Earlier this week, The ALS Association filed comments with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), urging the agency to provide Medicare coverage for seat elevation systems in power wheelchairs since these systems are a medical necessity for people living with ALS.
When Peggy Jennerman's husband was diagnosed with ALS, it was not something either of them expected to hear.
As Dave's symptoms progressed Peggy reached out to the ALS Association Wisconsin Chapter and share her experience in her own words.
Quantum Rehab, a leading manufacturer of complex rehab power wheelchairs, recently renewed its role as a national partner with The ALS Association, marking the company’s seventeenth year fighting with the Association to make sure people with ALS can live their lives to the fullest. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death within five years of diagnosis. For unknown reasons, veterans are twice as likely to develop ALS as the general population. There is no cure.
This week, Time reported that flu patterns have been unusual this season, which means it is a good time to talk about ALS and the flu. People with ALS often experience a wide variety of challenges related to weakened swallowing and respiratory muscles, including difficulty managing saliva, coughing, and clearing secretions. Consequently, it’s imperative to take steps to avoid any respiratory infections, especially the flu.
The ALS Association and its partners submitted comments to the Food and Drug Administration to further inform the agency’s implementation of the final guidance on the development of drugs and treatments for ALS. The comments underscore the need for urgency and commend the FDA for including voices from our community in its rulemaking process. Click here to view the comments.
Watching my mother struggle to interact with the world as her ALS progressed was extremely difficult for our family, and for me personally. Her struggle inspired me to find solutions that could help people like my mother better interact with computers and their environment, even after they have lost almost all of their ability to move. I had the motivation to advance technology in a way that would bring a new quality of life to people living with ALS under Steve Saling's motto that until medicine proves otherwise, technology is the cure.
The ALS Association is launching a campaign to engage kids and teenagers in the fight against ALS, issuing the ALS Youth Challenge and celebrating the first-ever ALS Youth Action Day. Our chapters across the country will be partnering with youth organizations in their communities to identify future activists and philanthropists who will help to defeat ALS by accepting the ALS Youth Challenge.
Our fall Walk to Defeat ALS® season is fast approaching! We talked to people – including Renee Zellweger – about why they come together every year to fight back against ALS.
When Thelma “TAG” Martinez was diagnosed with ALS in 2013, she was 65 years old. Her caregiver and husband of 46 years, Henry, quickly became involved in the services provided by their local chapter.