By now you and your healthcare staffing colleagues have likely heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, which has quickly become a viral Internet sensation. Everyone from Oprah to Bill Gates to Will Smith have dumped buckets of ice water over their heads all in the name of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
To do the challenge, someone has to nominate you, at which point you have 24 hours to complete the challenge. If you miss the deadline, you have to donate to the ALS Association. As of August 25, 2014, the ALS Association had raised nearly $89 million in less than a month – and people continue to take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge. In the same period last year, the organization raised just $2.5 million.
The origins of Web phenomenon are a little hazy, but most people find that it started with a man named Pete Frates. A former Boston College baseball player, Frates was diagnosed with ALS in 2011. On July 31 of this year, he challenged some friends and celebrities (including Tom Brady) to take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge to "strike out ALS."
No doubt the campaign has burst into an Internet craze, but despite its ubiquitousness, many people might not know that much about ALS.
The facts behind ALS
ALS is a disease in which nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord slowly die. As medical staffing professionals might be aware, a-my-trophic is Greek and means "no muscle nourishment." ALS causes progressive degeneration of the motor neurons, which control muscle movements. As the neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that, when operating normally, lead to movement. When muscles no longer receive messages from the motor neurons, they start to shrink.
Dead motor neurons make the brain lose its ability to initiate and control muscle movement, affecting the action of voluntary muscles that could result in total paralysis.
Signs of ALS
People who have ALS gradually become more disabled, though how quickly the disease progresses varies from person to person. As travel nurse specialists, you might have patients suffering from ALS. Over time, the disease makes it hard to walk, speak, eat, swallow and breathe. These problems can result in injury, illness and eventually death. Some patients live with ALS for several years and in most cases, death will occur within three to five years after symptoms begin.
The first sign of ALS is often weakness in one leg or hand or the face or tongue. That weakness slowly spreads to both arms and both legs, which happens when motor neurons continue to degenerate, ceasing to send signals to the muscles. Essentially, the muscles don't have anything telling them to move and over time, they get weaker and smaller.
Doctors are not certain what causes ALS. In about 1 out 10 cases, it runs in the family.
How many people does it affect?
ALS is rare. About 5,600 people in the U.S. get diagnosed with ALS each year, according to the ALS Association. As many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease at any given time. Men are more affected by it than women and though it can occur at any age, it most often impacts middle-aged and older adults.
ALS doesn't cause tingling, numbness or loss of feeling. As the muscles in the throat and chest weaken, breathing problems tend to get worse. Pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, lung failure and heart failure are the most common causes of death.
To those medical staffing professionals out there who want to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge: The challenge itself is chilly, but it may be heart-warming to put money toward research for Lou Gehrig's disease, which could one day be life-saving.