Posted on 03/01/2005 3:54:30 PM PST by neverdem
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Very interesting.
Maybe something to do with headbutting the ball half a million times. Nah!
i had a cousin die of this disease a few years back. it is the absolute worse disease you can possible get. the pain and suffering i saw him go through was something i wont forget. i pray that any research may help lead to a cure someday.
Unless they find similar results among other nations' soccer players, this looks like a simple coincidence.
Thought you'd want to see this.
Interesting. Thankfully I'm not an Italian playing at the pro level :).
Ummm....24,000 players studied, 12 times higher?
Any statisticians out there?
Until a few years ago Americans were smarter than europeons, perhaps because the young boys brains weren't bruised from soccer and ritalin.
My understanding (which could certainly be wrong) is that ALS isn’t so much a disease as it is a category of diseases.
That’s pretty much what the doctors that treated my dad said. They were in Houston and claimed to be pretty close to the bleeding-edge when it came to diagnosing/treating such things.
They (~1996) performed various muscle biopsies and other tests and systematically ruled out A, ruled out B, ruled out C – finally at the end, having ruled out everything else, you are diagnosed with ALS. If you come in with certain complaints/symptoms and they cannot definitively diagnose you with something else, you will be diagnosed with ALS by default, IOW. That’s how I understand it.
I think that’s true because while he had symptoms associated with “typical” ALS, he also had several other “weird things” going on that I noticed that were *not* typical regarding what you’re told to expect regarding ALS. Then again, at various times they had him on medicine (experimental and otherwise) that could have contributed to the “weirdness.”
I agree.
Soms strides have been made in recent years in the treatment of neuro-muscular diseases...but ALS is really eluding researchers.
No one in our family ever had A.L.S. I have played and coached for 50 years. Now 65, I am getting a touch of it. Leads me to believe the headers did have something to do with it.
Statistically significant, to say the least. Assuming, of course, that the methodology is as sound as claimed.... I was rather surprised to see Dr. Chiò actually defending the methodology, as if he expected to be attacked on that front.
You can bet money that someone will be trying to replicate the results in other counties and in other contact sports.
I'm sorry to read about your dad. My friend was recently diagnosed with it.
Nothing personal, but I can tell you right now in front of the world, YOU STINK as a soccer player. Your not even playing soccer. It is something in your mind.
You have no clue what soccer is.
It says 7000 players, with 18 cases of the disease.
I played soccer all my life, including as an adult for over 10 years at a high competitive level, approximately 30 matches a year, practices, etc.
I always felt, the day after a match, like I had been beaten with a stick over every square inch of my body.
There are special muscles used in soccer (interior of thighs, adductors/abductors) that aren't used to any similar degree in other sports, at least sports I've played.
Anyone who'se played knows the physical difference between endurance training by running, versus a real soccer workout. The former can never fully prepare you for the latter -- only by playing soccer can you build up those muscles.
Just some thoughts....
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