Lou Gehrig's Disease In Sports

In recent years we have seen an increase in the number of athletes who have been diagnosed with horrific diseases that can disable you in several different ways. There are people who have the diseases or have loved ones with the diseases that they put the blame for getting the diseases on the sports and the sport associations. This has caused the Major League sports associations to put more precautions and rules into the game, which in some cases has changed the way the game is played. Sports should make the game safer, but not at the cost of changing the game.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or more commonly know as “Lou Gehrig’s disease” is a disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function. It is a neurodegenerative disease

The repeated head trauma triggers a build up of an abnormal protein called tau in the brain. All the CTE’s including ALS, is basically the neurons inability to communicate with one another. There are four different types of CTE’s. They are Alzheimer's, Dementia, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s disease. Alzheimer’s and Dementia are very similar diseases in that they cause the person to have memory loss, difficulty moving, speaking, and behavioral changes, but Alzheimer's can cause aggression, anger, and loss of appetite. Alzheimer’s affects the part of the brain that controls thought, memory, and language. Alzheimer’s is not reversible. It is degenerative and incurable. Dementia is more towards nervousness and anxiety than anger and can also be reversible. Dementia is a brain disorder that affects communication. Dementia is diagnosed by symptoms, while Alzheimer’s is diagnosed by brain scans. A person with Dementia can do a task, but they just forget they did it. A person with Alzheimer’s forgets how to do the task altogether. Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease are also both similar to each other. They both affect a person’s mood, speech, and cognitive abilities, and cause tremors, but the biggest difference between them is that Huntington’s disease is inheritable. Huntington’s disease can go from generation to generation. There is

Younger athletes like teenagers can develop these diseases at a younger age because their brains are not fully developed yet, which could lead to worse symptoms later in life. These younger athletes are not fully developed muscularly either, which means the muscles won’t take as big as a impact since they are not as developed. Steve Gleason, a professional American Football player, was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 34. Over time his muscles would cease functioning, disabling his ability to walk, then his ability to speak, and then his ability to breathe on his own without a machine. It is believed that football related head trauma caused his condition.

The usual blame of cause of these diseases are put upon concussions and head trauma. If an athlete doesn’t rest and fully recover after a concussion, the athlete risks getting a second concussion and coming down with second impact syndrome. In second impact syndrome the brain swells rapidly and can result in death. Muhammad Ali was a athlete who suffered from head trauma in his boxing days. This head trauma is the most probable reason he came down with Parkinson’s disease. He had difficulty speaking and walking, and also dealt with tremors and uncontrollable body movements. He lived up till age 74 with the