“Tuesdays with Morrie” is the heartbreaking story of the final life lessons imparted by a beloved teacher dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Today, the New York Times reports on an astonishing bit of science that expands the tragedy: Some people diagnosed with ALS may not have the disease. Concussions and other brain trauma may cause neurological decline and death in a way that mimics ALS.
“Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., and the Boston University School of Medicine, the primary researchers of brain damage among deceased National Football League players, said that markings in the spinal cords of two players and one boxer who also received a diagnosis of A.L.S. indicated that those men did not have A.L.S. at all. They had a different fatal disease, doctors said, caused by concussionlike trauma, that erodes the central nervous system in similar ways.” [from the New York Times article]
This is not to say that ALS does not exist…it simply highlights a new syndrome, a cascade of damage to the brain an nervous system that begins with trauma.
The researchers (in an article to be published tomorrow on the website for the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology) refer specifically to athletes and men in combat, who suffer repeated head injury during their training and careers. Although Lou Gehrig is not specifically mentioned, the study raises questions about whether his eponymous disease actually caused his death. It may have been caused by his multiple head injuries. As recounted in the New York Times:
In 1924, during a postgame brawl with the Detroit Tigers, Gehrig swung at Ty Cobb and fell, hit his head on concrete, and was briefly knocked out. While playing first base against the Tigers in September 1930, Gehrig was hit in the face and knocked unconscious by a ground ball. He was knocked out again by an oncoming runner in 1935.
Those are the four incidents in which Gehrig’s being knocked unconscious was notable enough to be reported in newspapers. He most likely sustained other concussions that were never noticed or considered meaningful — for example, when he was hit in the head with a pitch during a 1933 game against Washington but continued playing — either in baseball or while serving as a halfback for Commerce High School in New York and later Columbia University.
This sure makes helmets look like a brilliant invention.
We’ve been writing a lot lately about the importance of recognizing concussion and allowing athletes–especially young athletes–time to heal. Playing through injury is no longer a sign of strength…now, it’s smarter to value brain over brawn.
