Disease directed therapy
There is only one drug that has been approved to treat ALS, called Ritulek. Studies on Ritulek have shown that the drug helps protect nerve cells from damage, most likely by reducing the amount of glutamate in the nervous system. Although this drug is meant to help protect the nerve cells from disease damage, once nerve cells have been impaired, this drug does not repair them or gain their function back - it only slows progression of the disease.
Symptom related therapy
As ALS progresses, symptoms worsen. In symptom related therapy, the goal is to increase patients' quality of life by alleviating these symptoms. Due to the fatality of ALS, alleviating the symptoms' impact on the patient's life is important. The most common symptoms include muscle contractions, cramps, stiffness, weakness, fatigue, depression, sleeping, and saliva and drooling. To help improve muscle function before flaccidity takes over, often patients work with physical and occupational therapy. They can begin using walking assistance devices like walkers, and eventually wheel chairs and electrical chairs.
Respiratory management
In ALS, as muscle degeneration progesses, several problems cause increased difficulty in breathing.
As this picture indicates, there are several important muscles in the ribcage and diaphragm that help your lungs expand to inhale air, and deflate to exhale. As these muscles weaken, oxygen cannot be adequately exchanged and carbon dioxide builds up in the blood stream, leading to sleepiness and fatigue. Also, without the strength of these breathing muscles, the ability to clear secretions and cough adequately is diminished. This can lead to pneumonia, and even diminish the ability to clear the airway adequately. Treatments for this are directed at decreasing and thinning secretions as well as increasing clearance.
As the difficulty to breathe progresses, there are options to physically help the patient through ventilation; there is non-invasive ventilation and eventually invasive ventilation if needed. The noninvasive ventilator is triggered and controlled by the patient's own breathing, and reduces the work for the patient since their weakness prohibits them from being able to breath adequately on their own. This improves the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, improving sleep quality. Non-invasive ventilation has also been shown to prolong survival as well as improve the quality of life.
Once a person with ALS becomes ultimately dependent on ventilation to breathe, they will require a tracheostomy to be placed, which is a tube insertion into the airway. This provides more efficient ventilation and better control of airway secretions.
ALS Hope Foundation. (n.d.). Treating ALS. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from https://www.alshopefoundation.org/understanding-als/treatment-als.php
Respiratory management
In ALS, as muscle degeneration progesses, several problems cause increased difficulty in breathing.
As this picture indicates, there are several important muscles in the ribcage and diaphragm that help your lungs expand to inhale air, and deflate to exhale. As these muscles weaken, oxygen cannot be adequately exchanged and carbon dioxide builds up in the blood stream, leading to sleepiness and fatigue. Also, without the strength of these breathing muscles, the ability to clear secretions and cough adequately is diminished. This can lead to pneumonia, and even diminish the ability to clear the airway adequately. Treatments for this are directed at decreasing and thinning secretions as well as increasing clearance.
As the difficulty to breathe progresses, there are options to physically help the patient through ventilation; there is non-invasive ventilation and eventually invasive ventilation if needed. The noninvasive ventilator is triggered and controlled by the patient's own breathing, and reduces the work for the patient since their weakness prohibits them from being able to breath adequately on their own. This improves the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, improving sleep quality. Non-invasive ventilation has also been shown to prolong survival as well as improve the quality of life.
Once a person with ALS becomes ultimately dependent on ventilation to breathe, they will require a tracheostomy to be placed, which is a tube insertion into the airway. This provides more efficient ventilation and better control of airway secretions.
ALS Hope Foundation. (n.d.). Treating ALS. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from https://www.alshopefoundation.org/understanding-als/treatment-als.php
(Amanda scott: HOW I GOT CURED FROM ALS DISEASE)
ReplyDeleteI am from U.S.A, I was diagnosed of ALS disease (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2012 and I have tried all I can to get cured but all to no avail, my life was gradually coming to an end, until i saw a post in a health forum about a herbal doctor from Africa who prepares herbal cure to cure HIV/ and all kind of diseases including ALS, MND, Epilepsy, Leukemia, Asthma, Cancer, Gonorrhea etc, at first i doubted if it was real but decided to give it a try, when i contact this herbal doctor via his email, he prepared an ALS herbal portion and sent it to me via courier service, when i received this herbal portion, he gave me step by step instructions on how to apply it, when i applied it as instructed, i was cured of this deadly disease within 7 days, I could not walk or talk understandably before but after i took the herbal cure as he instructed i regained strength in my bones and i could talk properly unlike before, I am now free from the deadly disease, all thanks to Dr alli. Contact this great herbal doctor via his email allispellhelp@gmail.com or allispehelp@yahoo.com +2348149158514
(Amanda scott: HOW I GOT CURED FROM ALS DISEASE)
ReplyDeleteI am from U.S.A, I was diagnosed of ALS disease (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2012 and I have tried all I can to get cured but all to no avail, my life was gradually coming to an end, until i saw a post in a health forum about a herbal doctor from Africa who prepares herbal cure to cure HIV/ and all kind of diseases including ALS, MND, Epilepsy, Leukemia, Asthma, Cancer, Gonorrhea etc, at first i doubted if it was real but decided to give it a try, when i contact this herbal doctor via his email, he prepared an ALS herbal portion and sent it to me via courier service, when i received this herbal portion, he gave me step by step instructions on how to apply it, when i applied it as instructed, i was cured of this deadly disease within 7 days, I could not walk or talk understandably before but after i took the herbal cure as he instructed i regained strength in my bones and i could talk properly unlike before, I am now free from the deadly disease, all thanks to Dr alli. Contact this great herbal doctor via his email allispellhelp@gmail.com or allispehelp@yahoo.com +2348149158514
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