Why Did You Accept The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?

The sun flashes off the lens of your phone camera as your best friend stands filming you. You squeeze your eyes shut, anticipating the frigid shower of water and ice about to be dumped over your head. You have just accepted the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.” But, do you know what for? 

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It’s a disease that affects the nerve cells in your brain which makes it difficult to use simple motor skills like swallowing and moving arms or legs. After being diagnosed with ALS, people are given 2-5 years to live. In the USA about 30,000 Americans have ALS and about two per 100,000 people die from the disease each year. But, many people don’t know these things about ALS, even as they accept the ice bucket challenge. When asked what she knew about ALS, student Morrison said, “I don’t know much.” When asked why she accepted the challenge she said, “I’d rather have ice dumped over my head than donate, even though ALS is a good cause.” As you can see, not many teenagers know much about ALS, even as they accept the challenge. This is a very controversial subject. But, though many may think the ice bucket challenge is a small thing, they’ve missed how important it is. The challenge has raised over 100 million dollars for ALS research.

Teacher Julie Hooker talks about a YouTube video she watched about a 26 year old man with ALS named Anthony Carbajal. She tells us, “I believe he wanted to make people more aware of ALS.  He noted that because, compared to other diseases, there are relatively few people in the US with ALS, pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to spend money finding a cure.” Donations to ALS research could have the ability to save lives. Physician Scientist Emma Moulton notes that,“In the early stages of cancer research, the field was a lot like it is for ALS right now—not many people knew much about cancer, even if they knew it was bad. That all started to change with people like Mary Lasker, who was a big health advocate in the ’60s and ‘70s and helped to make the American Cancer Society what it is today….The ice bucket challenge has the potential to be the Mary Lasker of ALS—bringing attention to the disease and causing people to care more about ALS research.” Emma also told us that many of our donations will be used to further people’s knowledge of ALS and open the government’s mind to funding their research.

At this point, nobody’s very close to a cure. Emma Moulton notes “There is no cure, nor are we particularly close to a cure. There is a drug called Rilutek (riluzole), which has helped slow the progression of the disease. It works by blocking certain receptors (glutamate receptors) in neurons. Best estimates show that it prolongs a person’s life by several months. “ At the moment there aren’t any very helpful drugs to support people with ALS, but donations could have the power to change that. To donate, go to http://www.alsa.org and click the red “Donate” button in the top right hand corner. Even if you cannot donate, doing the ice bucket challenge is a great way to arouse awareness. Julie Hooker, again telling us about Anthony Carbajal, says, “In his YouTube video, he noted that every time he sees a challenge, he feels supported.  That’s important.”

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