Motor Neurone facts

While investigating facts about Motor Neurone Disease and Motor Neurone Disease Association, I found out little known, but curios details like:

If you have served in the military, regardless of the branch of service, regardless of where you were deployed, and regardless of whether you served during a time of peace or a time of war, you are at a 60% greater risk of dying from ALS (motor neuron disease) and nobody knows why.

how motor neurone disease is diagnosed?

It has been 50 years since Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor-neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Hawking's condition was first diagnosed when he was 21, and he was not expected to see his 25th birthday.

What causes motor neurone disease?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are the first signs of motor neurone disease. Here are 9 of the best facts about Motor Neurone Disease Causes and Motor Neurone Disease Final Stages I managed to collect.

what's motor neurone disease?

1. Stephen Hawking's wife, Jane, unequivocally vowed to stand by Stephen's side even after learning of his motor neuron disease when he was given only two years to live

2. Motor neuron disease has been on the increase for over ten years, and scientists think pesticides, pollutants and paints are to blame.

3. The reason animals with brains thrash violently upon suffering severe head trauma is "disinhibition of motor neurons in the spinal cord" because their default is to fire rather than not fire and the brain is what's keeping them in check

4. During undergrad studies at Oxford, Stephen Hawking barely averaged an hour a day of work. He described his attitude as one of "complete boredom and feeling that nothing was worth making an effort for." All that changed when at age 21, he was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease.

5. Vapniarka was a Nazi concentration camp in Ukraine where Jews were fed pea fodder that caused severe damage to motor neurons in the malnourished bodies, which left many of the prisoners paralyzed for life.

6. Edward Taub, who discovered that brain trauma patients who lost sensory and motor neurons which once controlled certain movements and sensations (i.e. moving and feeling an arm or leg) could be "trained" to reuse those neurons because of neuroplasticity.

7. In developing vertebrates, growth factor "Sonic Hedgehog" ensures that the motor neurons in your spinal cord are located properly, that the bones of your vertebral column form correctly, and that your thumb and pinky fingers are on the correct sides of your hands.