Via Scoop.it – ALS Lou Gehrig’s Disease
It’s no cup of tea.”Those are the words of former University of Alabama, New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles fullback Kevin Turner, describing his current health at age 42. Turner was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, before his 41st birthday. While Turner has an official diagnosis of ALS, he believes he may have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease that is caused by repeated trauma to the brain over a period of time. According to a New York Times article, 12 former NFL players’ autopsies revealed CTE, but two of them had been originally diagnosed with ALS while they were alive. Former USC and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Eric Scoggins was diagnosed with ALS, but when doctors did a post-mortem exam, they discovered high levels of two proteins that cause motor-neuron degeneration and are associated with CTE. “CTE is caused by repetitive hits to the head which releases a tau protein that begins to slowly kill off brain cells. In people who were diagnosed with ALS, when you look at their brains, you don’t see this tau protein,” Turner says. “With people like Eric Scoggins — who had ALS and also played football — their brains and spinal cords had tau proteins.”
Via msn.foxsports.com
11 Feb
ALS Research News 