What were your first ALS symptoms?
Early symptoms include:
- Muscle twitches in the arm, leg, shoulder, or tongue.
- Muscle cramps.
- Tight and stiff muscles (spasticity)
- Muscle weakness affecting an arm, a leg, the neck, or diaphragm.
- Slurred and nasal speech.
- Difficulty chewing or swallowing.
Can you get ALS at age 70?
While cases of the disease can occur for people in their 20s and 30s, it is much more common for ALS to occur as men and women grow older. Most people who develop the symptoms of the disease are between the ages of 55 and 75.
What is the oldest person diagnosed with ALS?
Just 5% of ALS patients live longer than 20 years, according to the ALS Association, and it’s virtually unheard of to survive for 50 years or more — though North America’s longest-living ALS patient, a Canadian named Steven Wells, has had the condition for almost 40 years.
Do people over 80 get ALS?
Bulbar-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common form of the disease among patients 80 and older at disease onset, a factor that seems to contribute to shorter survival for these patients compared with younger ALS patients, a retrospective study has found.
How quickly do ALS symptoms appear?
And you’re right; it takes on average about nine to 12 months for someone to be diagnosed with ALS, from the time they first began to notice symptoms. Getting the proper evaluation in a timely way is important, especially since we have a drug, Rilutek, which has been shown to help delay the progression of ALS.
Do ALS symptoms come go?
Most people with ALS live 5 years or less after their diagnosis, but some live much longer. Research is underway to find treatments to extend and improve the quality of life. With MS, the course of the disease is harder to predict. Your symptoms may come and go, and may even disappear for months or years at a time.
Can you get ALS at 77?
Age. Perception: ALS is an older person’s disease. Reality: Most patients develop ALS between age 40 and 70, with an average age of 55 at the time of diagnosis. ALS can occur in patients in their early 20s, and it may develop in patients in their 80s or 90s.
What does ALS diagnosis mean?
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a condition which can be difficult to initially diagnose. ALS diagnosis is based on clinical presentation, with supportive data from electro-diagnostic, imaging, and laboratory studies.
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.
What is the history of ALS disease?
ALS was identified as a specific disease by Jean Martin Charcot , a pioneering French neurologist working in Paris in 1869s, and thus is still sometimes called Charcot’s disease in France. It wasn’t until 1939 that Lou Gehrig brought national and international attention to the disease.
How do you die from ALS?
Factors such as genetics and age at diagnosis may play a role in a patient’s survival times. Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure, which occurs when people cannot get enough oxygen from their lungs into their blood; or when they cannot properly remove carbon dioxide from their blood, according to NINDS.