Elite American footballers more likely to contract MND - Lou Gehrig's disease

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-16 03:00

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Photo by REEL VIVID on Unsplash

Men who played in the NFL in the US over the past 60 years have nearly four times the risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease - a fatal neurodegenerative disorder - than the general population, according to international research. The researchers compared the diagnosis rate within the entire cohort of 19,423 NFL players who played at least one game between 1960 and 2019 with the general population. 38 players received an ALS diagnosis and 28 died during the study period. While the mean duration of an NFL career is 4.5 years, the mean career duration among those with an ALS diagnosis was seven years, suggesting a longer career could increase the risk.

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conference: JAMA Network Open

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Organisation/s: Harvard Medical School, USA

Funder: This work was supported by grants K23NS102399, U01NS086659, U01NS093334, U54NS115266, R01NS078337, R56NS078337, and K23NS102399 from the NINDS; grants P30AG13846, supplement 0572063345, R01AG057902, R01AG061028, K23AG046377, R01AG1649, R01AG062348, R21HD089088, and F32NS096803 from the NIA; grant 1UL1TR001430 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; grants I01 CX001135, CSP 501, B6796-C, and I01-CX001038 from the Department of Veterans Affairs; grants W81XWH-13-2-0095,W81XWH-13-2- 0064,W81XWH1810580, and PRARP-13267017 from the Department of Defense; Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); Fonds de Recherche du Québec– Santé (FRQS); grants NIRG-15-362697 and NIRG-305779 from the Alzheimer’s Association; the Nick and Lynn Buoniconti Foundation; the Concussion Legacy Foundation; the Andlinger Foundation;WorldWrestling Entertainment, Inc; research grants from Amylyx Therapeutics, Revalesio Corporation, UCB/Ra Pharmaceuticals, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, Clene Nanomedicine, Prilenia Therapeutics, Seelos Therapeutics, The ALS Association, the American Academy of Neurology, ALS Finding a Cure, the Salah Foundation, the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association; and personal consulting fees for advisory panels from Orion Corporation (Dr Paganoni).

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