Why me?

The question “Why did ALS affect me?” is a concern for almost all people with ALS. This question is based on the assumption or concern that the cause of the disease may be an event in their own biography that they were previously unaware of. However, this concern or assumption is not medically justified: There are also no causative factors for ALS that are linked to a lifestyle or other biographical events. Certain occupations, dietary habits, exposure to toxins (wood preservatives, paints, varnishes and other chemicals), foreign bodies (dental fillings, implants) or infections (Lyme disease) are not causative factors of ALS.

The simplified answer to the question “Why me?” is that ALS develops “by chance”. This “coincidence” is thought to be due to molecular errors that are not yet understood, which lead to a damaging sequence of events at cellular level and initiate the degeneration of the motor nerve cells. A small proportion of ALS patients are already known to have genetic factors (mutations in “ALS genes”) that were passed on from previous generations or arose during their own embryonic development