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cougar9000

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Learn about ALS
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nv
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reno
I saw this on the sticky, and hoped someone could elaborate:

If you can do normal things, but it is more difficult, you do not have ALS. If you used to be able to do 100 curls and now one arm can only do 50; that is not ALS. If you used to run 2 miles and now you can only run 1; that is not ALS. If you used to run 2 miles and now you can’t lift up one of your feet, you may have clinical weakness.

Does this mean you just all of a sudden notice one day that you can't lift up a foot or arm, with no warning before that?

I'm feeling weakness in both forearms/hands -- but I can sort of feel the weakness, like the muscles are tender when I squeeze them, its a feeling where my tendency is to massage the area....I have a neurology appt in January, but until then I was just wondering if I maybe just have a repetitive stress injury to both arms like carpel tunnel, or if this is how ALS presents.
 
Since ALS only attacks the motor neurons and not the "feeling" neurons, you don't feel ALS coming on. Muscles don't feel weak, they just don't perform. There's no feeling associated with it; your muscles are just limp and don't move.

ALS starts invisibly, in the brain and brain stem. It destroys the nerves that tell your muscle to move. So yes, in that sense you don't get a warning because you don't feel the destruction in your brain.

Also, it progresses through your body in a linear fashion. Typically from the feet upward, or from the tongue downward.

- "Does this mean you just all of a sudden notice one day that you can't lift up a foot or arm, with no warning before that?"
YEP, pretty much. You just fall over without explanation, because your muscles didn't lift your foot up.
 
Thank you for helping me understand the weakness phenomenon a little better. I hope it clears things up for others as well. Thanks again.
 
My dad didn't have any warning. He just all the sudden just started having terrible falls. It was awful. He fell down a whole entire flight of basement stairs twice. He fell flat on his face in our church parking lot after my son's Confirmation. Was walking our dog one day for us while we were gone for the day and fell on his face. He thought he had tripped over the dog's leash. We now look back and realize that wasn't what happened. It was ALS instead. My dad was always in relatively good health and was a avid walker. It just all kind of came out of the blue with him.
 
Atsugi, your explanation is great!
 
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