On last nights episode there was a story about how concussions and brain damage can lead to the deadly disease ALS which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. A number of football players and boxers have fallen victim to this disease at an early age after retirement (an early age is in their 40's or 50's). This is not just a factor when it comes to American Football, many soccer players have fallen victim to the same disease in Europe. Again, I am not a physician so I will not do this justice but here is what I learned last night. We now know that multiple concussions or head collisions can cause long term brain damage. In some people with that brain damage, a protein from thier brain can leak directly into their spinal cord which causes ALS.
This is a break through in the medical community, which will be released today. One of your questions, might be: Lou Gehrig played baseball and why would this effect soccer players? Real Sports thought the same thing about Lou and researched that in his career he had 6 very serious head injuries playing baseball that knocked him out completely. What was really sad regarding Lou was he never rested after those injuries(we all know about his legendary playing streak). During one game after he suffered one of those head injuries, his head was so swollen he had to wear Babe Ruth's hat. Soccer players use their head to advance the ball or to try to score a goal. Those impacts could be on a ball that is traveling 60 miles per hour.
What can we learn from this finding?
1) Not everyone that gets concussions will get ALS.
2) If you do get a concussion, you need to get the proper rest not only physically but mentally as well.
This is important research on the long term effects of concussions, please be careful if someone you love suffers one.
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