Just a few short days ago, a cousin of mine passed away from a long battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). If there was ever an afflication to fight for a cure, I say ALS is the one!! What a horrible way to die. You are constantly aware of everything thats going on but cant do anything about it. I think, just as so many other illness', ALS is not given the attention it needs to get moving on funding for cures. ALS as other disease, does not need bandaid meds, it needs a CURE, a real CURE!! I think its treated just like MS. If its actually cured, then the big pharma guys would be hurting big time!! See, right now, they can come up with these band aid meds to make us think some thing is working when its really not!! MS was discovered in the 1400's, and its now the 2000's. They cant come up with more than a band aid in 600 hundred years???? Maybe Im just working off raw emotion here, but man, this just doesnt sound right to me.

My state just lost a former governor to this illness. CVS is accepting donations to this fund, at the moment. ALS. I noticed, when I recently picked up a prescription.

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013...0DI/story.html

My neighbor has ALS. He was diagnosed about the same time I was diagnosed with MS.....about 8 years ago. He's a few years younger than I am, too.

I've watched him go from having trouble walking to using a walker to fulltime in a wheelchair. He's lost the ability to speak and cannot hold his head up any longer.

Whenever I feel sorry for myself or want to complain about something I think of him and I'm immediately ashamed of myself. It's a horrible disease.

Yes, ALS and Huntington's both are just horrific.

No, you are right, after 600 years we can do better. I am sorry this person died of ALS. If we can go to Mars, for heavens sake we can do better with these diseases. Sometimes I think those in power don't want a cure, they would lose money etc. Band aids don't work. I know about Steven Hawkins with the same disease, only his brain is free. It is terrible to think science isn't working harder on ALS. You have every right to feel cheated and angry. We can do better as humans toward all diseases. All we have to do is stop the wars, and money would be free to use toward research. ginnie

I'm confused. I thought there were no drug treatments for ALS whatsoever (or even Huntington's). So unlike MS it's not that pharmaceutical companies don't care about a cure for ALS because they would lose money...they just don't care period.

Since only 30,000 people in the US have ALS, I guess that's just not enough possible future money for them to even consider creating any kind of medicine, even if it is a bandaid.

This is why we have to make sure that Congress doesn't cut funding for scientific research at places like the National Institutes of Health. Because the drug companies are only interested in researching treatments for diseases that can be big money makers.

I'm so sorry to hear about your cousin. It truly is a terrible disease.

If there is no treatment for ALS, that is even more shameful. That disease kills, and Scientists need to work in that direction. I have an orphan disease, even I got a shot for a trial. Mine won't take my life however, so I feel bad that this ALS isn't on the radar. I don't know how to make the medical community wake up. ginnie