Contagious Patterns in ALS?

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KenG

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I'm wondering if anyone else has seen cases of ALS that show characteristics of a contagious disease. I know every scientific source I have read lists ALS as absolutely not contagious, but I have also come across a couple cases in my area where BOTH PARENTS of a child has been diagnosed with ALS. If this is by coincidence alone, the odds are much less than 1 in a million, I believe. This cannot be explained by FALS since the two are unrelated.

I'm not trying to spread false information or anything. Don't panic or spread rumors due to this post; I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this and what they're thoughts are. My Dad was recently diagnosed with ALS, though, and it would definitely be unfortunate if contagious components of the disease were found.
 
I read responses from a similar thread and they were mostly like "DUH, it's not contagious!" I am aware that it is universally accepted as not being contagious, but some cases of it are very strange. I suppose it could be the result of worrying yourself into disease symptoms?
 
I would agree with the DUH, but contagion is not the only vector...

My first thought would be to check if the parents were both raised near blue-green algae locations.
 
Conjugal als is known but is very rare. I don't think anyone knows but one certainly would wonder about an environmental trigger. There is so much we don't know. Also consider that ALS does not have many patients alive at one time because we die fast but you are almost as likely to get als in your lifetime as ms
 
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If it was contagious it would be far more obvious.

I agree it's strange that you have 'come across' a 'couple' of cases where 2 partners had ALS.

In all the combinations of the unlikelihood of any individual having ALS, there would have to be some instances where the double incidence happens, even though it is extremely unlikely.

If it was contagious we would see this happening around the world, and would see thing like in-laws being diagnosed (in other words family members by marriage rather than blood), step children not related etc
 
Contagious? God, I hope that rumor doesn't start floating around. We would really get a bunch of people in a sheer panic.
 
Contagious? God, I hope that rumor doesn't start floating around. We would really get a bunch of people in a sheer panic.

Or a lot more money as people would suddenly be afraid they'd get it before a cure is found
 
Or PALS would be the modern day lepers
 
I'm not smart. I admit it. But if they don't know what causes it..and they know veterans get it more..and the think heavy metals could be something..there's clusters in certain places.. .I dunno. Perhaps it's environmental, truly? Hayden was born in Trinidad. Worked in a steel mill for many years. No war service. Our town is pretty small..and I know a dozen ppl now with it including relatives of 2 co-workers. Seems odd..
 
Trolling?....."come across"
 
any clusters in PETA people?
 
If it was a simple, single cause, they would have found it by now.

Chris did work painting houses and commercial buildings for some years, otherwise he ran cafes for more years than he painted for. Could have been exposure to some chemicals/heavy metals as a painter, but what and how much we have no way of now knowing. No war service. Spent much of his time living very simply on acreage properties.

He had never really been sick in his life, didn't even know what blood group he was because no one had ever stuck a needle in him to take blood for any reason.

There are quite a lot of people in our area, we feel, with ALS, but my Chris was born in Melbourne, and many people who live in this area came in from places all over Australia or the world, real 'locals' that were born here are less common than us invaders. (I've only lived in this area for around 31 years, so not quite a 'local' yet hehe thats a common joke here)
 
I don't really know the point of this thread now that I think about it, since ALS is universally accepted as non contagious. I suppose it at least points to the multiple factors in ALS pathogenesis. If I were to guess; ALS is not a distinct disease but rather the result of a mixture of factors that lead to an uncontrollable chain reaction in the body. When neurons begin to die, like many other cells, they essentially explode and release signals that cause the surrounding cells to do the same. Just need to figure out how to control this chain reaction.
 
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