The Full form of ALS is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that affects motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It is a progressive disease as it gets worse over time and causes the death of motor nerve cells (neurons) that control the voluntary muscles. Eventually, the motor nerve cells can no longer send signals/impulses to muscles and muscles begin to waste away or decrease in size (atrophy). It affects the ability of brain to initiate and coordinate muscle movement and you may not speak, move, eat and breathe properly. It is also known as Motor Neuron Disease (MND). The word “Amyotrophic” is derived from the Greek language. It is a combination of three words, “A” means no. “Myo” means muscle and “Trophic” means nourishment, so it means no muscle nourishment. ALS is discovered in 1869 by a French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. It is also called Lou Gehrigs disease, after the famous baseball player who was diagnosed with this medical condition. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is of two types, sporadic and familial. Sporadic is the most common type of ALS in America and Familial, as the name suggests, is a hereditary or genetic disease as it passes from one generation to next generation.