ALS can strike any one at any age. The median age for the disease is 54.
ALS is not an infection and is not caused by infections or other bacteria. See Myth 3 for more.
"Unlike ALS, Lyme is usually treatable with antibiotics. Lyme disease does not cause ALS, and generally in a diagnostic workup, a neurologist can easily separate ALS from Lyme infections, either clinically or with testing. There is no reliable data to suggest that ALS is started by an infection or transmitted by patients to others."
ALS can affect people of all races and ethnicities.
Read more about Stephen Hawking and ALS from the Washington Post here and from Scientific American here.
"This is a long-standing myth held by physicians and patients: that ALS patients’ minds remain sharp as their bodies deteriorate. But newer studies show that about 20 to 30 percent of patients develop a mild cognitive impairment, while a very small number, about 5 to 10 percent, get severe dementia."
While there appear to be links to playing sports professionally and having ALS, there are no studies that have successfully proved this theory.
© 2019 Sam Halpern. All rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.