Can playing football increase ALS risk? Ex-NFL star, 40, reveals shocking diagnosis
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Former NFL star Chris Johnson has ALS, and it’s already robbed him of his ability to speak.
The ex-Titans and Jets running back made the shock announcement on “Good Morning America” on Monday, employing a speech-generating device that uses his recorded voice to communicate.
“It’s continued to progress much faster than I ever imagined. I want people to understand just how quickly ALS can attack your body,” he said. “Just over a year ago, I was picking up my 7-year-old daughter so she’d make a wish with her birthday cake. Today, I couldn’t do that.”
“There’s no history of ALS in my family,” Johnson added. “My doctors believe my case is what’s called sporadic ALS, which is actually how the vast majority of ALS cases happen.”
“That’s one of the reasons this disease can be so shocking. It can happen to someone who never expected it.”
His news comes just months after beloved “Grey’s Anatomy” star Eric Dane died of ALS on February 19 at the age of 53. Dane had called it a “nasty disease” that caused muscle weakness, fatigue and trouble speaking.
Johnson, who has four children, said the first sign that something was wrong was that his grip strength wasn’t at strong as it used to be. At first, his wife, Brittany, assumed it was a less serious issue related to playing football, like a pinched nerve.
There is some emerging evidence that playing professional football — and traumatic brain injuries — could be a risk factor for ALS, with players in one study being diagnosed at nearly four times the rate of men who didn’t play football.
ALS (short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
Known as Lou Gehrig’s disease in honor of the famed baseball player who died from the condition, ALS affects all genders and races, though it is slightly more common in men than women.
The typical age of diagnosis is between 40 and 70, but it can present earlier.
There are two primary types of ALS: sporadic and familial.
Sporadic ALS is the most common form of the disease, accounting for 90% of all cases. Sporadic ALS occurs randomly without genetic cause or family history.
About 5–10% of ALS cases are familial, meaning that two or more people in a family have ALS. These cases are caused by several inherited factors. The most common is in a gene called SOD1.
Specific risk factors for ALS have not been conclusively identified, but research is exploring the role of genetics and environmental factors on the development of ALS. Studies have suggested that smoking tobacco may heighten a person’s risk for ALS.
People battling the disease typically live between three and five years after diagnosis. However, many patients with ALS far exceed these numbers.
The ALS Association reports that about 10% of people diagnosed with ALS live at least 10 more years, while about 5% live at least 20 years or longer. An outstanding example is physicist Stephen Hawking, who lived with ALS for more than 50 years after his diagnosis.
Dane had not shared when exactly he was diagnosed.
Initially, ALS can present as slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, and/or limb weakness that persists for several days or weeks. ALS does not affect the senses or cognitive function.
For most patients with ALS, the disease will advance over the course of three to five years, hindering the ability to voluntarily move the arms and legs. For others, the decline is more or less accelerated.
The disease ultimately paralyzes the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe. Most ALS patients die from respiratory failure.
Recent research suggests that playing professional football could increase a person’s chances of developing ALS.
A 2021 study looked at 19,423 NFL athletes who played at least one game between 1960 and 2019. By 2021, 38 of them had been diagnosed with ALS, and 28 died from it.
Those rates are nearly four times as high as men who haven’t played in the NFL. The NFL players were also younger upon diagnosis, typically in their mid-30s.
Those who developed ALS also played longer careers.
Though the research didn’t explore why a football career could up someone’s changes of having ALS, the authors suggest that traumatic brain injury might be the link. Lou Gehrig is reported to have had several major concussions during his career.
While there is no specific test to diagnose ALS, providers will often order screenings like a magnetic resonance imaging scan, spinal tap, muscle or nerve biopsy and/or electrodiagnostic tests to rule out other conditions.
There is no known cure for ALS. Treatment consists of managing symptoms and may include physical, occupational, speech, respiratory as well as whirlpool and nutritional therapies.
A ventilator may be used for those who experience impairment of the diaphragm and difficulty breathing.
In the summer of 2014, the “Ice Bucket Challenge” went viral on social media, with countless celebrities filming themselves having a bucket of ice water poured over their heads. The campaign aimed to raise awareness and encourage donations to fund research for treatments.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the medications riluzole, edaravone and sodium phenylbutyrate/taurursodiol for use in improving short-term survival and stalling the physical decline in patients with ALS.
ALS affects an estimated 30,000 Americans.
In addition to Chris Johnson, Eric Dane and Stephen Hawking, other famous people who have suffered from ALS include Aaron Lazar, John Driskell Hopkins, Eric Stevens, Joe Bonsall, Roberta Flack and Kenneth Mitchell.