Smoking Linked to Lou Gehrig's Disease

(Ivanhoe Newswire) –Smoking may now be considered an "established" risk factor for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) -- Lou Gehrig's disease.

ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor nerves and the voluntary muscles. "Studies show consistently that smoking increases the risk of developing ALS, with some findings suggesting that smoking may be implicated directly in causing the disease," Dr. Carmel Armon, professor of neurology at Tufts University School of Medicine and chief of neurology at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, was quoted as saying.

According to Dr. Armon, identifying smoking as an established risk factor for ALS has three implications. "First and foremost the findings provide a link between the environment and the occurrence of ALS, where none had been previously identified with this level of certainty."

"Additional implications are that since smoking has no redeeming features, avoidance of smoking may reduce the occurrence of ALS in the future, and since some of the mechanisms by which smoking causes other diseases in humans are understood fairly well, recognizing its role in the occurrence of ALS may help pinpoint the biological processes that initiate the disease," added Armon, who noted that focusing on processes at initiation of sporadic ALS may provide new avenues to treatment to stop its progression.

"This has been realized in some animal models of familial ALS, but not in humans. The hope that these concepts may apply to sporadic disease and change its outlook in the future is supported by establishing the association of smoking with ALS occurrence," concluded Armon.

Half of those affected with ALS lose their lives of within three years of onset. Fewer than 5 percent survive more than 10 years. Some 90-95 percent of cases appear to occur at random, while 5 to 10 percent of cases have an affected blood relative. One or more altered genes, several of which have been identified, are implicated in familial ALS. Prior to this report, no external factors were implicated in the occurrence of sporadic ALS.

SOURCE: Neurology, November 17, 2009

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