ALS from head bump?

[Anonymous]

This was just in the news. Oh dear-my little guy completely head bumped me and I got a mild concussion. Guess things aren't looking good for me!!

[Anonymous]

Do you have a link?

[Anonymous]

Sorry--my computer hasn't been activating the links well. just google als head bump and you should pull a bunch of stories. Real Sports on HBO also just did something on it. Scary..although in that case talking about longterm athletes with repeated concussions.

[Anonymous]

also, there has been shown to be a connection between military service and ALS. ie, if you have done military service in any branch, you are statistically more likely to develop ALS. 'They' haven't gone on to demonstrate causation, correlation or just freak coincidence.

I wonder if the military service might be a small subset of the 'head bump' universe?

http://www.alsa.org/files/pdf/ALS_Military_Paper.pdf

[Anonymous]

I think it can be trauma of different sorts. My grandma had some major dental surgery and they think that might have lead to a very small stroke which potentially triggered her ALS. Horrible horrible disease.

[Anonymous]

My mother had ALS and we are all scratching our heads, trying to recall if she ever bumped her head. She was a cheerleader as a teen, not a team sport athlete, so athletic injury is probably not the culprit.

They've proved that military vets of the Vietnam war have a statistically significantly higher incidence of ALS, though they think the link there is due to chemical warfare, perhaps Agent Orange, or something similar. (we don't think my mom was exposed to Agent Orange either.)

They don't have a lot of answers yet with ALS. OP, I wouldn't spend too much effort worrying about one concussion, though.

[Anonymous]

It's not actually ALS if it's from head trauma, it just presents like ALS. Autopsies of some sufferers of ALS have revealed brain damage consistent with trauma/concussions, not ALS. Researchers are concluding that in fact, many people diagnosed with ALS have not actually had the disease. Lou Gehrig himself was known for always played through injury, including some known spectacular concussions received on the playing field, so now they're wondering if even LG didn't have ALS.

In short, symptoms may look just like ALS, but it's not. Head trauma does not cause ALS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not actually ALS if it's from head trauma, it just presents like ALS. Autopsies of some sufferers of ALS have revealed brain damage consistent with trauma/concussions, not ALS. Researchers are concluding that in fact, many people diagnosed with ALS have not actually had the disease. Lou Gehrig himself was known for always played through injury, including some known spectacular concussions received on the playing field, so now they're wondering if even LG didn't have ALS.

In short, symptoms may look just like ALS, but it's not. Head trauma does not cause ALS.

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/18gehrig.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=lou%20gehrig&st=cse