Awareness Angel art for the various awareness ribbon causes can be used for a t-shirt fundraiser art through DonnaBellas Angels. Below is an ALS fundraiser t-shirt created by Team Andre for a walk.
Lou Gehrig's Disease / ALS Blue Awareness Ribbon Angel
A blue ribbon or blue and white striped ribbon shows support for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) awareness.
The ribbon color was initially blue but many causes use the blue ribbon. This was updated to the blue and white striped ribbon as a baseball reference to the baseball player, Lou Gehrig who helped make the general public aware of this disease when he became ill. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease and is 100% fatal and has few treatments to
improve the quality of life.
ALS
can strike anyone & is not contagious. Although the life expectancy of an ALS patient averages
about two to five years from the time of diagnosis, this disease is variable
and many people live with quality for five years and more. More than half
of all patients live more than three years after diagnosis.
ALS Blue and White Striped Awareness Ribbon Angel Art Painting
ALS is
a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain
and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and
from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive
degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death.
Although the cause of ALS is not
completely understood, the recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific
understanding regarding the physiology of this disease. When the
motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle
movement is lost.
Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle
weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or
breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurons
that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller).
Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies. With
voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of
the disease may become totally paralyzed.
Approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with
ALS each year. Most
commonly, the disease strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70. The incidence of ALS
is two per 100,000 people, and it is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans
may have the disease at any given time.
In
1939, Lou Gehrig brought national and
international attention to the disease when he abruptly retired from baseball
after being diagnosed with ALS. Let this ALS Blue Awareness Ribbon Angel help bring
hope and healing!
ALS information above is from the
ALS Association. Read more on their
website at http://www.alsa.org/ Buy these Awareness Ribbon Angels on the Awareness Gallery Zazzle Gift Store or CafePress Unique Gifts Store! There are multiple options for ALS Ribbon Products on Zazzle for the ALS awareness ribbon. You can also scroll and see some merchandise options too.
