Did you know??

The whole ice bucket challenge has me thinking.  It is supposed to raise money and build awareness and I truly think it is not doing the latter.  I don't think that people know anymore than they did a few months ago, myself included. If I am being completely honest, I know almost nothing about ALS.  Well, except that is is often called Lou Gehrig's Disease.  While I think the money raised cannot be taken lightly, I think that it has somehow warped into a game.  A game that hasn't taught me anything about ALS but has shown me A LOT of bikinied women and topless men.

Following is a list of things I did not know.....

1-ALS is short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 

2-It is a progressive neurogenerative disease

3-It affects the nerves in spinal cord and brain

4-In later stages, patients may become totally paralyzed

5-Symptoms include muscle weakness, twitching and difficulty breathing as the disease advances

While I am a huge fan of advocacy, I am wondering if this even advocacy.  Are you an advocate for a disease you know almost nothing about?  Or are you just someone conforming to a trend that all your friends are.  Again, I take nothing away from the money raised because I think that a Facebook fad was a genius way to raise money.  I think it was genius to use peer pressure to raise funds.  In that aspect, the ice bucket challenge was quite successful.  In the way of raising awareness, I think the whole thing was an epic fail.  So does this epic fail take away from the money raised.  Of course, it doesn't but with all trends and fads, interest fades.  I think that we need to find away to keep interest in ALS and all life threatening illnesses because if ALS doesn't touch your family, some other deadly illness does.  None of us are immune to illness and death.  I guess my whole point is that there is so much more to ALS than ice cold water.  I think that is what we need to take away from this is just how serious this disease is to those affected by it. 

My last fact.......

Most people die from respiratory failure within three to five years of their diagnosis.


For more information. please visit alsa.org




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