[altura]

ALS is on the rise for some unknown reason. A while back the only person I knew of to have it was Lou Gehrig.

Now, I have personally known 3 people in the last 5 years who had it ... all dead now.

ALS kills in about 2 years.
Alzheimer’s takes about 10 years.
Huntington’s (in my family) is merciless. You stay alive forever unless something else kills you.
Parkinson’s ... takes a long time.
Alzheimers and Huntington’s take your mind as well as your body.
ALS does not. I don’t know which is worse.

[MHGinTN]

Stephen Hawking has ALS ... been ‘chaired’ for a lot longer than two years.

[piytar]

“ALS kills in about 2 years.”

That’s a fairly typical expression of the illness. Can go quicker, can go much slower. They have no idea why. Also, the level of medical care that can be afforded matters, as does the level of care the person with ALS wants. (Some don’t want to stay on a respirator for years and years locked into their bodies, unable to move, talk, or even breath on their own, even if that is an option.)

[blackdog]

My mom was occasionally choking while eating/swallowing. She then began to slur words. In 18 months she died. She had the type which dominates the speech/swallowing/breathing. She was able to walk carefully until about a week before she passed.

Terrible disease which deserves to be made a thing of the past.

[Content Provider]

My grandmother died from ALS. It is one of the most horrible ways a human being can die, the mind is fully intact while the body becomes immobile. Eventually the diaphragm stops working and they suffocate to death.