How has Stephen Hawking survived with ALS for so long?

Editor's Note: Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018, at age 76. This story, originally published on his 70th birthday on January 7, 2012, is being resurfaced to explain how he beat the odds and lived so long with the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). read more

This story, originally published on his 70th birthday on January 7, 2012, is being resurfaced to explain how he beat the odds and lived so long with the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Stephen Hawking turns 70 on Sunday, beating the odds of a daunting diagnosis by nearly half a century. read more

(Newser) – An ALS patient's life expectancy averages just two to five years after diagnosis, and only about 5% make it past 20 years, the ALS Association notes. But Stephen Hawking, the 73-year-old theoretical physicist and subject of an Academy Award-winning biopic, has beaten the odds and lived with his motor neuron disease for 52 years—and no one's sure why, though some experts suggest factors that may have increased his life span in today's Washington Post. read more

For his part, Hawking says his work, focused through his disability, granted him years that wouldn't have been available to others. Someone in a more physical field — like, say, Lou Gehrig, the New York Yankee who contracted ALS in his 30s — couldn't have functioned at so high a level. read more