Researchers in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Social and Behavioral Research Lab (SBRL) have announced they are beginning a study that will look into the different variables that can affect the quality of life for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients.

They are going to accomplish this by using a national survey that they will put together in conjunction with an advisory panel of leading public health officials, biologists and neuroscientists as well as other heath care specialists and hope to be able to come up with some of the possible causes of ALS.

ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease and it is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. It attacks the nerve cells in both the brain and spinal cord. ALS patients have degeneration of their motor neurons, which are supposed to send signals down through the spinal cord to the muscles to control all voluntary movements. As the neurons die off, there are no signals send to the muscles, the muscles begin to weaken and shrink and eventually there is paralysis.

Data from the ALS Association shows that the life expectancy for an ALS patient is from 2 to 5 years from the time they are diagnosed and they estimate that at any one time, there are as many as 30,000 Americans with ALS.

While there have been several studies that have looked into the possibility of environmental causes for ALS, but there have not been any that have been able to identify any links between the external factors and the onset of the disease.

They are working on formation the best questions for a survey that will be distributed nationally. They expect to get half of the surveys back from either the ALS patient or someone who had been designated to answer for them and the other half from people with a similar background to the patients, but who does not have the disease. The second group will be the control group used for comparison.

Research that has been done in the past has shown that there are possible connections between the onset of the disease and a single, small set of variables like military service, exposure to lead, pesticides, and herbicides. They also found connections to behaviors such as diet and smoking, however most of the past studies have focused on one single factor. This project will ask questions on a much wider range of variables and will investigate the very compiles connections between the environmental and possible genetic factors.

The study is expected to continue for one year. It they find that the first survey is successful in producing the clues they are looking for in relation to the onset of the disease, they will extend the project for another year with an even more extensive survey.

Source Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: http://news.rpi.edu/

Original article by Regina Sass, published on Oct 30, 2007.