Lou Gehrig Disease (ALS)

“Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth” (“Lou”). This was said by Lou Gehrig in 1939 at his Hall of Fame ceremony (“Lou”). He had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig disease (“ALS”). To begin, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is broken into three different terms (“ALS”). The “a” in amyotrophic means no or negative (“ALS”). The “myo” means muscle, and “trophic” means nourishment or food (“ALS”). So it means no nourishment/food for the muscles (“ALS”).

In addition, this is a rare disease that affects someone 's ribs, nerves, arm muscle, leg muscle, and tongue, and only about ten percent of the people who have it live more than ten years (Chenes 23). There are many symptoms such

He got to play with one of the best baseball players of all time, Babe Ruth. He has also won many awards also such as MVP (twice), triple crown, and six world series trophies. He has also had 493 home runs, twenty-three grand slams, .340 career batting average, and 1,990 runs batted in. Lou is also the first player to ever have his number retired, which means no one that ever plays for the Yankees can ever be the number four. (“Lou”). He also held the record for most games played in a row without missing one which was 2,130 (Wade 12). That record lasted for about sixty years until Cal Ripken Jr. broke it in 1995. He was also put into the hall of fame just six months after retirement even though the rules say a player must be retired for at least five years before even being considered to be in the hall of fame. Everyone in baseball respected him for being such a great ball player and having a good attitude(Wade

Some of the people that helped him were his family, friends, and teammates by giving him lots of support (“Lou”). Some of his biggest supporters, though were his fans (“Lou”). Even though he had a rare disease and knew he was going to die shortly he was still very grateful for the life he had lived (“Lou”). He ended up dying on June 2, 1941 because of ALS.

There are lots of different ways to help raise awareness about ALS. There are lots of websites and ads on television that help raise money and awareness. But the most commonly known thing to help bring attention to the problem is the ALS ice bucket challenge. It is where someone dumps a bucket of ice cold water on their head to help raise money to find a cure.

In conclusion Lou Gehrig was a very nice and respected man who had ALS a horrible disease. This disease has killed lots of people and so far, scientists have not found out the reason for people getting it or how to cure it the only drug known to help slow down the disease is called riluzole (“ALS”). No other drug has been able to stop ALS from