What Causes And Increases The Risk Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?

Exposure To Environmental Risk Factors

Scientists have discovered there might be links between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and the exposure to environmental risk factors. For example, one study conducted on military personnel stationed in the Gulf during the Gulf War were more likely to develop ALS than their peers deployed elsewhere. Military personnel run the risk of environmental exposure with regards to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, as do those who have encountered high levels of heavy metals, exercise, agricultural chemicals like pesticides, and who have experienced electrical or mechanical trauma. Many of these risk factors are still not yet well understood, but there is certainly reason to further investigate the role of oxidative stress as a pathway for environmental factors to impact ALS.

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Physical Trauma

Recent research has investigated whether physical trauma could contribute to an individual’s development of this condition. A 2019 study conducted in an animal model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis demonstrated the onset and spread of the disease can be triggered by a single injury to a peripheral nerve in an arm or leg. This occurred even when the nerve injury was small and only caused temporary, mild weakness. Scientists believe the nerve injury produces significant inflammation within the spine, and this triggers the disease onset and progression in genetically predisposed individuals. An earlier population-based study from 2016 examined Danish national registries to look for a possible link between trauma and this disease. The authors of the study observed that experiencing a first physical trauma (one severe enough to require hospitalization) prior to age fifty-five increased an individual’s chances of contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; however, patients who experienced the first trauma after age fifty-five did not have an elevated incidence of this condition. In addition, a small 2010 study of twelve professional boxers and football players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) noted the repeated head trauma that causes CTE was associated with increases in the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Three of the twelve subjects in the study eventually developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

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