The sick life of Stephen Hawking's genius has become a medical mystery

The sclerosis of the muscular atrophy, rather than the young death, still lives more than 70 years of age, astonishing the whole world.

On 8/1, turning 76 years old, no one dares to expect in people with muscular atrophy syndrome (ALS) . As a progressive neuropathy , ALS causes degeneration, gradually deteriorating motor neurons and quickly leads to death.

The question is how is the eminent scientist still alive today even though it was forecasted to not last more than two years?

Stephen Hawking's physics genius lives with ALS for more than 50 years.(Photo: SlashGear).

According to Live Science, it is not certain why Hawking lived. However, scientists agree the progress of ALS depends on the individual. Patients with ALS are usually expected to live only three years from the date of diagnosis, but these 20% reach five years, 10% 10 years and 5% even surpass the 20-year mark.

One factor that plays an important role in the longevity of patients with ALS is genetic . Dr. Anthony Geraci, Director of the Neurological Center of the Northwell Health Neurology Institute (USA), said scientists identified more than 20 genes related to ALS, some of which affect survival. . For example, the SOD1 gene accelerates disease progression.

Besides, the works show that patients with ALS at a young age will live longer. In fact, the disease mainly occurs in people 55-75 years old and Hawking is diagnosed at age 21.

Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved two types of ALS drugs, riluzole (trade name Rilutek) and edaravone (trade name Radicava), which can prolong the life of ALS patients by six. month.

Early symptoms of ALS include muscle weakness, slurred speech. The patient then loses the ability to move, chat, eat and breathe.

Patients with ALS often die from respiratory failure when nerve cells control breathing stops or due to malnutrition and dehydration when the muscle controls swallowing.

"If you don't fall into these two cases, the patient may live long," said Dr. Leo McCluskey, Medical Director of the Center for ALS from the University of Pennsylvania. "What happened to Hawking was amazing. He was an exception."

Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 as a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author of the book of British routine science. He is currently the research director of the Center for Cosmology Theory at Cambridge University.

Among Hawking's important scientific works, the most prominent is the collaboration with Roger Penrose on the fascinating singularity theory in the framework of general relativity and predicts the theory of black holes emitting radiation (ie Hawking radiation).

At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with ALS. He was almost paralyzed, had to use a wheelchair and communicate via assistive devices attached to computers. Whenever he needed to speak, he typed the word into the computer.