Slightly O/T: Did Lou Gehrig really have Lou Gehrig's Disease?

[Exhibitman]

If you've ever spoken with or heard a speech by an ex-boxer who has taken a few too many shots to the head you can tell the difference in an instant between him and Gehrig.

[ElCabron]

Dr. D.,

Are you saying there is no causal link between head trauma and ALS? That seemed to be the main point of the story and it sounded like groundbreaking information that could go along way in prevention (or perhaps someday cure?) of ALS.

It's clear there's a difference between ALS and chronic concussive syndrome. But the Real Sports segment never said Gehrig didn't have ALS, only that he might have gotten it from head trauma.

How would you explain extremely high (statistically improbable) rate of ALS in ex-athletes in sports where head injury is common? Particularly boxing, football and soccer. These athletes are so young and suffer so much, it was encouraging to see that some of that might be preventable in the future. It's disheartening to hear you say otherwise, but if that's how it is, then that's how it is.

Interested to hear your perspective.

-Ryan

[drdduet]

Hi Ryan,

I was strictly commenting on the original thread starting post. I did not see the Real Sports episode brought up so I cannot comment on it. I would find it highly unlikely that repeated head trauma have a direct causative effect for the development of ALS. There is no solid medical evidence that I am aware of to suggest otherwise, and it wouldn't explain why individuals without a history of head trauma develop it.

My interpretation of the article is that it is suggesting that there were many people--prior to the advent of medical technology--who were misdiagnosed with ALS, when in fact they had chronic concussive syndrome. This phenomena does occur quite frequently in medicine, especially when a high profile individual gets a little known or rare diagnosis--mainly because of the publicity the rare disease gets, so docs and the general public become more aware.

I'll look into viewing that Real Sports episode and post here after doing so.

Thanks

[autograf]

DRD.....

The Real Sports piece was looking at primarily NFL & CFL football players along with boxers but also threw in some alarmingly high rates for soccer players from Europe. The average occurrence of ALS in 'normal' population was 1/100K. Based on the stats, there should be few to any ALS cases in the NFL current or previous players nor for boxers. The actual rates, however, were significantly higher with multiple cases in each type of sport. The results were to be published I think yesterday in a Neurological medical journal (not sure which one). The two people doing the study had actual brains from football players and boxers and spinal cords as well and there were indicators in both the brain and the spinal columns that repetitive concussions caused ALS indicators in both the brains and the spinal cords. Not a doctor here, nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night but the piece seemed to have merit. Guess anyone can do any type of study out there and fine someone to validate it but it sure seemed like these folks had their ducks in a row.

p.s. I'm not sure if it was for effect or another indicator but almost all the people previewed with ALS that had been in NFL or CFL were defensive players and backs whose primary job it is to wind up and hit people. Found it odd that not a lot of offensive 'skill' players were among the group..........