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Singer Roberta Flack, who broke through as one of the most important and beloved singers of the 1970s and beyond with a sound that combined soul, jazz, rock and pop, died Monday at the age of 88. A representative for Flack did not share a cause of death, but the singer had been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Musically gifted from a young age, Flack won a scholarship to Howard University at just 15 with plans to pursue a classical music career. Turning The Tables Remembering Roberta Flack: The Virtuoso "My real ambition was to be a concert pianist,"...

The news came four years ago, at the end of a casual phone call. Bill’s family had always thought it was a freak coincidence that his father and grandfather both had ALS. But at the end of a catch-up, Bill’s brother revealed that he had a diagnosis too. The familial trend, it turned out, was linked to a genetic mutation. That meant Bill might also be at risk for the disease. An ALS specialist ordered Bill a DNA test. While he waited for results, he applied for long-term-care insurance. If he ever developed ALS, Bill told me, he wanted to...

People with higher levels of metals found in their blood and urine may be more likely to be diagnosed with—and die from—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a study suggests. Researchers have known that ALS, a rare but fatal neurodegenerative condition, is influenced by genetic and environmental factors, including exposure to pesticides and metals. This latest study examined the levels of metals in the blood and urine of people with and without ALS, finding that exposure to individual metals and mixtures of metals is associated with a greater risk for ALS and shorter survival. Goutman's team measured metal levels in plasma...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are neurodegenerative diseases that commonly occur in middle-aged people. Both ALS and FTD arise from neuronal degeneration through mechanisms that remain unclear. Dr. Yun-Ru (Ruby) Chen's team recently discovered a new pathological mechanism for neuronal degeneration using synthetic peptides. They also discovered that a disaccharide can increase neuronal survival and reduce degeneration. The result provides therapeutic strategies for future treatment. ALS and FTD differ in clinical symptoms, but they share many pathological features and genetic variations. Clinical data shows that more than 90% of ALS and about 70% of FTD patients are...

Chicago Bears legend Steve McMichael, who has ALS, was admitted to the intensive care unit in Illinois on Thursday night with sepsis and pneumonia, his wife Misty McMichael said on Friday. “Prayers for Mongo,” a graphic on his wife’s Instagram read with a caption: “We were admitted last night to the ICU at Silver Cross with Sepsis and pneumonia.” According to his family, McMichael, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2021, is now awake after he was unconscious when he was admitted to the hospital. “I think those prayers have kept him alive and the Hall of Fame hope, that...

Consuming omega-3 fatty acids—particularly alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a nutrient found in foods including flaxseeds, walnuts, and chia, canola and soybean oils—may help slow the progression of disease in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a study. The researchers conducted a study among 449 people living with ALS who participated in a clinical trial. As part of this trial, the severity of their symptoms and the progression of their disease were tested and then scored from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating less severe symptoms of the disease. The researchers measured the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in...

Crypto YouTuber and trader Lark Davis has posted a tweet, in which he reminded followers of the recent news of the Bitcoin whitepaper spotted within the operational system of Mac computers...The blogger also stated that the periods when Satoshi went off the grid and Steve Jobs differ by just one year, with these events happening in 2010 and 2011. With this tweet, he started a poll, offering his audience the choice between three answers: "yes" Steve Jobs was Satoshi, "no" he was not and "it does not matter."A total of 37.7% of the respondents chose "no." Slightly less but close...

This must have been subconsciously lodged in my mind, thus creating the surname for Satoshi. I did not learn for many years after I created Bitcoin that Hal lived in the same Temple City, Calif., neighbourhood as one of only three people in the U.S. at the time with the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The man’s full name is Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, and he was mistakenly identified as me in a Newsweek cover story in 2014. It has been speculated that I sent an email from my old Satoshi address at the time that said, “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” I...

I mined 980,000 Bitcoins using a remote computer and my laptop in 2009. As Hal Finney explained this in his 2013 Bitcointalk post quite accurately, “those were the days when difficulty was 1, and you could find blocks with a CPU, not even a GPU.” My full legal name is James Bilal Khalid Caan. But I will forever be known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

A probiotic bacterium called Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus HA-114 prevents neurodegeneration in the C. elegans worm, an animal model used to study amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Alex Parker and his team suggest that disruption of lipid metabolism contributes to this cerebral degeneration, and show that the neuroprotection provided by HA-114, a non-commercial probiotic, is unique compared to other strains of the same bacterial family tested. "When we add it to the diet of our animal model, we notice that it suppresses the progression of motor neuron degeneration," said Parker. "The particularity of HA-114 resides in its fatty acid content." By enabling the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — For two years, Becky Mourey pushed the Food and Drug Administration to approve an experimental drug for her Lou Gehrig’s disease. She went to members of Congress and health regulators to make the case for Relyvrio, until patient-advocates finally prevailed. In September, Relyvrio became only the third drug approved in the U.S. for ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable neurodegenerative disease that is usually fatal within five years. But patients and physicians who celebrated Relyvrio’s approval several months ago are now contending with the obstacles posed by the U.S. health care system. Their odyssey is an...

A drug typically used to treat enlarged prostates and high blood pressure has shown promise as a potential new therapy for motor neuron disease (MND)—also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—according to a new study. MND is a group of rare diseases that destroy nerve cells known as motor neurons, causing patients to slowly lose function of their muscles. In studies using zebrafish, mice and stem cell models, experts have demonstrated that the drug terazosin protects against the death of motor neurons by increasing their energy production. Researchers say the drug could help to slow the progression of a disease...

Things have not been the same since June 2021 for 53-year-old Douglas Howey from Colorado. Around a year after he received the second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the 6 foot 4 and a half inch paraplegic man who once weighed 262 pounds lost over 100 pounds after the sudden onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable and fatal disease that gradually kills a person’s motor neurons. Douglas Howey before and after amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Douglas has lost more than 100 pounds between the two photos (Courtesy of Linda Howey/The Epoch Times) ================================================================== Though he never told his...

What did Stephen Hawking and Mao Zedong have in common? They both suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), for which a cure remains elusive. Scientists took an important step toward the prevention of ALS and another brain disorder called Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with their research on the effects of the antibiotic rifampicin on genetically modified mice. "The primary cause of FTD and ALS is a hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) in non-coding regions of the C9orf72 gene," said Professor Takami Tomiyama. This mutation causes neurodegeneration through loss-of-function or gain-of-toxic-function mutations.Rifampicin is an antibiotic that slows bacterial RNA production; it is usually...

"I want a beer" ... a simple and direct request, but a damn amazing one because it was uttered by a paralyzed man who's communicating for the first time in months, thanks to a life-changing brain implant. In a testament to the power of science, and beer -- researchers in Switzerland outfitted a 36-year-old ALS patient with a chip in his brain, which allows him to spell out sentences one letter at a time, and he used it to order up a cold one.

Philip O'Keefe, a 62-year-old amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient in Australia recently became the first person to post a message on social media using only his thoughts. On December 23, he posted an initial brief message, "Hello World," on Twitter. The technology that allowed O'Keefe to send his message was developed by brain computer interface company, Synchron—the device is called the Stentrode Brain Computer Interface (SBCI); a type of endovascular brain implant. It was implanted into O'Keefe's brain without opening his skull—instead, it was inserted through his jugular vein. The tiny (8 mm) brain implant was designed to allow people...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often known as motor neurone disease, slowly kills off nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis and eventually death. Right now, there's no known cure – but we might have just gotten closer to finding one. In a new study, scientists were able to reverse one of the biological abnormalities that ALS introduces in cells. It's important to note this has only been achieved for one form of the disease so far, and only in lab samples, rather than in actual human beings. Even with those caveats, though, it's a significant step forward...

July 22, 2021 (Children’s Health Defense) – As cases pile up (445 as of July 9) of the reportedly “rare” neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome in people who received a COVID vaccine — forcing the sluggish U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add a warning label to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) shot — scientists are issuing urgent warnings about a possible tsunami of other types of neurological injuries.Immunologist J. Bart Classen, one-time National Institutes of Health (NIH) contract scientist and proprietor of Classen Immunotherapies, a Maryland biotechnology firm, published a paper in February outlining the potential for messenger RNA...

Lou Gehrig’s worst full season was his best. Despite leading the league in games played (as always), he hit fewer than 30 homers for the first time in a decade, and his batting average dropped nearly 60 points and tied for his career low. His conditioning was questioned, his games-played streak was scrutinized, his All-Star selection was widely lamented. And even when the season ended with his Yankees once again victorious in the World Series, Gehrig’s four singles in 14 at-bats had barely been a factor. Back in 1938, it would have been preposterous to propose that Gehrig was having...

Andre and Melissa Rivenell flew from Australia to Texas in 2019 to spend time with family. Advertisement More than a year later, they've spent their life savings and are still trying to get back home. In December, Andre had a stroke and was diagnosed with a disease that doctors think might be ALS. Since then, his health has declined and he's not able to walk, eat or bathe on his own. The couple now stays in a camper in Melissa's mother's backyard. Their initial flight home in March 2020 was canceled. Then, Andre said his disability assistance was cut off...