Q A friend of mine has just been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He’s been prescribed riluzole, but are there any complementary and alternative therapies that might be able to help?
A.P., via email
A Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or motor neuron disease (MND) as it’s known in the UK and Europe, is one of the most common neuromuscular diseases worldwide.1 A degenerative disorder that destroys the motor neurons, the nerve cells that control muscle movements, ALS often starts with muscle twitching, a weak limb or slurred speech and eventually causes problems walking, chewing, swallowing, speaking and breathing.
The average survival time for ALS is two to five years, but some people, like cosmologist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, can live much longer.
There is no cure for ALS, at least according to mainstream medicine, Other conventional treatments are focused on relieving symptoms. Noninvasive ventilation, for example, where the patient is given a mask ventilator system to wear, usually overnight, may improve quality of life and extend survival by a few weeks for some.
