I found an interesting article on the New York Times’ website yesterday which discusses the similarities between the symptoms of traumatic brain injuries and Lou Gehrig’s disease. A new report due out today states that many athletes and soldiers who were previously diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease may have been misdiagnosed, and in reality probably suffered from concussions and other brain trauma. The paper even goes on to state that Lou Gehrig himself may not have had Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Doctors from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford, MA and the Boston University School of Medicine said that markings in the spinal cords of two players and one boxer who were diagnosed as having Lou Gehrig’s disease indicated that they had a different fatal disease caused by concussion-like trauma which eroded the central nervous system in similar ways.