About Neuromuscular Diseases:

Multiple Sclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the immune system affecting multiple areas of the central nervous system. The body attacks the myelin (fatty coating around nerves) of both motor and sensory neurons, sometimes even severing the nerve all together! The chemical messages that are normally sent between the brain and body parts are short-circuited and are sometimes short-circuited within the brain itself. MS affects women about twice as often as men, with onset occurring usually between the ages of 20-40.

Some MS Symptoms:

- Muscle fatigue, tremors, spasms and/or paralysis

- Double, jumping, blurred or loss of vision

- Swallowing, breathing, talking difficulty

- Sexual problems (lack of desire, muscular dysfunction, decreased or increased/painful sensation)

- Constipation, sometimes diarrhea/incontinence of the bowels

- Retention or incontinence of bladder/urine

- Pain, numbness, tingling, hot/cold sensations without cause

- Cognitive problems (memory loss, inability to get information in or out of brain, poor judgment, slowed thinking, visual perception miscalculations, word finding problems, etc)

- Social inhibition, personality changes, difficulty controlling emotions and depression

- Dizziness or loss of balance.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) is a devastating disease in which the motor nerves simply die and no longer send chemical messages from the brain to the voluntary muscles. Frequently a person is expected to die within 2 to 5 years, but nearly 20% live longer than that. ALS effects men more than twice as often as women, with onset occurring usually between the ages of 45 and 65.

Some ALS Symptoms:

- Cognitive functions are not (or very rarely) affected

- Weakness can be seen in arms or legs symmetrically or asymmetrically

- Speech and swallowing will become difficult

- Eventually all voluntary muscles will no longer be able to move at all and will atrophy (become small)

- Eye muscles, bowel and bladder muscles are not affected so there is no incontinence problems

- Muscle spasms and fasciculation are often present

- Respiratory failure is the primary cause of death

- Bulbar onset, affecting mouth area first, usually progresses faster.

Primary Lateral Sclerosis is similar to ALS, but it has a much longer prognosis.

Research is ongoing, but there is no known cause and no cure for MS, ALS or PLS.