Does repeated head trauma lead to ALS?

An August 2010 scientific paper contends that athletes, soldiers and other people who have been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – may have actually been victims of concussions and other brain trauma.

The television show from HBO sports program called “Real Sports” aired the news of the possible correlation between concussions and ALS.

Here is a segment of the video on ALS.

The findings are published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology.

Lou Gehrig’s disease, the common disease term for ALS – named for the Yankee slugger believed to have succumbed to ALS in 1941 – is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. It is postulated that toxic proteins migrate from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death.

The New York Daily News reports that while ALS is rare in the general public, affecting only about 100,000 people, that there is an increased incidence in former NFL players. Statistically, only about two NFL players should acquire ALS, but since 1970, at least 14 NFL players have been diagnosed with ALS.

The HBO Sports segment indicated that athletes from other sports, involving blows to the head, such as boxing and soccer, also have a higher rate of ALS than the population at large. In Canada, eight Canadian Football League players have been diagnosed with the fatal ailment, and in Italy, more than 40 professional soccer players are victims.

According to an Associated Press report, Dr. Ann McKee, a neurology professor at Boston University and one of the paper’s authors, was able to study the brains and spinal cords of ex-Minnesota Vikings linebacker Wally Hilgenberg, former Southern California linebacker Eric Scoggins, and a boxer whose family asked that his name be kept private. All suffered head injuries in the course of their careers, and all later died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. McKee found toxic proteins in the spinal cords of all three individuals, the Associated Press said.

On the “Real Sports” broadcast, the reporter researched newspaper clipping on injuries to Lou Gehrig. They found at least six concussion incidents in which Mr. Gehrig was knocked unconscious. Because this baseball legend was the victim of so many significant head injuries  during his career it is possible that the repeated head trauma lead to his demise at 38 years old. For example, during one game in 1934, Gehrig was hit with a pitch just above the right eye and was knocked unconscious for what was described in news reports as five minutes. Despite a headache and a large bump on his head, Gehrig played the next day.

Additionally, here is another episode from “Real Sports” on head concussions: