Eric Dane, McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy, just shared some heavy news. He’s been diagnosed with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is a serious, progressive disease that affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord.
It slowly messes with the muscles you use to move, talk, eat, and even breathe.
“I have been diagnosed with ALS. I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter,” Dane told PEOPLE.
He’s not letting the disease stop his career
Dane, who also plays Cal Jacobs in Euphoria, said he’s still showing up to work.
Season 3 starts filming on April 14, and he plans to be there.
“I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working and am looking forward to returning to set of Euphoria next week,” he said. “I kindly ask that you give my family and I privacy during this time.”
ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease
You’ve probably heard of ALS called Lou Gehrig’s disease. Lou was a famous baseball player who had it and had to leave the game back in 1939.
The disease got named after him. It’s not something you catch from someone else, and it doesn’t get reported to health officials like some other illnesses do.
It affects the body in small ways first
Usually, the early signs are pretty subtle, from twitching to weakness in a leg or arm, to having a hard time swallowing or talking.
Then, slowly, it gets worse. Over time, the muscles just stop working.
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The disease eventually takes over more muscles
Later on, people with ALS have trouble walking, eating, speaking, and even breathing.
The tough part? There’s no cure. Most people live three to five years after they’re diagnosed.
Some people live longer, but it’s not common.
ALS messes with the nerves, but not the senses
According to experts, ALS causes the nerve cells in your brain and spine to die off.
But it doesn’t touch things like sight, smell, or hearing. And interestingly, the eye muscles and bladder muscles usually keep working until the very late stages.
Scientists still don’t know what causes it
A small number of cases run in families, which is called familial ALS.
That’s only about 5–10% of cases. In those situations, more than one person in the family might have it, and it’s usually linked to inherited genes.
Researchers are also looking at things like the environment, diet, or even past injuries as possible triggers.
It can show up differently from person to person
The early signs don’t always look the same. According to the ALS Society of Canada, they can include tripping, dropping things, speech changes, weight loss, shortness of breath, and even random moments of laughing or crying.
Some people notice decreased muscle tone or reflex changes too.
Most people don’t live very long after diagnosis
For most, ALS leads to death within a few years. People with familial ALS usually live even less, often just one to two years after the symptoms show up.
Younger people who get diagnosed tend to live a little longer than older folks.
It’s not super common, but not super rare either
The CDC doesn’t track ALS cases like they do with other diseases, but they run surveys every so often.
One of the more recent ones found that in the U.S., there were somewhere between 18,000 and 31,000 people living with ALS.
Dane’s diagnosis came just as ex filed to cancel their divorce
Dane shares two daughters — Billie Beatrice, 15, and Georgia Geraldine, 13 — with actress Rebecca Gayheart. The two got married in 2004.
Gayheart actually filed to dismiss their divorce recently, even though they’d split back in 2018.
“We are best of friends. We are really close. We are great coparents,” she said in an interview.
“We really figured out the formula to staying a family and I think our kids are benefiting greatly from it, and we are as well.”
Other public figures have faced ALS too
Eric joins a list of well-known people who’ve also battled ALS.
Other well-known names who’ve been diagnosed include physicist Stephen Hawking, singer Joe Bonsall, actor Aaron Lazar, Roberta Flack, John Driskell Hopkins, Eric Stevens, and Canadian actor Kenneth Mitchell.
It’s a tough disease, but they all faced it in their own way. And Eric’s doing the same.
