The Viral Social Media 'Ice Bucket Challenge' help fund a new ALS treatment, but experts have varying opinions about its approval
Description
In this episode of Optimal Health Weekly we discuss the Ice Bucket Challenge funding research for ALS. ALS or or Lou Gehrig’s disease is a nervous system disease that impacts nerve cells that control our voluntary muscle movement. For most patients, symptoms do get worse over time, resulting in respiratory failure.
Remember the “Ice Bucket Challenge” in 2015? People around the world were dropping buckets full of ice water on their heads and donating money to support the good cause. The IceBucket challenge was started by people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease to help raise awareness for the condition.
The viral social media trend also raised $215 million dollars in donations. The ALS association invested some of the donation money into developing and trialling a new therapy for ALS. This year, the Food and Drug Administration approved stem cell therapy clinical trials to treat ALS.
Stem cells along with Biologic ALS treatments, can add nearly eighteen months onto patients’ lives. Risk for the first hospitalization was measured at a 54% decrease in those receiving the therapy. These were very significant markers of disease progression. While people living with ALS are excited about the approval, some experts believe it was green lit too soon and without scrutiny.
Links mentioned in show:
- https://www.als.org/stories-news/ice-bucket-challenge-dramatically-accelerated-fight-against-als
- https://www.hss.edu/condition-list_amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis.asp
- https://stemcellthailand.org/therapies/als-amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis/
- https://www.ninds.nih.gov/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-fact-sheet
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354022
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