Motor Neuron Dis-ease, New Direction

New Findings Suggest Lou Gehrig Had a Different Illness

(Aug. 17) -- Katie Drummond AOL -- Researchers have discovered a shocking twist in their exploration of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, after the prominent New York Yankee pro-baseball player who was diagnosed with it back in 1939.

As it turns out, Gehrig, and other athletes like him, might not have been afflicted by ALS in the first place. Rather, men who suffered ongoing concussive trauma might have died from degradation to the central nervous system caused by that damage.

Just how did the new findings come about, and what do they mean for ALS diagnoses going forward? Surge Desk explains.

What is ALS?

A progressive, incurable motor neuron condition that's also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS causes muscles throughout the body to weaken and atrophy, leaving patients unable to chew, walk or even use their limbs, but leaves cognitive function intact. The ALS Association estimates that 30,000 Americans, mostly older men, suffer from the untreatable illness.

ALS seems, in some cases, to have a genetic component. But around 90 percent of cases appear without family linkage, and a primary causative factor remains unknown.

What did the new research determine?

A team of researchers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Boston University School of Medicine performed autopsies on three men -- two football players and one boxer -- who'd apparently died of Lou Gehrig's disease.

Proteins found in the spinal columns of all three suggest that the men were suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition linked to head injuries and characterized by cognitive decline and dementia.

The finding, to be published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, suggests that CTE might spur the development of Lou Gehrig's disease among athletes. Football players and military personnel, both of whom are more likely to be exposed to concussions, succumb to Lou Gherig's more often than the average civilian.

Or it's possible that athletes and vets diagnosed with ALS never even had it -- rather, they suffered from central nervous system damage caused by the concussive trauma.

What's Lou Gehrig got to do with it?

Most notably, that the man -- who died in 1941 -- might not have had the very illness that today bears his name.

A longtime athlete who played college football before his Hall of Fame-worthy baseball career, Gehrig had a history of concussive injuries. The paper doesn't discuss his case specifically, but the implications of the new findings mean he might not have suffered from his namesake condition.

"Here he is, the face of his disease, and he may have had a different disease as a result of his athletic experience," Dr. Ann McKee, the study's lead neuropathologist, told The New York Times.

What's the fallout from this new distinction?

More effective diagnosis and, maybe, treatment for athletes and veterans who have the concussion-related condition characterized by these key spinal proteins.

"People are being misdiagnosed clinically while they're alive as having ALS when in fact they have a different motor-neuron disease," Dr. Robert Stern, co-director of Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, told the Times. "Scientists will be able to get at a faster understanding of the disease in general, and therefore effective treatments, by knowing more about who's at risk and who's not."

MND resource

Huntington's

Veterans

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Posted in: ALS,closed head injury,huntingtons,Lou Gehrig's disease,MND,motor neuron disease,Steven Shackel

Hawking Retires

This item is important to me in relation to a recent case of the demise of a person with ALS in N. Idaho, through the hospice system.

Dr. Hawking is renown as one of the great minds of our times, and yet with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) he has continued to contribute much to our awareness and knowledge of science and space.

This wasn't the luxury offered to the man in N. Idaho. He just got the "Listen Buddy" lecture that there just was no hope. The lecture came from the doctor that wrote up the drug dose bringing about the man's demise. I suppose it didn't matter that the dose might have been too low, allowing the man to wake up intermittently after drugs were adminstered and he was removed from a ventilator. (I wonder what the outcome might have been if this man was being given the nutrients that seem to benefit people with ALS instead of lethal drugs.)

Reports I received from confidential sources gave me the impression that this man with ALS was quite intellectually alert and interacted with people and his environment. He also seemed to have told the doctor a resounding "NO" to the drug induced death.

I am certainly relieved to know Dr. Hawking isn't living in Idaho.

Stephen Hawking to retire from prestigious post
Oct 24, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, England – Famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking will retire from his prestigious post at Cambridge University next year, but intends to continue his exploration of time and space.

Hawking, 66, is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a title once held by the great 18th century physicist Isaac Newton. The university said Friday that he would step down at the end of the academic year in September, but would continue working as Emeritus Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.

"We look forward to him continuing his academic work at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, playing a leading role in research in cosmology and gravitation," said Professor Peter Haynes, who heads the department.

Hawking became a scientific celebrity through his theories on black holes and the nature of time, work that he carried on despite becoming paralyzed by motor neurone disease.

University policy is that officeholders must retire at the end of the academic year in which they become 67. Hawking will reach that milestone on Jan. 8.

The Lucasian professorship post was founded in 1663 by Henry Lucas, who left his 4,000 books and land expected to yield 100 pounds a year to the university. King Charles II officially established the position in 1664.

Sir Isaac Newton was the second to hold the post. Paul Dirac, a specialist in quantum mechanics who predicted the existence of positron particles, had the title from 1932 to 1969.

Hawking was appointed to the chair in 1979.

His 1988 book, "A Brief History of Time," was an international best-seller; "A Briefer History of Time," intended to be more accessible, followed in 2005.

"George's Secret Key to the Universe," co-authored with Hawking's daughter Lucy, was published last year for the children's market.

Hawking first earned prominence for his theoretical work on black holes. Disproving the belief that black holes are so dense that nothing could escape their gravitational pull, he showed that black holes leak a tiny bit of light and other types of radiation, now known as "Hawking radiation."

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Posted in: ALS,drug death,Lou Gehrig's disease,Stephen Hawking