“ALS is a relentlessly progressive disorder. The rate of progression between individuals is variable and the history generally reflects gradual and progressive worsening over time until death occurs.  The initial symptoms of ALS can vary considerably from person to person, as can the rate at which ALS progresses. Not all individuals with ALS develop the same symptoms or the same sequences or patterns of progression. However, all people with ALS will experience progressive muscle weakness and paralysis; so there are different stages with ALS. About 60% of the people reported to have ALS in the United States are men, and 93% of patients are Caucasian.  It is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.  Most people develop ALS between the ages of 40 and 70, with an average age of 55 at the time of diagnosis. However, rare cases of the disease do occur in persons in their 20s and 30s.”

HHS

“Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or motor neuron disease, is a progressive, degenerative disease that destroys the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement.  ALS that is often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the baseball player who was diagnosed with it. Doctors usually don’t know why ALS occurs. Some cases are inherited.  ALS often begins with muscle twitching, weakness in a limb, or slurred speech.  There is no cure for the disease but there is temporary treatments for ALS depending on the symptoms present.”

MAYO CLINIC

“ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.  Amyotrophic” comes from the Greek language. “A” means no. “Myo” refers to muscle.  “Trophic” means nourishment. So, amyotrophic means “no muscle nourishment,” and when a muscle has no nourishment, it “atrophies” or wastes away.  Lateral” identifies the areas in a person’s spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located.  As this area degenerates, it leads to scarring or hardening (“sclerosis”) in the region.”.

“Every extra pound of weight you have additional pressure put on your weight bearing joints.  Every extra pound overweight is 4 pounds of pressure on the weight-bearing joints, like your knees and hips.”

Scott Zashin, MD, a board-certified rheumatologist and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.

“Being just 10 pounds overweight increases the force on your knees by 30 to 40 pounds with every step you take,”

Kevin Fontaine, PhD, assistant professor of rheumatology at Johns Hopkins University.

“An elbow fracture is a fracture at the tip of the elbow. This can happen as a result of trauma such as a direct blow, falling on the elbow or falling on an outstretched hand.  There are three main types of elbow fractures = olecranon fracture (The pointy tip of your elbow), radial head fracture (it connects with the humerus – the upper arm bone), distal humerus fracture (it connects the shoulder to the elbow).  Regarding how common it this fracture; elbow fractures are quite common, especially among children. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 10% of all bone fractures affecting children are elbow fractures.”.

Cleveland Clinic (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22050-elbow-fractures)

“Many people have pain in the base of their foot. This could be due to overuse of one of many different structures in your foot. Common examples are sesamoiditis (inflammation of structures surrounding two small bones under the big toe joint) and plantar fasciitis (overuse of a ligament-like structure that runs underneath the length of the foot).

Pain on standing first thing in the morning is a classic symptom of plantar fasciitis. It is one of the most common problems experienced by runners, accounting for about 10 per cent of running injuries. It is also common among middle-aged people, particularly if they are overweight. It often starts with low-grade pain in the arch or heel of the foot and can get worse over weeks or months.”

Better Health Channel (https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/feet-problems-and-treatments#bhc-content).

“Infertility in women is often caused by problems with ovulation, the cervix or uterus, or the fallopian tubes. Perhaps the most important risk factor for female infertility is age. Women’s ability to get pregnant declines with age; female fertility declines gradually starting around 35 years of age then declines more dramatically after 40 years of age.   According to the latest WHO statistics, approximately 50–80 million people worldwide sufer from infertility, and male factors are responsible for approximately 20–30% of all infertility cases.  Spermatogenesis is one of the most crucial stages in male fertility.The slightest deviation from the natural course of spermatogenesis can lead to infertility in men.”

National Library of Medicine

“Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) happens when you suddenly start to speak with a different accent. It’s most common after a head injury, stroke, or some other type of damage to the brain.  Although it’s extremely rare, it’s a real condition. Only about 100 people have been diagnosed with this condition since the first known case came to light in 1907. Some examples of FAS include an Australian woman who developed a French-sounding accent after a car accident. In 2018, an American woman in Arizona woke up one day with a mixture of Australian, British, and Irish accents after falling asleep the night before with a headache. It doesn’t just affect English speakers. FAS can happen to anyone and has been documented in cases and languages all over the world.”

healthline

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a “foreign” accent. FAS is most often caused by damage to the brain caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Other causes have also been reported including multiple sclerosis and conversion disorder and in some cases no clear cause has been identified.

Although it’s extremely rare, it’s a real condition.

Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation, and tongue placement so that is perceived as sounding foreign. Speech remains highly intelligible and does not necessarily sound disordered.

FAS has been documented in cases around the world, including accent changes from Japanese to Korean, British English to French, American-English to British English, and Spanish to Hungarian.

Some common speech changes associated with FAS include:

• Fairly predictable errors
• Unusual prosody, including equal and excess stress (especially in multi-syllabic words)
• Consonant substitution, deletion, or distortion
• Voicing errors (i.e. bike for pike)
• Trouble with consonant clusters
• Vowel distortions, prolongations, substitutions (i.e. “yeah” pronounced as “yah”)
• “uh” inserted into words

How this is diagnosed:

Language skills will be tested. This can be done with:

• Reading, writing, and language comprehension tests
• Recordings to analyze speech patterns

Images will be taken of the brain. This can be done with:

• MRI scan
• CT scan
• Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan
• PET scan

The brain’s electrical activity may be measured. This can be done with an electroencephalogram (EEG).

FAS is rare. A team of specialists may be needed to make the diagnosis.

Treatment for this condition:

The goal of treatment is to manage symptoms. Choices are:

• Speech therapy to learn how to better move the lips and jaw during speech
• Counseling to help cope with FAS

How to prevent this rare condition is to do the following:

There are no known guidelines to prevent this health problem. Stroke is the most common cause. People who are at risk for stroke should take steps to lower their risk.

“Underage drinking is a serious public health problem in the United States. Alcohol is the most widely used substance among America’s youth, and drinking by young people poses enormous health and safety risks. In 2019, about 24.6 percent of 14- to 15-year-olds reported having at least 1 drink. In 2019, 7.0 million young people ages 12 to 20 reported that they drank alcohol beyond “just a few sips” in the past month.  People ages 12 to 20 drink 4.0 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States. Although youth drink less often than adults do, when they do drink, they drink more. More than 90 percent of all alcoholic drinks consumed by young people are consumed through binge drinking.  The consequences of underage drinking can affect everyone—regardless of age or drinking status. Either directly or indirectly, we all feel the effects of the aggressive behavior, property damage, injuries, violence, and deaths that can result from underage drinking. This is not simply a problem for some families—it is a nationwide concern.”

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIH