Possible Cure for ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease) (pain, death, foot)

[6 FOOT 3]

Anyway for those of us that study incurable diseases like ALS there's excitement as the MDA reported a clinical trial in Italy with 44 people with ALS were given Lithium (already FDA approved drug) and after 15 months not one died and their progression of the disease either slowed or stopped. Larger clinical trials are on the fast track now.

ALS can strike anyone at any age and once it starts it paraylises your entire body and death usually happens in 2 to 5 years. You become entombed in your own body. So this is exciting and it's good to see medical science progress in our times.

MDA Research | Lithium Slows ALS Progression In Study

[Miss Blue]

This is wonderful news 6 foot..This is one of the most debilitating diseases that has ruined so many lives and cut many lives so short..I pray that one day there will be a cure for it..Thanks for calling it to our arrention..

[Cheeky]

They should hurry it up! This is a terrible disease! Its been over 100 yrs since it was first diagnosed. Hurry up govenments and take action quickly!! If it was one of there children, fathers, mothers im sure they would!!!!!

[CleanCutHippie]

They aren't curing anything. They are just gonna stick these poor people on lithium there whole life which as the articles says is a drug that has to be closely monitored. Its not a safe drug even for the ppl (bi-polar, scizophrenics) which it was intended for.

[subsound]

Lithium is a safe drug in low concentrations, though often severe mental disorder patients are put on a great deal of it because it is also one of the few that work for resistant types of those disorders. At levels like that it does cause problems...like obesity, fatigue, and sometimes phantom pain in addition to the liver toxicity effects (that are closely monitored). It's a hell of a lot better to be on that IMHO, even with the side effects at high concentrations, then living under a bridge and screaming at traffic that the squirrels are eating your feet while you sleep.

The dosages required in the study seem to be on the low side too, and if it slows down the progression of this devastating disease that is simply awesome. I'd rather be fat and tired then be unable to move, communicate, then dead in 5 years. I hope they find it works with more studies.

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by Cheeky

They should hurry it up! This is a terrible disease! Its been over 100 yrs since it was first diagnosed. Hurry up govenments and take action quickly!! If it was one of there children, fathers, mothers im sure they would!!!!!

I posted this story february of last year (2008) as the latest hope for the people who get this devastating neuro disorder is the first human clinical trials of stem cells starting this summer by Neuralstem.

http://www.neuralstem.com/index.asp?pgid=1

[Cheeky]

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

I posted this story february of last year (2008) as the latest hope for the people who get this devastating neuro disorder is the first human clinical trials of stem cells starting this summer by Neuralstem.

Stem Cell Research at Neuralstem

Im wondering how accessible thats going to be for the general people, mind you i could just imagine the cost. If it works...

[sp169]

Today I went the funeral of a friend (for 25 years) who died of ALS. His courage in the face of this disease was amazing, and heartbreaking. This formerly active, athletic man, was robbed of his body, and then trapped in it. The answer to this disease must be found.