MDA Engage: Early rehabilitation key for neuromuscular disease, experts say

An artificial intelligence-powered communication app helps people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other conditions that affect speech keep communicating using a voice that sounds like their own. Called Voice Back, the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app can create a personalized voice from a short audio recording.

A progressive decline in lung function is unavoidable for many people with neuromuscular conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but there are steps that patients can take to ease breathing issues and improve quality of life. “We can’t really change the progression,” said James Rowley, MD, a pulmonologist at…

Low muscle mass in the arms and legs, as well as sarcopenia (low muscle mass and strength), were each linked to poorer survival in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a small prospective study in Spain found. “These findings suggest that muscle mass may provide prognostic information complementary to…

Fall has arrived, and the days are cooler here on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The maples are showing hints of red, and we haven’t seen a ruby-throated hummingbird for a few weeks. I suspect they’ve all headed south for the winter. Last spring, we put decoy swans on the pond to…

Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s experimental therapy ulefnersen improved a combined measure of function and survival compared with a placebo in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) caused by mutations in the FUS gene. That’s according to top-line data from the first part of the ongoing, global Phase 3 FUSION clinical…

Ever since my ALS symptoms first appeared, I’ve been trying to rebuild the trust I once had in my body — to trust that my leg will hold me, my foot will clear the floor, and my hand will do what I ask of it. Most of all, I…

Molecular changes linked to inflammation and how brain cells process proteins and genetic material may occur before the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) symptoms, a study in a mouse model of SOD1-related ALS suggests. The findings also point to changes in the hypothalamus, a brain region involved in…

The Problem: Why Current Treatments Fall Short Neurodegeneration—including ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)—happens when nerve cells die faster than the body can protect them. Most current ALS medicines slow this loss a little, but they don’t stop it. And for many people with ALS or FTD, available options are limited…

My husband crunches on his granola and sips his tea. I watch the rhythmic drip of my liquid “breakfast,” a bag of nutrition tethered to a feeding tube. We share the same couch as always, but the distance between our mornings has grown vast. I flash back to our…