Episode notes
Merit Cudkowicz is a scientist, a doctor, a researcher, and is both the director of the Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS and Chief of Neurology at Mass General Hospital in Boston. During our conversation, Merit talks about her journey to becoming a doctor and provides a definition of ALS, commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." She also discusses her interest in ALS, describes its symptoms and how it affects those who have it, the influence of genes and environment on its development, how one can live to mitigate one's risk of getting ALS, what we don't yet know about its onset, current research to fight the disease, and reasons for hope.
To me, ALS is one of the most terrifying diseases a human being can get: normal psychological and intellectual function as one's body deteriorates, eventually resulting in a total inability to move, ...