By Elizabeth Nelson
We've all watched dozens upon dozens of people take the ice bucket challenge in
the last month, to the point where it's getting "old," about
now. However, whomever challenged Dan
Joseph to the #icebucketchallenge, I sincerely thank you. You have no idea what an amazing thing you
did, not only for the challenge but for cause.
You should have known that Dan wouldn't take
the challenge, he's not a "follower," he's a leader that paves the
way for others, of course he was going to see the hysterically obvious, that
people enjoy making fools of themselves, usually for causes they know nothing
about, because people hashtag it and challenge them to do it. Instead of just complying, Dan
explains what Lou Gehrig's disease is; what, you didn't know ALS had a name
before the icebucket challenge rebranded it?
"Somebody nominated me for the ice bucket challenge, and if someone had nominated me three weeks ago, I probably would have accepted ... so
I declined. The ice bucket challenge has led to 2,5 million videos
and Raised more than $63 million dollars has been
donated, this is amazing especially considering ALS only affects 13,000 people
in the USA
But ALS is a horrible, horrible disease, and despite
all the attention ALS is getting, I'm not so sure that all these People who are
pouring buckets of ice water understand what ALS really is, I mean Tara Reid
took the challenge
I'm most concerned that the ice in that bucket hurt
the hamster on the wheel that runs around in her head.
"So, in lieu of taking the challenge or making a
donation, my contribution is going to be making a video breaking down the
causes and effects of this disease.
Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis. Up until now, it's been more commonly referred
to as Lou Gehrig's disease after the famous baseball player who died of the
disease in 1941 at the age of 37.
I can't be sure if this was a planned thing, but one of
the side effects of the massive popularity of the Ice Bucket challenge has been
to rebrand from Lou Gehrig's disease to ALS, which is probably smart, since fewer
and fewer people alive today know who Lou Gehrig is.
ALS is referred to as a Muscular degenerative
disease, but it's not a muscle disease it's a Central Nervous System Disease."
[pay attention now]
For most people, the
brain sends messages down through the spine where these things called lower
motor neurons are located, these lower motor neurons exit the spine, and
transport the brain signals to the muscles this allows all sorts of
things:
walk, brush your teeth,
do pull ups, golf, slap a ho who don't got yo money, run away from an angry
dog.
But for people with ALS,
over a period of time, ALS breaks down the cells that transport the signals
between the brain and the motor neurons, as a result the signals that brain is
sending to the muscles get weaker and weaker until they just stop all
together.
Over time, the patients
lose the ability to walk and do basic activities.
Once the disease really
sets in, paralysis occurs and you lose the ability to do just anything that requires
muscles, like talking or chewing eventually it results in complete organ
failure and death.
Most patients die
somewhere from 3-5 years after being diagnosed, the disease is most
common among people ages 60-69, but young people can get it too, and sadly
there is no cure or treatment.
The medical community
doesn't even really know what cause ALS. There are all sorts of theories as to
why people get it:
chemical exposures,
athletics, military service, infections agents, nutritional intake, physical
activity and trauma, which only makes it that much harder to find a cure.
This is where we stand
on this disease. On the upside, this ice bucket challenge raised a lot of money
for ALS, it's really even bigger then ALS because it may have changed the
future of charitable fundraising forever.
On downside, from now on
you're going to see all sorts of ridiculous copycat fundraising 'eat expired
yogurt to raise awareness for Dengue fever', 'make out with a homeless person to help fight bird
flu'
As long as we have
suffering in the world, there will be insanely dumb and painful ways to
Sacrifice your dignity in order to alleviate the problems or to feel
better about ourselves until everyone is sick of it. ad we will always have the
internet to endlessly share it, until we are sick of it."
I couldn't agree with Dan more, even if some, half or
even all of the people who took the #doubledogdare challenge and dumped a
bucket of ice over their head to be part of the hashtag "cool kids"
instead of actually understanding what they were fundraising for, they were
still giving for a good cause.
I personally had a friend in college that, by the grace
of God, didn't last the year, after he was diagnosed with ALS. Unfortunately, my professor's 43-year-old brother
wasn't as blessed. He was a prisoner of
his own mind, before his disease finally claimed him. Thank you, Dan, for educating the
masses. Maybe next time people will stop
and educate themselves before they pick up that expired yogurt, kiss that
homeless bum, walk across hot coals, or take that #boililngwaterchallenge for
whatever bandwagon charity comes up next.
By Elizabeth Nelson
