One of my guitar idols Jason Becker has had it since the late 80's. He is no longer able to move his body or play guitar but he still composes via a computer using eye movements. His condition has been stable for several years now.
I know he can't live forever but he does seem to be beating the odds. What is the avarage lifespan with this disease?
For those not familiar with his playing, he is worth checking out on the net. At 17 he released his first solo album mixing metal and neo classical music and helped solidify the neo classical shred movement.
2007-07-02 15:14:42 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Other - Diseases
Your idol has already beaten the odds so, at this point, there is no way to predict how much time he has left. Once diagnosis has been made, the average life expectancy is 2 to 5 years. However, approximately 5% of those diagnosed will live for 20 years.
There is even a smaller percentage of people who will experience a complete halt in the progression of their illness and even a tinier number of people whose disease process will reverse!
2007-07-03 14:11:49 · answer #1 · answered by ilse72 7 · 7⤊ 0⤋
While the diseases are different in clinical course, they are quite similar in diagnosis, and initially can often be similar in symptoms. ALS can be misdiagnosed as MS initially, until the course of the disease is seen, or until new physical evidence presents which can serve to differentiate the disease from MS. A common first symptom of ALS is a painless weakness of a hand, arm, foot, or leg. Other common symptoms are walking difficulty and swallowing issues. Muscle weakness, gait problems, and in later stages of MS, swallowing issues, are also common in MS as well. It's easy for the diseases, at the initial stages, to be confused. They are, however, quite different. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease which causes neurological degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord, affecting the motor neurons. MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the protective myelin surrounding neurons and leaves behind scars (or scleroses) where signal flow is decreased, thus causing symptoms. Another major difference between the diseases (sadly) is life expectancy. MS is not fatal (although its secondary symptomos can be). In many cases, ALS is fatal. Although the life expectancy of an ALS patient averages about two to five years from the time of diagnosis, this disease is variable and many people live with quality for five years and more. More than half of all patients live more than three years after diagnosis. About twenty percent of people with ALS live five years or more and up to ten percent will survive more than ten years and five percent will live 20 years. There are people in whom ALS has stopped progressing and a small number of people in whom the symptoms of ALS reversed. hth
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2014-09-29 21:29:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure anyone knows for sure, I had a friend that lived for well over 5 years. Then I've known others who are gone in 6 months.
2007-07-05 18:28:52 · answer #5 · answered by Buzzy 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 21. He is still alive and working in Physics at the age of 73!!
2014-02-05 12:37:28 · answer #6 · answered by trippingtriplet 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋