Lou Gehrig may not have had ALS
Filed under: Health — Tags: ALS, concussion, Lou Gehrig — furtherglory @ 3:04 pm
I just heard on the TV news that Lou Gehrig may have been misdiagnosed; maybe he didn't have Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS, which stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The latest theory is that he may have suffered from many concussions in his athletic career.
On March 15, 2010, I blogged about Lou Gehrig and wrote this:
As I looked through the list of famous people that had died of ALS, I noticed that many of them were athletes, specifically baseball and football players. It occurred to me that this might provide a clue as to the cause of ALS. What do baseball and football players do that other folks don't do? Do they have a different kind of diet? Do they take specific medications? Are they exposed to chemicals that are used on baseball and football fields?
It never occurred to me that the athletes who were diagnosed with ALS may have suffered from many concussions. If the latest research is correct, this would explain why so many baseball and football players get something that resembles ALS. You can read my full blog on ALS on March 15th here.
I still think that the onset of ALS has something to do with modern drugs prescribed by doctors. I am suspicious about statin drugs which are given to lower cholesterol levels, particularly after a stroke. The earliest symptoms, that Lou Gehrig had, included "foot drop" or one foot scraping the ground when he walked, and difficulty in swallowing. Those symptoms could have been caused by a stroke. Lou Gehrig may have had one or more minor strokes and when he went to the Mayo Clinic for a checkup, the doctors gave him something to lower his cholesterol. Statin meds could have caused him to develop the symptoms of ALS. Anyway, I am happy to learn that doctors are still trying to find the cause of ALS.