Northwestern University May 14 2026 Patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, live an average of only three years after symptoms begin, though some can survive closer to 10 years. What drives these differences in survival has remained a mystery.  A new Northwestern Medicine study provides new insight, identifying evidence that ALS unfolds through a domino‑like sequence of events that begins with an early breakdown inside motor neurons and is followed by a damaging inflammatory response. The