Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Lou Gehrig’s  claim to fame  came on the night of  June 2nd,  1925  when  Miller Huggins benched Walter Clement Pipp due to all things a headache.   While later Wally Pipp was sold to the Cincinnati Reds in 1926,  therefore, playing an additional 372 games before retiring three seasons later.

   Gehrig went onto start in a consecutive game streak of 2130 games, only ending when Lou became stricken by the fatal neuromuscular disease on   May 2nd, 1939.  Then on June 21, 1939 the New York Yankees announced    Lou Gehrig’s retirement, and proclaimed that July 4th, 1939, Lou Gehrig  Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium.          Alzheimers Answers.

   That Day, the Yankees retired  Lou Gehrig’s uniform number “4” and   Gehrig gave his farewell, “The Luckiest Man  On The Face of the Earth”  speech which turned out to be an emotional tear dropper.  Lou died  on         June 2, 1941 at the age of 37 years old. 

   Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis  (A.L.S.)  and for those approximately     30,000 people in the United States (350,000 people worldwide living            with A.L.S. with an average life expectancy of between three and five        years. The cause still remains unclear, although, with no known cure     existing…. I’ll try to determine  a starting point   (maybe stem cell.)

   Lou Gehrig Disease is a dreadful disease of the nerve cells in the               brain and spinal cord that controls voluntary muscle movements.               With approximately fourteen new cases being diagnosed each day  nationwide  with most cases being between the  ages of  40 and  70.                     Video Series????

    Gehrig during his stretch run of 2130 games played consecutively              with several blows taken to his head. Reportly have six concussions              from flagrant bean balls,  one so bad,   his head was swollen and he                 had  to wear Babe Ruth’s ballcap. Lead some experts to believe this               may  have been the cause that superseded his illness.

    Another thing Gehrig always stated was….  what helped him get             through his streak was his cigarettes.  Some suggested that maybe           some of the chemicals in cigarettes damaged the neurons from the          nitric oxide or free radicals generated and other by – products such                    as  formaldehyde that are associated with the disease.   

   One study shows that out of  1,000,000 smokers that 832  of them              came down with  A.L.S.  This may not be startling  when you consider               the percentage, however, when you consider that only 30,000 people             are known to have A.L.S. at any given time. If everybody would smoke               in America that number would balloon to 2.6 million.