What is ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease)?
ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is a disease of the central nervous system that affects a person’s ability to move certain muscles. The central nervous system is a complex network that sends messages from the brain, like muscle movement, to the rest of the body. These messages are carried by nerve cells called motor neurons. The motor neurons not only carry the messages, they do the “talking” for the brain and tell the muscles what to do. ALS increasingly stops the messages from getting through to the muscles, making it difficult to move.
