Former French Tennis Professional has ALS

[mrd1956]

I just read today on the Sports Illustrated website, that former tennis professional, Jerome Golmard was diagnosed with ALS this past January. He was ranked as high as 22 in the world, so he obviously had prowess. This story really hit home, because prior to my own diagnosis of MND in 2010, I had been an accomplished player for 40 years; though not by any means on his level, nonetheless a "semi-professional". What really caught my eye however, was that Jerome labelled a dental surgery the past September as being the instigator of his condition. I find it fascinating that a patient might not only be able to ascertain the culprit, but also the timing of the disease. What do you folks think?

Keep the Faith

Mr. D 1956

 

[Barbie]

I believe that there are other pals who notice an onset of symptoms after surgery or some trauma. That makes sense to me, but certainly not the surgery "causing" ALS...it was there and simply the surgery caused enough stress to the nervous system to lmake the pals become symptomatic.

 

[bluedog]

I think that you may be missing the obvious here. The real culprit most likely is Jerome's 40 year history of excessive exercise, just like your history.

Men have a 1 in 350 lifetime chance of getting ALS, and women a 1 in 450 chance. High school varsity athletes have a 1.7 higher risk than normal.

So I can only imagine what the risk is for someone with a history of lifelong excessive exercise. I bet it is less than 1 in 10.

According to Gallop, only 14% of people age 18 to 29 exercise regularly. That's compared to almost 100% of the people on this board prior to diagnosis with sporadic ALS. I would think that the percentage of people exercising heavily into their 30s, 40s, and 50s is less than 1%. Again, compared to almost 100% on this board who exercised heavily at least into their 30s.

MAny people don't seem to want to recognize the ALS/exercise connection for some reason. Even when it is so blatantly obvious. Maybe because exercise has such health benefits otherwise. But since there is no treatment for ALS, prevention is the only game in town. People need to stop exercising. There are other causes of ALS, but at least the exercise one can be prevented.

 

[kingsaustin]

Interestingly enough, my husband had surgery due to a tear in his rotator cuff September 2010 and was diagnosed with ALS January 2011. He is confined to a wheelchair, albeit doing okay all things considered. I also had an Aunt (no blood relation to either my husband or myself). She was married to my mom's brother (my blood related uncle). She had surgery on her foot and was diagnosed within months of that surgery and passed at two years of being diagnosed.

 

[MaxEidswick]

>and passed at two years of being diagnosed

Hope I make that long, but doubtful :-(

 

[mrd1956]

I believe that there are other pals who notice an onset of symptoms after surgery or some trauma. That makes sense to me, but certainly not the surgery "causing" ALS...it was there and simply the surgery caused enough stress to the nervous system to lmake the pals become symptomatic.

That makes sense Barbie. Thanks.

 

[mrd1956]

>and passed at two years of being diagnosed

Hope I make that long, but doubtful :-(

I'm praying for you Max. Obviously you have been very diligent in your researching. I'm betting on you. Keep the faith.

 

[MaxEidswick]

>I'm praying for you Max. Obviously you have been very diligent in your researching. I'm betting on you. Keep the faith.

Thanks, Don -- Ups &* Downs, I posted that on a really bad swallowing day. Sorry.

 

[mrd1956]

I think that you may be missing the obvious here. The real culprit most likely is Jerome's 40 year history of excessive exercise, just like your history.

Men have a 1 in 350 lifetime chance of getting ALS, and women a 1 in 450 chance. High school varsity athletes have a 1.7 higher risk than normal.

So I can only imagine what the risk is for someone with a history of lifelong excessive exercise. I bet it is less than 1 in 10.

According to Gallop, only 14% of people age 18 to 29 exercise regularly. That's compared to almost 100% of the people on this board prior to diagnosis with sporadic ALS. I would think that the percentage of people exercising heavily into their 30s, 40s, and 50s is less than 1%. Again, compared to almost 100% on this board who exercised heavily at least into their 30s.

MAny people don't seem to want to recognize the ALS/exercise connection for some reason. Even when it is so blatantly obvious. Maybe because exercise has such health benefits otherwise. But since there is no treatment for ALS, prevention is the only game in town. People need to stop exercising. There are other causes of ALS, but at least the exercise one can be prevented.

You have some interesting thoughts Bluedog, although I don't know if it is necessarily as obvious as you indicate. If exercise was the only culprit, I think we would see many more MND cases. If anything, my neurologist recommends regular exercise, albeit not overly strenuous, and if I go several days without it, I really notice a negative difference. The numbers are legion here in the San Diego area of people who have exercised as long and as hard as I did. The number of them that I know with ALS is negligible.

What I wonder about are vaccinations. Why is the military so disproportionately susceptible to this dreadful disease? Could it be that it is among the most heavily vaccinated? I was stuck like a pin cushion prior to a trip to Africa in 2006 and a trip to Peru in 2008 . The timing of these events has caused me to wonder if this has been the underlying cause in my case. I think it is worthy of discussion.

 

[mrd1956]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. obviously we all have to watch our funds to help with our own health problems, but if anyone wants to donate to Jerome Golmard, there is a link on Google.

 

[MaxEidswick]

>The timing of these events has caused me to wonder if this has been the underlying cause in my case. I think it is worthy of discussion.

me, too – – Although I don't remember that many vaccinations in the military.I think the military's explanation for the 2x incidence of ALS is stress. Not that I necessarily believe that . Of course we had agent orange but I'm not sure my exposure was anything like the guys on the ground.

I do see recurring suggestions that there may be some kind of a trigger or event that starts the ALS progression. In my case, we think my onset was in September 2010 and I cannot think of any significant "triggering event".

Don I do think this is a subject worthy of discussion. Also there was a recent wink on the so-called discovery of the cause of ALS. I think I send it to my Facebook wall, so I'll see if it's there and post it in a new thread titled "causes of ALS?" Or something like it.

 

[dalvin]

I think it may be a combination of various factors that vets have been exposed to. Vaccinations, chemicals, some of the metals used in armaments, etc. it may be that it's not just one item but the combination of all these. I know I tried to give blood a few years ago and they had me fill out a questionnaire, one of the questions was had I been overseas to Europe in the eighties. When I said yes, they refused to take my blood, said I had been exposed to something adverse but either wouldn't or couldn't say what it was. Still don't know the reason, but I'm sure we were all exposed to things in the military that we were never told about

 

[MaxEidswick]

>one of the questions was had I been overseas to Europe in the eighties. When I said yes, they refused to take my blood

That creepy. I lived in Europe in the 80s… I wonder what that's all about.

The HP blood drive rejected me because I have ALS .

 

[hjlindley]

I have always thought that lifelong athleticism had a role. Between the ages of six and 15 I swim 3 to 5 miles a day hoping to make the Olympics. Unfortunately my female figure filled out and my swimming time dropped. But my athleticism never did. When I was diagnosed I was teaching 2 weightlifting classes And three challenge water aerobics classes.I actually think they're about 16 risk factors. Athleticism was one of them. There are whole bunch of us that are of Celtic extraction. Certainly environmental toxins, I have always wondered if my 55 years and chlorine editing to do with it, and I worked in the manufacturing industry with degreaser's,Foundries, chrome plating, and heaven knows what else.

 

[bluedog]

dalvin, the reason they were refusing blood from people who were in Europe during the 80s was due to possible exposure to mad cow tainted meat.

The military connection is multifold, with causes including stress, strenuous activity, vaccinations, bacteria in the desert sand, and high aspartame consumption from diet soda and chewing gum.

Just like not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, not everyone with a lifelong history of vigorous exercise gets ALS. But it seems that the people on this board and elsewhere with sporadic ALS had a predisposition or perhaps a viral insult that, coupled with exercise, led to ALS. Dr. Weil thinks that in the cluster of ultra marathoners in AZ who got ALS, the reason was the oxidative stress/free radicals that attacked the nerves. I think the answer for exercise caused ALS is something along those lines.

One study showed that exercise doesn't cause ALS but brings the onset on 7 years earlier. I read the study, and I think that the conclusion is incorrect, and that it showed that exercise caused ALS.

As with cancer, it appears that there are many causes of ALS, but I think that it is clear that exercise and head trauma through soccer, football, and other sports are clear causes.