Columns

I have exciting news to share with you about a community addition to this site! The ALS News Today Forums, which launched today, is a space designed to give readers an easier way to connect , share comments, and ask questions related to ALS. It is…

“It’s hard to make predictions … especially about the future.” –Yogi Berra Gamblers and non-gaming speculators fervently seek out “sure things.” In the absence of that, both groups attempt to identify situations where probability weighs heavily in their favor. Some may conspire to unscrupulously influence the odds in…

Like many others in my ALS community, I try to keep up with ALS-related news and research. I’ll admit, though, that reading some scientific terminology makes my eyes glaze over. However, I do have a few favorite topics, including exercise, quality of life, and emotional well-being. Recently,…

“I think, therefore I am.” I have long been fascinated by that argument of philosopher Rene Descartes. Similarly, over a millennium earlier, St. Augustine wrote, “I make mistakes, therefore I am.” Both suggest that cognition — self-awareness in Descartes’ case, knowing right from wrong per St. Augustine —…

Growing up in Iowa, I knew that silos were beneficial for farmers who used them to store grain and corn. When I entered the workforce, silos were a negative thing. It was a term used to describe how some departments or managers don’t share information with other departments…

“Youth is wasted on the young.” That quote, often attributed to playwright George Bernard Shaw among others, may on the surface appear paradoxical. However, to me its meaning is clear. When we are young and in our physical prime, both the slate of options for physical…

I’ve been experimenting with improving my leg strength and gaining back a lost skill. I share the surprising results below. Since my ALS diagnosis in 2010, I’ve followed a daily practice of range-of-motion exercises based on fundamental movements taught by the strength and movement specialist company Original Strength. I also…

“She put me through some changes, Lord, sort of like a Waring blender. Poor, poor, pitiful me. Poor, poor, pitiful me.” –Warren Zevon *** The other day while I was ruminating about the burdens that ALS imposes, a call of nature provided an intervention of…

Stick around, because the weather will always change! That was a life lesson I learned while growing up in Iowa. Spring in Iowa often meant that one day we’d be wearing parkas, the next day T-shirts and shorts, and then back to wearing heavy parkas again. We knew…

“If we’re treading on thin ice, then we might as well dance.” That is a line from a song, “Do It,” on Jesse Winchester’s second album, “Third Down, 110 to Go.” The album’s title depicts an impossible situation. The referenced lyric prescribes a nonchalant, if not joyful,…