Serving Harris, Galveston, Brazoria and Fort Bend Counties
HOUSTON
August Issue 2015
Inside This Issue
EVERY AUGUST UNTIL A CURE: THE ALS ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE RETURNS FOR 2015 By Greg Hill The ALS Association Texas Chapter
Aging Americans fight Diabetes See pg. 8
INDEX Legal Health..................pg.3 Mental Health...............pg.4 Healthy Heart................pg.5 Framework..................pg.13
TIRR Memorial Herman Nations Top Rehabilitation Hospitals See pg. 9
Promising to renew their challenge every August until there is a cure, the two ALS patients who co-founded the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, Pat Quinn and Pete Frates, made good on that promise when they kicked off the 2015 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on July 31 in Boston. For Texans, however, the official kick off took place at Houston’s Minute Maid Park on August 2 as the Houston Astros Houston Astros Participating in ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enthusiastically took the challenge. “Last year gave the ALS community prolonging a person’s life by only 2-3 of the responsibility in fighting a disease like ALS and in stewarding hope for the first time in a long time,” months. said Quinn, who was diagnosed For the beleaguered warriors on the unexpected windfall from the Ice with ALS two years ago. “But we still the front lines of this disease, last Bucket Challenge. “For people with need the public’s help to keep the year’s global ALS Ice Bucket Challenge ALS, time is of the essence, and a momentum going. We intend to do phenomenon was a godsend, raising cure cannot come quickly enough,” the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge every nearly $220 million for ALS research says Hockensmith. “And yet we are August until we find a cure.” Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND), is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that leads to paralysis due to the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain. There is no known cure for the disease. On average, people live only 3-5 years once diagnosed, and there is just one drug approved to treat ALS,
and patient care. Of that, roughly half was directed to The ALS Association.
obligated to be strategic and thoughtful in how we expend resources. We Tanner Hockensmith, Executive must maintain the rigorousness with Director of The ALS Association of which we assess research opportunities see ALS Ice Bucket Challenge page 20 Texas, acknowledges the enormity
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