ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare neurodegenerative disorder that causes communication breakdown between your brain and your muscles. Normally, your brain sends electrical signals through “wires” called motor neurons to tell your muscles to move. But in ALS, these neurons wither and die. As a result, the muscles stop receiving signals, which makes them to stop working and eventually shrink away, while the person’s mind usually remains fully intact. Common early & advanced symptoms include: Muscle twitches (fasciculations), cramps, slurred speech & weakness in a single limb (tripping or dropping things), Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), shortness of breath, and loss of mobility.
For a deeper dive into the physiology of how the body moves and fails, you might find these topics fascinating: Action potentials, Neuromuscular junction, Glial cells, Neuroplasticity.
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