What is the life expectancy of someone with ALS?

What is the life expectancy of someone with ALS?

Although the mean survival time with ALS is two to five years, some people live five, 10 or more years. Symptoms can begin in the muscles that control speech and swallowing or in the hands, arms, legs or feet.

Can a person survive ALS?

ALS is fatal. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to five years, but some patients may live for years or even decades. (The famous physicist Stephen Hawking, for example, lived for more than 50 years after he was diagnosed.) There is no known cure to stop or reverse ALS.

Can anyone get ALS?

Although this disease can strike anyone, ALS is extremely rare in kids. According to the ALS Association, most people who develop it are adults between 40 and 70. Only 2 out of every 100,000 people will get the disease each year.

Why do athletes get ALS?

Researchers have hypothesized that vigorous physical activity might increase exposure to environmental toxins, facilitate the transport of toxins to the brain, increase the absorption of toxins, or increase the athlete””s susceptibility to motor neuron disease through added physical stress.

What are the early warning signs of ALS?

Weakness within the muscles involved in speech and swallowing can occur as an early symptom of ALS. Affected patients can exhibit unusually nasal or slurred speech, which can be difficult for friends and loved ones to understand, reports the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

What are the long term effects of ALS?

Over time, ALS causes the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord to shrink and disappear, so that the muscles no longer receive signals to move. So, the muscles get smaller and weaker. Gradually the body becomes paralyzed, which means that the muscles no longer work.

What are the early signs of ALS disease?

Early stage ALS. Early symptoms of ALS are usually characterized by muscle weakness,tightness (spasticity),cramping,or twitching (fasciculations).

Middle stage ALS. During the middle stages of ALS,muscle weakness and atrophy spreads to other parts of the body.

Late stage ALS. As ALS progresses,most voluntary muscles become paralyzed.

What is usually the first sign of ALS?

Signs and symptoms might include: ALS often starts in the hands, feet or limbs, and then spreads to other parts of your body. As the disease advances and nerve cells are destroyed, your muscles get weaker. This eventually affects chewing, swallowing, speaking and breathing.