What happened before the ALS diagnosis

[Malek]

Hi, for start I'm sorry for my bad english. I writing for my sick brother and want to know what can cause ALS.

I would like to know if there is any research of how people lived and what kind of medication they took before getting the symtoms and later ALS diagnosis.

Short history of my little brother 40 years old was he was very active person. He believed he had ADHD and started getting medication for that.
The medication was. Ritalin, Strattera and Concerta, he didn't feelt very bad from time to time under the medication. One year later he got diagnosis ALS.

I would like to know how you or your loved onces lived and if you newly started getting medication for something. I wand to put together the answers and maybe can see a red thread between type of living, medication and ALS.

 

[Nikki J]

This is a very common question among people who are recently diagnosed. The truth of the matter is except for people with FALS there are not good answers.

You will probably find somewhere a person who took the same meds as your brother and got ALS. But there will be many people who took none of them and got ALS and even more who took them and did not.

Researchers ARE trying to figure out triggers. We know the military service about doubles the risk. Soccer and American football players seem to be at increased risk too. Cigarette smoking correlates with a higher risk. Population studies show a decreased incidence with a high vitamin e intake. The same thing with a blood pressure drug called lisinopril

It is a complicated issue and the prevailing theory is that people with SALS ( random not familial ALS) probably combine a slight genetic weakness with a series of mostly unknown triggers.

There is a paper that used a complicated statistical anslysis that theorizes there are 5 steps ( triggers) to develp SALS. Various forms of FALS need fewer. SOD1 for example needs 2 steps and virtually everyone with that mutation gets ALS. That suggests a couple of triggers are very common events that everyone experiences

 

[Narrowminded]

Nikki gives you very good information.

My husband had none of the risk factors mentioned by either of you. Not sure why he got it, but he did.

Hugs to you and you and your brother work through his illness together.

 

[KimT]

There has been some investigation looking for cluster areas. I was born in raised in a cluster area where a much larger segment of the population had/has ALS. Even a husband and wife had it. They think blue/green algae from the lake might have been a contributing factor.

I've had more than one head trauma and I suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2013 which I believe triggered it for me. Shortly after the TBI my metabolism went into overdrive. Then six months later I had my first symptom.

Other than that I was raised by two parents who smoked constantly so I was exposed to second hand smoke all my childhood life. I never smoked but I sure inhaled lots of it.

I also lived on a golf course in Florida for nearly 30 years. There were many toxic chemicals used in or near my yard.

Lots of theories. Not many concrete answers, unfortunately.

 

[Malek]

Hi, thanks for your reply and your kind words. It's hard to just accept it and not try to search for the root of the illness. My brother took Ritalin, Strattera and Concerta shorty before he got sick and a year later it was clear that he was sick in ALS.