Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (abbreviated ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, and in France, Charcot) is a degenerative neuromuscular type. It is caused when a nerve cells called motor neurons gradually decline and die operation, causing progressive muscular paralysis fatal prognosis: in its advanced stages patients experience total paralysis that is accompanied by an exaltation of tendon reflexes (result of the loss of muscle control inhibitory).
Despite being the most serious disease of motor neurons, ALS is just one of the many diseases that exist in which these cells are affected nerve. Among others, are included in this type of diseases, spinal muscular atrophy and juvenile and infant variants, which only affect spinal motor neurons, primary lateral sclerosis (ELP) in which only affect central motor neurons (brain ) and Kennedy's disease or (spinobulbar progressive muscular atrophy) is a genetic disorder that affects middle-aged men.
The name of the disease, first described in 1869 by French physician Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893), specifies its main features:
'Lateral sclerosis "indicates the loss of nerve fibers accompanied by a" sclerosis "(Greek σκλήρωσις' hardening ') or glial scarring at the side area of ​​the spinal cord, the region occupied by nerve fibers or axons that are ultimately responsible control of voluntary movements.
"Sclerosis" (from the Greek, to: denial; mine: 'muscle'; trophic 'nutrition'), meanwhile, notes that muscle atrophy is caused by chronic muscle inactivity, the muscles have stopped receiving nerve signals.
In ALS, brain functions unrelated to motor activity, that is, the sensitivity and intelligence, are unchanged. On the other hand, are scarcely affected motoneurons controlling extrinsic muscles of the eye, so that patients retain eye movements to the end. Also, the ELA not damage the core Onuf therefore not affected the sphincter muscles controlling the urination and defecation.