On Saturday, February 24, Canadian actor Kenneth Mitchell, who starred in Marvel’s ‘Captain Marvel’ and ‘Star Trek: Discovery’, passed away. The 49-year-old passed away due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
ALS is named after Lou Gehrig, an American baseball player who died from it. World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking had ALS. Stephen Hawking advises ALS patients to be optimistic: “However bad your life is, you can still dream about something and can achieve it.”
What’s ALS?
Kandraju Sai Satish, Consultant Neurologist & Epileptologist, Yashoda Hospitals Hyderabad, says ALS affects muscle contraction motor nerves. Both muscular function and mass are lost. ALS causes uncontrollable muscle twitching, weakness, and atrophy.
The clinical presentation of this disease depends on which muscle group is damaged. Swallowing, speaking, and pronouncing may be difficult if swallowing and speaking muscles are damaged. Others who have leg and hand muscles compromised have trouble walking, eating, clothing, writing, etc. and need help.
The problem is respiratory muscle pathology when the person has trouble breathing. This sickness severely impairs mobility, swallowing, and breathing, yet it does not impair consciousness or feeling. In most people, the disease starts in one muscle group and spreads to another before affecting the breathing muscles. Many ALS patients die from secondary problems such aspiration pneumonia and pulmonary embolism.
While the origin of ALS is unknown in most people, it may be related to an undiscovered cancer in a few and there are few genes for familial ALS.
ALS has few viable reversal drugs despite advances in understanding its pathophysiology. ALS patients should not worry because revolutionary technology is being created to help them with daily tasks. Few medicines can slow or cure the disease.
