A Bucket of Ice

Have you taken the ice bucket challenge? What do you know about the disease you were raising funds for? Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressive, fatal neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles.

This disease attacks nerve cells that control muscles in the arms, legs, and face. Eventually use of limbs and speech stop. Voluntary movement is lost. And with that comes loss of the ability to breathe.

There is no single test to diagnose it. There is no cure. And no one knows who will get it and who does not. Ongoing research is looking for answers.

Lou Gehrig was a baseball legend, the first baseman for the New York Yankees who developed the disease that ended his career and his life.

The ALS ice bucket challenge encourages people to dump ice water on their heads and donate money raised to an ALS organization which helps fund ALS research.