ALS Information and Exercising

I recently discovered an ALS website that has some great information and I learned some things I didn't know, the ALS Therapy Development Institute.  It has all of the latest information on ALS clinical research studies that are going on across the world - I was somewhat surprised at how many there are - there were many I didn't know about.  Hopefully with the new infusion of funding from all of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenges, we can fund more and increase the pace! 

Thank you to everyone that has participated or donated, and please spread the word to raise awareness and to help find a cure.  The other 5599 people and I diagnosed in the U.S. this year need your help!  Twelve thousand people die from ALS in the U.S. each year.

There is also an interesting article on People with ALS (PALS) and exercising regimens.  The article says that previous but limited studies showed that working out for 20 minutes 3 times a week may help with breathing and spinal wellness.  Johns Hopkins started a 6-month research project regarding exercise in January 2014 but hasn't posted any results yet.  For most of the last 3 months, the most amount of exercise I have had is working in the basement moving boxes around and cutting the grass once a week.  The speech pathologist said I should use my voice sparingly during the day so that I can talk to Kim at night, so I figured the same was true of the muscles in the rest of my body - don't use them more than you have to in order to keep from wearing my motor neurons out faster.

Since I will be going to Colorado in a few weeks and need to be able to do some physical activities with my 84-year old dad and two younger brothers at altitude such as hiking and ziplining, I started walking on the treadmill again this week.  It feels good, and my jaw muscle spasms seem to be less severe in the morning when I get up to work out, and my breathing seems to be better.  I noticed this past week that the goldenrod is in bloom, which is why my allergies have increased the past few weeks - this is typically my worst time of the year.

I will be very interested to see what the results from the John Hopkins research shows and whether I should be totally sedentary to keep from wearing out my muscle neurons or whether limited exercise is beneficial over the long term.