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

[David Atkatz]

There are no blood relatives. Gehrig was the only child of his parents surviving into adulthood, and he had no children of his own.

The study seems to focus on soldiers who suffered significant head trauma. I don't think it's easy to relate that to sports injuries. If Gehrig were not suffering from ALS, I think that statistically a number of other ballplayers would have been thus "diagnosed." That is not the case, which leads me to believe the disease is properly named.

[ElCabron]

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel just aired a story about this and it sounds like he did indeed have ALS, but we now may know how he got it: head trauma. He was knocked out 6 times in his career. A key to preventing long-term damage to the brain post-concussion is rest immediately following the injury. As we all know, in every case where Gehrig was knocked unconscious he was in the lineup the very next day. Sadly, the streak may have been a factor that lead to his early death.

-Ryan

[alanu]

The Real Sports is a real eye opener. It shows that not only football players and boxers have a significant higher incident of ALS, but also soccer players.

[autograf]

Great story on a great show.....saw that last night and the study results are really interesting. Hopefully from the findings, they can work towards some remedy or aid. The soccer connection was wild. Soccer players may reconsider those headers a little more in the future....

[drdduet]

Given his preserved mental function I would say he had ALS. ALS is a motor neuron disease. Chronic head trauma will affect cerebral function at a high level, where ALS will not.

From all the information I've seen Lou Gehrig did have ALS. There is a straight forward distinction between the two entities as ALS spares cognitive, oculomotor, sensory, and autonomic functions and chronic concussive syndrome does not.

Mohammed Ali has chronic concussive syndrome, Stephen Hawking has ALS. The two are quite different in presentation.

[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