The Modest Needs Independent Living Grant is designed specifically to help individuals and families who live with a disability. Often these folks are uninsured. Sometimes they are insured, but the insurance company doesn't cover the cose of accessibility equipment. Severe disabilities--diseases like dementia and ALS (Lou Gherig's disease), for example--can require full time caretakers which causes the bank account to take a severe hit, whether you hire someone or leave your job to take care of a loved one.
Even more frustrating is that for the longest time, ALS was a disease without a cause. Happily, that is no longer the case:
A new University study published in Nature identifying evidence of a common cause in all forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease), a neurodegenerative disease causing fatal paralysis, opens a door to a cure for a disease that has long stumped scientists.
The study from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine found that irregular protein degradation of ubiquilin2 is common in all forms of ALS. When the disease is present, the damaged proteins are not recycled and taken away, instead they accumulate in neurons in the brain and spinal cord. This accumulations causes the nervous system to lose its ability to relay messages to the body's muscular system, gradually depriving those with the disease of their ability to move and breathe. This discovery could have a broader impact on treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases also characterized by the irregular accumulation of proteins, like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Neuroscientist and senior author of the study, Dr. Teepu Siddique has been studying ALS for a quarter century. He said, "It was one of the most difficult problems in neurology and the most devastating, a disease without any treatment or known cause."
Terrific news! Dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and ALS affect such a wide swath of Americans that this discovery must stoke the hopes of families in the thousands and thousands. Yay, science!
[Image via Fotis Bobolas]