Laughter Is the Best Medicine

The 2012 comedy “Ted” contained a joke made at the expense of the movie’s villain. The joke, as expressed by a teddy bear come to life, was: “From one man to another, I hope you get Lou Gehrig’s disease.” This alarmed some ALS patients and advocates, who…

Bulbar-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common form of the disease among patients 80 and older at disease onset, a factor that seems to contribute to shorter survival for these patients compared with younger ALS patients, a retrospective study has found. The study, “Very late-onset amyotrophic…

For those of us living with ALS, every day can have a stressful event. The key, I believe, is to move through the event and, if possible, remember it with humor. I recently came across a quote from the movie “Slow West” that reminds me that…

FUS  — a protein mutated in some amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients  — plays a key role in the mechanism that repairs oxidative damage in DNA molecules in motor neurons, a study found. The findings suggest a mechanism through which FUS defects cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and add to the…

Medicines used for ovarian and breast cancer, called PARP inhibitors, might be repurposed to treat people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a study in cells suggests. This suggestion came from researchers’ work with veliparib (ABT-888), an investigational PARP inhibitor, that found it effectively reduced TDP-43 aggregates — a hallmark of…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given positive feedback to MediciNova’s Phase 3 developmental plan for its investigational therapy ibudilast (MN-166) for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Following the FDA’s guidance and suggestions, the company will design a trial that determines the maximum benefit of the treatment,…

In the Ken Burns documentary, “Baseball,” during the episode titled “Eighth Inning: A Whole New Ballgame,” comedian Billy Crystal mentions in passing the (I assume fictional) name Al Smenglevitz. Years later, I co-opted the character as a coping mechanism — an alter ego. Only, I simply refer to…

Treatment with EHP-102, an investigational cannabinoid-derived medicine, reduced weight loss, preserved motor neurons of the spinal cord, and lowered the abnormal reactivity of astroglial cells in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), new research shows. Findings were recently published in the study, “Neuroprotective effects of…

The pharmaceutical development company Noxopharm and its majority-owned subsidiary, U.S. biotechnology firm Nyrada, have discovered a potent inhibitor of the protein IRAK4, a “master switch” critical to the development of inflammatory autoimmune diseases, such as amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). IRAK4 has emerged as a key switch in the…

My ALS diagnosis was in 2010. In the months following, I tried to learn as much as possible about the condition and how it would affect my life going forward. I discovered that medical experts knew almost everything about the physical progression of ALS and what to expect…