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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Veterans Review of the Scientific Literature (2006) / Chapter Skim
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A Examples of Risk Factors Possibly Relevant to Military Service
Pages 43-52

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From page 43...
... There was a weak and imprecisely estimated increase in risk among positive respondents to "engaged in sports as adult" (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 0.8-2.1) and "ever extreme physical activity" (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 0.6-2.3)
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From page 44...
... . CIGARETTE-SMOKING AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION A case-control study of 110 newly diagnosed ALS patients from two centers in New England and 210 population-based controls examined demographic characteristics, family history of ALS, and histories of smoking and alcohol consumption (Kamel et al.
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From page 45...
... Given the number of hypotheses examined and the scarcity of some of the data, the authors themselves considered the study to be a "fishing expedition." Nevertheless, the findings were intriguing and have led others to study the question of trauma and, in particular, fractures, in the etiology of ALS. A population-based case-control study of 103 patients in the Scottish Motor Neuron Disease Registry reported similar
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From page 46...
... Nicolson and colleagues (2002) , studying eight Gulf War veterans with ALS and two comparison populations, reported that the Gulf War veterans all had serologic evidence of systemic myocoplasmal infection, as did the majority of nonveteran ALS patients.
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From page 47...
... For these reasons, the data presented do not clearly support a relationship between mycoplasmal infection in Gulf War veterans and ALS. LEAD In a case-control study conducted in New England, 109 newly diagnosed ALS patients from two centers (the Neuromuscular Research Unit at New England Medical Center and the Neurophysiology Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital)
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From page 48...
... and exposure to low concentrations of calcium and magnesium in the local environment. Recent evidence indicates that a substituted amino acid, BMAA, produced by cyanobacteria and bioconcentrated through fruit bats, may be responsible for the ALS-parkinsonismdementia complex of Guam (Banack and Cox 2003; Banack et al.
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From page 49...
... :13380-13383. Cox PA, Banack SA, Murch SJ, Rasmussen U, Tien G, Bidigare RR, Metcalf JS, Morrison LF, Codd GA, Bergman B
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From page 50...
... :12228-12231. Murch SJ, Cox PA, Banack SA, Steele JC, Sacks OW.
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From page 51...
... 2002. High frequency of systemic mycoplasmal infections in Gulf War veterans and civilians with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
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Key Terms

  • lateral sclerosis
  • physical activity
  • als patients
  • washington state
  • war veterans

  • gulf war
  • imprecisely estimated
  • motor neuron
  • risk factors
  • increased risk

  • study conducted
  • estimated increase
  • lead exposure
  • sporadic amyotrophic
  • als risk

  • diagnosed als
  • risk associated
  • family history
  • neuron disease
  • myocoplasmal infection

  • scottish motor
  • military service
  • newly diagnosed
  • netherlands reported
  • occupational exposures

  • cigarette smoking
  • professional football
  • population controls
  • alcohol consumption
  • western washington


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