We Should Be Talking About PPALS

At ALS Advocacy Day, two healthy women in our group were in a family with multiple cases of ALS. If there is anything worse than the ticking clock of ALS, it's the ticking time bomb of familial ALS. They were advocating on behalf of their healthy aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings who are at extreme risk for ALS. We must find the cause and cure to keep their relatives healthy.

Their words made a big light bulb turn on in my head. We should be talking more about potential people with ALS. There are millions of healthy Americans who are at risk for ALS. In a family with known cases, certainly the odds are high and the threat of ALS hangs over relatives constantly. They are all PPALS... potential people with ALS.

The rest of America is at risk, too. Every American is a potential person with ALS. We should be making every American aware that there is a terrorist disease in our midst that can strike at any time. We know not why or when. It's time that we invested nationally to find out. Until then, we should all squirm a little and advocate against this disease. We are all PPALS. Squirm.