00:00 We'll talk about heart disease, another fatal type of motor neuron disease
00:04 that we'll talk about this morning.
00:06 But before that, let's watch this.
00:08 At present, it is not surprising that many diseases are spreading in our society.
00:17 From simple fever, weakening and body aches,
00:21 to serious diseases such as Lou Gehrig's disease
00:25 or what is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
00:30 This is due to the name of the famous baseball player Henry Louis Gehrig
00:36 who was forced to retire after being diagnosed with ALS in 1939.
00:42 Because of this, many are still worried about ALS
00:48 because it is a neurodegenerative disease that spreads to motor neurons in the brain
00:54 and is the spinal cord of a person who is losing the ability to control the movement of their body.
01:01 If so, let's find out what is Lou Gehrig's disease
01:05 or also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, here in Seyni Doc.
01:11 And to give us important information about this,
01:16 we will be joined by the general physician, Dr. Villa Roderos Galvan.
01:20 Good morning and welcome to Rise and Shine Philippines, Doc Villa.
01:23 Hi Doc Villa.
01:24 Good morning Prof. Fee and good morning Ms. Diane and to all our viewers of Rise and Shine.
01:29 Alright, Doc Villa, can you explain to us more about Lou Gehrig's disease
01:34 and how it affects a person's body?
01:37 The introduction we gave earlier described what is Lou Gehrig's disease
01:43 or what we know as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
01:48 Earlier, we mentioned that it is a neurodegenerative disorder.
01:53 It means that through time, this disease gets worse and it affects your motor neurons.
01:59 Your motor neurons are responsible or the mechanism or the part of our brain
02:08 or a part of our neurons or classification of neurons that actually controls our voluntary movements.
02:16 For example, our movements like getting a glass or breathing,
02:24 that's actually caused by the activation of our motor neurons.
02:30 What happens is that if someone has Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS,
02:34 our motor neurons degenerate earlier.
02:39 Meaning, it wears down earlier, making it ineffective.
02:46 So, if someone has ALS, it is harder for them to move,
02:52 it is harder for them to do actions that are usually affected by your motor neurons.
03:00 Doc Valli, are there different types of this disease or it's just one?
03:06 Usually, we just look at ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.
03:11 There are a lot of other types of neurodegenerative disease but ALS is as it is.
03:18 Doc, in terms of motor movement, is there a difference between a person with stroke versus someone with ALS
03:26 and other diseases that really cause problems in motor movements?
03:31 It's important to distinguish those because usually,
03:36 when we see a person with neurodegenerative disease,
03:40 the symptoms of this are muscle weakness or muscle paralysis,
03:50 paralysis of our extremities, arms, legs, twitching.
03:56 Sometimes, it can be difficult to speak.
04:00 The symptoms of stroke are the same.
04:02 The only difference is that when a person has ALS, it's very progressive.
04:08 It means we see the progression of this over time.
04:12 When it comes to stroke, you suddenly see that this morning, he's still speaking.
04:19 After the next one, you see that he suddenly can't speak.
04:24 His speech is slurred.
04:25 There's some sort of suddenness on the onset of stroke
04:29 because when it comes to stroke, the problem is that it doesn't cause paralysis or bleeding in our brain.
04:37 The difference is that what affects ALS is your motor neurons which look at a progression.
04:45 It means that it happens over and over again.
04:48 What is the meaning of this, Doc?
04:51 That's a good question, Ms. Diane.
04:56 Based on our studies, we still don't know where it comes from.
05:02 It might be because some of it can be genetic.
05:07 We look at the risk factors.
05:10 Sometimes, when a patient is diagnosed with ALS, we look at a genetic component.
05:18 If the parents, grandparents, or someone from the family has a disease,
05:26 we also look at exposure to chemicals.
05:29 Usually, we see military men or people working in the factories.
05:34 We see that they might have Lou Gehrig's disease.
05:38 But based on the studies of doctor scientists,
05:43 we don't know where it comes from.
05:46 All we know is that it causes our neurons to degenerate.
05:51 It causes an impact on our movement, breathing, and eating.
06:00 That's where we see it.
06:02 In layman's terms or someone who's not medically inclined,
06:06 how do we know if a person with Lou Gehrig's disease has symptoms?
06:12 What are the symptoms?
06:14 That's a good question, Profie.
06:16 How do we know if we have the possibility of having ALS?
06:23 The first thing we notice is twitching of the hands, arms, or legs.
06:32 Apart from that, we notice that our strength in lifting and using our arms is not the same as normal.
06:45 So there's muscle weakness.
06:47 Sometimes, we see twitching in the tongue, which is why it's difficult to speak.
06:52 Usually, we see that when contracting the disease.
06:58 We see that it progresses from 14 to 18 months.
07:02 That's the difference from the stroke.
07:05 During that time, we see muscle weakness, twitching, difficulty swallowing or swallowing.
07:14 We also notice that there's increased difficulty in breathing,
07:21 in controlling our saliva.
07:24 That's what we see in more advanced diseases.
07:27 Lastly, is there a cure for this?
07:32 Another good question, Ms. Diane.
07:35 It's a neurodegenerative disease.
07:38 It's something that we might not be able to prevent.
07:41 As a neurodegenerative disease, unfortunately, we haven't found a cure yet.
07:48 But the good thing about it is that we have a cure to slow the progression.
07:54 If it progresses and we don't give it a cure,
07:59 the disease can progress faster.
08:02 The most complicated situation here is that they have difficulty breathing and eating,
08:08 which actually causes death of some patients.
08:11 So there are medications that we give to patients so that the symptoms won't get worse.
08:21 Because when it progresses quickly, the symptoms and situation of the patient will get complicated.
08:29 Thank you so much, Dr. Via, for sharing your information about Lougeresis or ALS.
08:36 Thank you, Doc. See you again soon here at RSV.
08:39 Thank you, Doc.
08:40 Thank you.
Comments