After news that Eric Dane has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, many may be wondering what the disease is and how it affects the body.
ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that attacks the brain and spinal cord’s nerve cells that control the muscles in a person’s body to work.
"When the motor neurons die, the brain can no longer initiate and control muscle movement. When voluntary muscle action is progressively affected, people may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe," the ALS Association said.
There is no cure.
It was discovered in 1869 by a French neurologist but became well known when Gehrig developed it, ending his career in 1939.
ALS comes on gradually, and symptoms can vary depending on the person. They may have trouble grabbing a pen or coffee cup. Others may have a change in their voice’s pitch. Not everyone has the same symptoms or the same sequence of them.
Progression also varies. The mean survival time is two to five years, but some people have lived 10 years or longer with the condition.
People develop ALS between the ages of 40 and 70, but the average age is 55 years old. It can happen in people as young as their 20s or 30s.
It is found more in men than women, but that spread is getting closer to being equal.
Most cases - 90% of them - happen with no known family history of ALS.
Other celebrities diagnosed with ALS include Aaron Lazar, John Driskell Hopkins, Eric Stevens, Joe Bonsall, Roberta Flack, Kenneth Mitchell and Stephen Hawking.