Stephen Hawking disease: how SLA has an impact on the body and progress in treatment

The main dishes to remember on the state of the SLA or Stephen Hawking:

• ALS represents amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

• Stephen Hawking lived with SLA for 55 years and pleaded for research and helped raise awareness.

• ALS is fatal and has an impact on a person’s ability to speak, eat, walk and breathe. Progress of treatment includes genetic treatment, Qalsody, which was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023.

In 1939, Lou GehrigThe first New York Yankees Basic player shocked the world of baseball when he got mid-season after playing 2,130 consecutive games. Although he had a stellar season the previous year, something was different. He did not know it yet, but he began to feel the symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SLA). Doctors diagnosed Gherig at his 36th birthday, and died just before his 38th.

The famous physicist Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with a SLA (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1963. However, doctors still did not know what caused the disease and if there were possible treatments. Hawking doctors gave him about two years to live, however, he lived with the disease for 55 years.

During his life and his career, Hawking was a defender of research on ALS and helped to raise awareness of the disease. Thanks to its awareness and the help of viral challenges like The Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, scientists have identified many new genes associated with ALS. There is the hope that scientists will one day fight the disease with targeted gene therapies.

What is SLA?

When Gehrig announced his retirement, many people learned SLA for the first time. But Scientists a century earlier took note of a progressive weakness which they thought were rooted in a neurogenic cause. Now researchers better understand the cause of the disease as well as the expected progression.

“ALS is a fatal disease where a person’s brain ceases to communicate with their muscles. This means that a person loses the ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe ultimately.

Stephen Hawking condition: the longest survivor in SLA

ALS is a rare disease, and it is only in recent years that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have created a register that has officially followed the prevalence of SLA in the United States in 2022, Nearly 33,000 Cases have been reported.

Including Gehrig, there were some famous people with SLA. The world renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking, lived with SLA for 55 years. It was diagnosed at 21 years old and lived with the disease until 2018. Hawking was the longest living person living with ALS, and the average survival time after The diagnosis is three years.

“SLA is still deadly, generally within two to five years of diagnosis. There are people who live much longer with SLA, but we don’t know why, ”explains Frederick.

Find out more: From thoughts to words: how to decipher neural signals to help a man with the SLA to speak

Progress in the research and treatment of SLA

For people living with SLA, the progression of the disease may vary. SLA affects the snowmobiler and creates paralysis in a person’s legs and arms. They will also lose control of the muscles that allow them to speak, swallow and breathe. For some people, paralysis can start in their legs. For others, it can start with their voice.

“We have seen several new ALS genes identified, which gives the objectives of the research community for potential therapies,” explains Frederick.

Researchers were able to develop targeted therapy For one of the identified genesThe Dismutase 1 superoxide gene (SOD1). Genetic treatment, Qalsody, was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023 and then by regulatory agencies of the European Union in 2024.

Although the introduction of Qalsody is considered to be progress, it can only deal with patients with mutation in the SOD1 gene. Currently, the CDC estimates that there are less than 500 patients in the United States who have this type of change and will benefit from the new drug.

In 1993, SOD1 was the first gene associated with SLA. At the time of the 2014 ice bucket challenge, more than 20 associated genes were known to scientists. NOW, Over 40 genes have been identified, which will help scientists work towards target treatments.

Hope for a healing ALS

Although progress is made, there is currently no cure for ALS and defenders hope that another increase in public interest could help finance other studies.

“Anyone can get SLA at any time, and it’s a brutal disease. People diagnosed and their families often express that they prayed for cancer or MS or something other than ALS before this final diagnosis, ”explains Frederick.

This article does not offer medical advice and should be used for information purposes only.

Learn more:: A soft fan could help people with SLA to breathe more easily

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Emilie Lucchesi wrote for some of the country’s greatest newspapers, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree from DEPAUL University. It also has a doctorate. In communication from the University of Illinois-Chicago by emphasizing the framing of the media, the construction of messages and the communication of stigmatization. Emilie is the author of three non-fiction books. His third, a light in the dark: survive more than Ted Bundy, released on October 3, 2023 from Chicago Review Press and is co-written with the survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.