Are Multiple Sclerosis and ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease) similar?
While the diseases are different in clinical course, they are quite similar in diagnosis, and initially can often be similar in symptoms. ALS can be misdiagnosed as MS initially, until the course of the disease is seen, or until new physical evidence presents which can serve to differentiate the disease from MS. A common first symptom of ALS is a painless weakness of a hand, arm, foot, or leg. Other common symptoms are walking difficulty and swallowing issues. Muscle weakness, gait problems, and in later stages of MS, swallowing issues, are also common in MS as well. It’s easy for the diseases, at the initial stages, to be confused. They are, however, quite different. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease which causes neurological degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord, affecting the motor neurons. MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the protective myelin surrounding neurons and leaves behind scars (or scleroses) where signal flow is dec
