Lou Gehrig earned the moniker the Iron Horse for well reason . The baseball instrumentalist took the sphere no matter what — with a broken thumb , with a broken toe , while suffering from lumbago or even a concussion . During his career , the slogger go through at least three concussions , a vulgar injury for professional athletes . Oftentimes athletes continue to play while suffer from a concussion and in recent twelvemonth former pro athletes ofttimes have been diagnosed with neurologic precondition such as amyotrophic sidelong induration ( ALS ) , also known as Lou Gehrig ’s disease . A late studypublished inJournal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurologyfinds a contact between concussions and a disease similar to ALS .
ALS is a rarefied , quickly progressing neurologic upset that cripples motor neurons , which tell the body what muscle to move . afflicted motor neurons fail to communicate , leading to an unfitness to walk , gesture , talking , and eventually breathe . Teammates of Gehrig first observe a problem when he drag his feet instead of reverse them to take the air . Most patients exit from respiratory loser within three to five years of the onset of symptoms .
Ann McKee , associate professor at Boston University School of Medicine , and her confrere reckon at the brain and spinal cord of two former professional football players and one packer — all of whom had been diagnosed with ALS prior to death . The researchers discovered that all three had very gamey sum of a protein TDP-43 . The protein lives in the karyon of nervous system cell , but in the three patients TDP-43 seep out of the cells , flooding the brain and spinal corduroy . The overweening amount of money of TDP-43 caused symptom like ALS , but also show to researcher that the jock did not suffer from the disease .
McKee can not speculate as to whether Gehrig actually suffered from Lou Gehrig ’s disease , because she has not examined his consistence ( and there are no plans to do so ) . But the resultant role affirm a suspicion that repeated brain trauma leads to serious neurological weather , which mimic serious diseases such as ALS or Alzheimer ’s .
[ ViaThe New York Times ]
