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Cause of ALS discovered?
By KBell in According to K
August 23, 2011

Late last night, our health reporter, J.R. Ortega, sent me a somewhat obscure news story saying scientists had discovered the cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, AKA Lou Gehrig's Disease.

I was skeptical.

But by this morning, the story seems to have caught much more buzz.

Here's what Dr. Sanjay Gupta has to say about the discovery by scientists at Northwestern University.

He explains how ALS attacks the body and that the reason the body slowly becomes paralyzed may be due a protein that fails to dispose of other damaged proteins. This leads to a clutter of damaged or dead cells in the body.

That's a "big deal" trusty ol' Sanjay says.

It's a breakthrough that could lead to a treatment or cure for the some 30,000 Americans afflicted with the disease.

ALS has long been (and even still continues to be) a mysterious sort of beast and, as Sanjay says, frustrating to the world of neuroscience -- not to mention ALS's victims.

This common link scientists have found in ALS patients could also help shed some light on other degenerative diseases, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Sounds like progress that can give hope to thousands of families, including several here in the Crossroads.

I feel like celebrating.

Shall we?