March 6, 2009
Clearing the way for more ALS assistance
"Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
Those were the words of the great baseball player Lou Gehrig heard by thousands of fans in Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. The optimistic tone of Lou Gehrig's words seemed to over shadow the fact that he had contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), later to become known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
ALS causes degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that leads to muscle weakness, muscle atrophy and spontaneous muscle activity. The cause is unknown, and no effective treatment is available.
It has been noted that between 20,000-30,000 people of all races and ethnicities are affected by this disease in the United States.
The Department of Defense, in conjunction with the Veterans Administration, has released a study showing preliminary data which indicates that Persian Gulf War veterans who served in the Gulf area between Aug. 2, 1990, and July 31, 1991, have developed Lou Gehrig's. Forty such cases have been reported. This was twice the number of cases compared to those who did not serve in the Gulf area. The study was conducted with 700,000 service members. Despite the low incidence of ALS in the military the Veterans Administration is concerned.
Because of the seriousness of ALS and it's outcome, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake has announced that ALS will now be a compensable illness for all veterans who served 90 days or more of continuously active service in the military.
Secretary Peake stated, "There simply isn't time to develop the evidence needed to support compensation claims before the veterans become seriously ill. My decision will make those claims much easier to process, and for their families to receive the compensation they have earned through their service to our nation."
According to the latest report, the VA will work to identify and contact veterans with ALS, including those whose claims for ALS were previously denied, either through direct mailings or other outreach programs. It is, therefore suggested that veterans with ALS, and family members, keep abreast of this latest development concerning ALS and contact the VA for further information.
It should be noted that in the report titled "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Veterans" numerous studies on the issue were analyzed and came to the conclusion that ""there is limited and suggestive evidence of an association between military service and later development of ALS."
An interesting note to all this is the Harvard study of 2005 published in Neurology found men with military service in any branch of service in the last century are at nearly 60 percent greater risk of ALS than men who did not serve in the military and is "independent of the branch of service and time period served."
The fascinating thing about the study is there is still no certain knowledge why military service is a factor in ALS. Researchers found in studies of 500,000 service men in the military from 1910-1982 that the risk of ALS was similar for those in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Many questions go unanswered as to why the preponderance of "evidence strongly demonstrates that military service increases a person's risk of ALS." The Institute of Medicine, which advises the government on health issues, has found that "those with no wartime service — not confined to exposures specific to the Gulf War but military service in general" were still at risk of ALS.
It should be mentioned that about two per 100,000 people develop ALS. It is extremely important to note, although some studies indicate a higher risk of ALS for military personnel, all he studies indicate ALS still remains a very rare disease among the veteran and civilian population.
~Best viewed with a positive attitude~