Panic After Learning About ALS

[Resilientgirl]

Hello All,Yesterday I wasn watching the confederation Soccer Cup on ESPN2. Italy was playing Spain. An Italian Soccer passed away last week and he no longer plays with the team. The commentor had mentioned that he died and here is the shocking news. It was due to ALS. I was enjoying the game and the minute I heard about the cause of death i started to panic and I remembered all the fear I went through and now I cant get myself out of it. I was doing just fine before I have gone over my fear and moved on but to hear that a soccer player died from ALS was horrible. he was at age 49. I started looking into that and I came to a legit news paper article that talked about statisitc and they said that 1 to 2 in 100,000 years get ALS. link now my question is how accurate are these statistics and if that was true how come if I go on ALS site I See that many people have ALS. within one year or twomy question is the following:is Als diverting from a rare disease to a more common one? Please give me your input. I want some explanation. I dont want support this time as I am already doing fine with my Fear but to satisfy my curiosity.I believe that ALS is becoming a more popular disease out there and no longr considered rare. do you agree disagree?also what do you think about this test? "When we looked at these three individuals, they had this hideous abnormal protein called TDP-43," said McKee, director of Neuropathology at the Bedford VA Medical Center. "Large amounts in the spinal cord and brain."TDP-43 is associated with a handful of motor neuron diseases, including ALS. It is found in the nucleus of cells in the nervous system. McKee said that among the brains she examined, TDP-43 had leaked out of the nucleus, infiltrating the brain and spinal cord.

 

[jerryTwo]

ALS is more common in hockey, rugby and some other hard sports games. It allways was.I also saw on TV few days ago a 40 year old ALS patioent from my country that is trying to raise 50.000 $ to go to Mexico on some stem cell transplant. It was ALS day, the June 21st. That doesn't make it more common, it makes it more aware. I donated him 5 EURO. Mexico won't help him, but I had helped his faith.ANd no, I don't see any evidence, ALS incidence is higher, it is 2-3 on 100.000 people. That is called a rare disease. Look how much more is cancer incidence.

 

[Gracer]

for some reasons (I personally suspect effect of substances that sportsment take to get muscle mass) athlets are more prone to ALS. It was absolutely horrible case when it was rather epidemic in youngsters soccer team (in Mexico if I do not mess up). So frothem as a part of population incidence is higher.overall incidence is the same, it just becomes more known amongh the community.

 

[christinasgirl123]

Athletes that get a lot of hits on their heads seem to be more prone to develop ALS. But newer studies show, that it is not the normal ALS, but another disease just mimicing ALS caused by head trauma. As it totally appears like ALS, it can only be found out if a very extensive autopsy is done. ALS is not getting more common, but due to some famous sportsmen, Steve H. and a famous artist, just more present n media than years ago.

 

[MarioMasher]

To back that up even further, recent studies have suggested that the poster boy for ALS, Lou Gehrig, probably never even had "Lou Gehrig's Disease" in the first place. What he probably had was brain trauma from a lifetime of head injuries and concussions suffered from football and baseball. In other words, I doubt ALS is getting any more common than it ever was (which is extremely rare). What I think is happening is that doctors are confirming that head injuries and concussions and repeated brain trauma is very very bad for you. Lou Gehrig was notorious for concussions and running head first into things like walls. Which when you think about it is not all that different than what hockey players do, what boxers do, what rugby and football players do, etc.But yes this isn't actually ALS what is happening to them. It is brain injury that mimics ALS. At least that is what recent studies have shown.

 

[GlowGreen]

If the incidence has increased by 25% (and it hasn't) then a 25% increase of very rare is... very rare I won't bore you with the differences between absolute and relative risks but there really are much higher probability and equally awful events for you to be worrying about. I would say the same even if you are a male Italian footballer player who heads the balls a lot and has spent many years doing strenuous exercise (all risk factors).GlowGreen

 

[TwitchyMD]

Slight increase in ALS incidence was noted (I remember it is about 2-3/100 000 and a bit younger patients are often affected), so was the cancer incidence and the reasons are obvious - the pollution is much worse than 50 years ago, chemicals in food, heavy metals (toxic for CNS), radiation, electromagnetic fields...BTW, there was an unusual high incidence of ALS among Italy soccer teams years ago, some thought it was due to chemicals on the football field grass but nobody knows.