Between the Ice Bucket Challenge and movies like “You’re Not You” (about a classical pianist who is diagnosed with ALS), there has been a ton of awareness going on for ALS, with many efforts focused on the personal stories of people living with the neurological condition. And this month, ALS is being spotlighted again in… Continue reading The Theory of Everything
Tag: MND
Research, support and hope for spinal muscular atrophy
If you know PatientsLikeMe, you know that neurological conditions take us all the way back to our beginning. Stephen Heywood, the brother of our founders Ben and Jamie, was diagnosed with ALS back in 1998 at age 29. Today, almost ten years after PatientsLikeMe was created, thousands of members living with ALS and other neurological… Continue reading Research, support and hope for spinal muscular atrophy
Subjects no more: what happens when trial participants realize they hold the power in clinical trials?
When I first became involved with online communities back in 2002, I moderated a small forum for patients with ALS/MND in the UK at King’s College Hospital to connect with one another, share tips and support, and to help our care center to serve them better. One area that remains controversial even to this day… Continue reading Subjects no more: what happens when trial participants realize they hold the power in clinical trials?
Share and Compare: A PatientsLikeMe Year in Review (Part III – more R&D)
The research team is very proud of how our team has grown in 2010 and the impact we’ve made in the academic community. In 2010 alone, PatientsLikeMe and our work were mentioned in scientific literature more than 133 times. All of this is because of what you share with us. Yesterday, we highlighted some of… Continue reading Share and Compare: A PatientsLikeMe Year in Review (Part III – more R&D)
PatientsLikeMe @ The 20th International ALS/MND Symposium in Berlin
The 20th International Symposium on ALS/MND took place (December 8th-10th) in Berlin, Germany. This is the 4th ALS Symposium attended by PatientsLikeMe, and certainly the most exciting in terms of new findings. The annual symposium is a tremendous opportunity for researchers from around the world to meet and share new developments – it’s the big… Continue reading PatientsLikeMe @ The 20th International ALS/MND Symposium in Berlin
Charting the course of PLS and PMA
Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS) and Progressive Muscular Atrophy (PMA) are two rare variants of the disease ALS. Normally, ALS affects the upper motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, as well as the lower motor neurons that send signals from the spinal cord directly to muscles. PLS and PMA are different because PLS only… Continue reading Charting the course of PLS and PMA
A new gene for ALS: What sharing your genetics could mean for research
In today’s issue of the journal Science two papers describe the discovery of a new gene for ALS (you can read the abstracts here and here). Around 90% of ALS cases are sporadic, i.e. we don’t know what causes them, but for 5-10% of patients the disease runs in their family (known as familial ALS,… Continue reading A new gene for ALS: What sharing your genetics could mean for research
ALS Symposium 2008: A history of ALS online
Back in November, Jamie Heywood and I attended the 19th International ALS/MND Symposium in Birmingham, UK. As part of an ongoing series of blog posts reporting from that conference, I have put together a narrated slideshow which is an abridged version of a platform presentation I was asked to give at the conference about the… Continue reading ALS Symposium 2008: A history of ALS online
PatientsLikeMe at the Toronto ALS/MND Symposium
This year PatientsLikeMe was the major sponsor of the 18th International ALS/MND Symposium held in Toronto, Canada. Research scientist Paul Wicks, marketing officer Lori Scanlon, and community liaison Emma Willey were all in attendance to tell people about the site. We first started telling the ALS/MND community about us at the Yokohama conference in 2006,… Continue reading PatientsLikeMe at the Toronto ALS/MND Symposium
Excessive Yawning or Constant Yawning in ALS/MND
The first thing we experience about yawning is an urge to do so, one that can be so hard to suppress that we end up gulping down an extra serving of air when we’re trying to appear interested, or polite, or awake. But what if you yawned even if you weren’t tired, or bored? What… Continue reading Excessive Yawning or Constant Yawning in ALS/MND