ALS - Rare Disease?

[Big Mike]

Hi Mike,

My first symptoms were in my legs. First muscle weakness was in my right calf muscle, and gave me a painless limp.

I have both UMN and LMN symptoms, though the LMN are more prevalent.

Wow! 400:1 and 600:1 seem much more frequent than I was led to believe. Do you have a link to the ALSTDI claim? I guess if people aren't dying of cancer or car crashes (airbags) anymore they gotta die of something, that pushes up the ALS numbers?

Take care,
Tom

Thanks for the info, Tom. I have the UMN dominant variant but the LMN part is creeping up on me and my left foot/ankle is especially bad. Here's the statement and link to the ALS figures:

ALS TDI (ALS Therapy Development Institute) :: ALS Frequently Asked Questions

At any given time, there are over 30,000 patients diagnosed with ALS living in the United States; the number world-wide is estimated at around 400,000. Generally speaking, someone is diagnosed with ALS every 90 minutes. The life-time incident rate for an average person is often estimated at between 1/400 to 1/600 - a number that is similar to the incidence of multiple sclerosis; a disease, however, having a substantially longer average survival prognosis and thus larger living patient population.