Since the end of July, the ice bucket challenge has taken social media by storm. And, as a result of the icy water being dumped on people’s heads, awareness of ALS has heated up.
According to The Boston Globe and research by Facebook, 15 million people have posted about the ice bucket challenge, and that number continues to grow.
The phrase “you have 24 hours” can be heard at the end of most challenge videos, indicating that the new set of nominees have one day to complete the challenge: either be doused by a bucket of ice water or donate $100 to the cause, although some choose to do both.
The challenge has reached people from every demographic. It originated in Boston in honor of Pete Frates, former captain of Boston College’s baseball team, who has lost the ability to speak, walk and use his arms since being diagnosed with ALS.
As of Aug. 14, the ALS Association reported they had raised nearly $7.6 million in two weeks and had gained 146,000 new donors to the cause.
The challenge has even come to the U campus. Lindsai Gren, a senior in English literature, laughed as she discussed the videos filling her social media newsfeeds.
“Before this, I had heard about ALS in Biology classes, but I didn’t know much about it,” she said. “The challenge is interesting and funny, which is what is grabbing people’s attention. It’s definitely for a good cause.”
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Mark Bromberg, chief of the Division of Diagnostic and Clinical Neurology at the U, said the expected prognosis for those diagnosed is most often fatal. He stressed the importance of the current research efforts in stopping the disease.
“Twenty years ago patients would be diagnosed and a doctor would tell them there was nothing they could do and not to come back,” Bromberg said. “Today this response has markedly shifted due to research and awareness of the disease.”
Doctors are beginning to discover there may be more at play with ALS than simply a degeneration of nerve cells. Approximately 50 percent of those diagnosed, Bromberg said, have a behavioral change in addition to the debilitating physical degeneration.
Bromberg said ALS generally develops in older adults in their late 50s — however, it can develop as early as the 20s and as late as the 80s. The symptoms usually begin as a focal weakness in either speech, swallowing or loss of movement in a limb until the individual becomes globally weakened.
For treatment of ALS, the U houses the only multidisciplinary clinic specializing in the disease in the Intermountain West. In addition, the ALS Motor Neuron Disease Clinic works with patients to find ways to make life more manageable, whether through support groups, assistance in finding resources or a variety of therapies. The clinic at the U is also staffed with dieticians, social workers and support staff to aid not only the diagnosed but their caregivers as well.
Besides U students, celebrities who have soaked themselves with water and/or made donations include Justin Timberlake, Martha Stewart, Jimmy Fallon and Bill Gates. Even Ethel Kennedy, 86-year-old widow to the late Robert F. Kennedy, accepted the challenge and, in turn, nominated President Barack Obama.
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