Did Lou Gehrig have a Brain Injury – Not Lou Gehrig’s Disease?
August 18, 2010 – 9:53 am
A new study indicates that the death of athletes diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease may actually have been triggered by concussions and brain injuries. What Los Angeles brain injury lawyers will find even more surprising, is that researchers believe even Gehrig himself might not have had the disease famously named after him.
The research was conducted by doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Massachusetts and the Boston University School of Medicine. According to them, markings on the spinal cords of two baseball players and one boxer diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, indicate that they did not have the disease at all. They, in fact, had a different disease triggered by mild brain injuries like concussions that ate away at the central nervous system in a manner similar to that experienced by persons suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. It’s the reason why the researchers believe it is likely that Lou Gehrig did not suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at all.
Gehrig suffered consistent concussions over the years, and insisted on playing even through these, a factor that could have contributed to impact on the central nervous system, because of brain trauma. According to the doctors, these findings establish a connection between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and the kind of injuries that result from rough contact sports. Proving this relationship further is going to be tough. Persons who die from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis don’t typically have an autopsy performed on them, which makes it hard to probe this link.
According to the ALS Association, approximately 30,000 people in the country currently suffer from ALS, a disease that results in the quick and consistent atrophy of all voluntary muscle control. Besides Gehrig who was the disease’s most famous face, there are other famous patients, like Stephen Hawking whose brain remains active years after his muscles have wasted.
The study is one more reason why the NFL and high schools and colleges across the country must take concussions very seriously.
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