Money in the bank

[Katie C]

Re: physical stress. I was reading somewhere (should have bookmarked it, will try to find it again) conjecture that extreme physical activity such as found in athletes may have some connection. Found it interesting because my husband completed 18 marathons between his late 20's and early 50's.

 

[Gran123]

In terms of possible common denominators, I've read/heard about folk who have experienced extreme emotional/physical stress; arm forces personnel, physicians, psychologists/counselors/social workers, frequent airline passengers... Anyone else come across this info.?

U.S. Veterans; people with previous traumatic injury; residents of Guam (for a particular period of time); those with mercury or other chemical exposure; workaholics; very nice people; predominantly caucasians; those with a family history of neurological disease...

Slow progress, fast progress; gone in 7 weeks, survivor Stephen Hawking (4 decades and counting); legs onset, hands onset, bulbar onset; great variability in symptoms...

I can't find the YouTube I'm thinking of, but if I recall correctly, it is a speaker from California, a medical professional, linked to the ALS Society or a clinic there perhaps, who says she believes that ALS is actually a set of about 15 related diseases. I misremember the speaker, but her words certainly struck a chord with me.

We've come a long way, and have a long way to go.

 

[MtPockets]

My own case may have started with head injury

Twice in my life I have had Head trauma. The one that retired me on disability was an airplane accident where I hit my head so hard I was knocked out.
Then there is family history that may play into it. My dad went into Nagasaki after they dropped the atom bomb and collected souvenirs. Months later they found out they all were exposed to high levels of radiation. Our family joke for years has been that we have Nagasaki in our Jeans.
Then there were all those crazy shots the military gave us during the Vietnam war. Who knows, maybe it was a combination of all of them.
I just hope and pray they find a cure.

 

[t34gib]

Maybe something in Viet Nam. Agent Orange? My husband was in Nam and later developed Goodpastures syndrome which attacked his lungs and kidneys as though they were foreign objects. He was on dialysis and very reduced lung capacity. He died at the age of 45 and they said that it was probably from exposure to Agent orange in Nam. So who knows it could be anything. Also, I was exposed to a flood and later we found out that the flood waters were contaminated from a industrial park near by and we had to destroy anything in the garden etc. i dug in that dirt every year for 15 years. So maybe exposure? Who knows. I think we need an indepth registry.
NancyS

 

[Blackpool]

I did have lots of stress in the year previous to my diagnosed, and the truth be known 15yrs of emotional stress prior.

 

[rose]

There is a doctor (google will probably turn up his name) who holds the stress hypothesis. Part of it having to do with how PALS generally process stress within themselves. It had to do with how typically many PALS are always "so nice" & that oftentimes if a clinic sees a PALS that is a jerk, they will comment privately that that person couldn't really have ALS because they aren't nice enough.

I went through an extended period of extreme emotional stress, involving a stalker, home invasion (by said stalker) etc. Personally I feel this really could be what triggered it for me, but only because of a perfect storm type scenario, in that I still had other predisposing factors too.