her speech and swallowing at first . Another form of ALS is the spinal form which primarily causes paralysis on patient . It disables first a person 's locomotive functions . Walling described its early stages as

A 53-year-old woman developed an unusual gait related to "calf stiffness " After several months of progressive weakness , she developed a right foot drop . Within 15 months , she also described difficulty in writing , weakness of the right hand and arm , and diffuse muscle twitching with painful muscle cramps . Assessment confirmed weakness of all limbs , more marked on the right side , with muscle atrophy . Reflexes were hyperactive and fasciculations were observed in the right leg (Walling...