Are Algae Blooms Linked to Lou Gehrig's Disease?

[undeterred]

Medical researchers are now uncovering clues that appear to link some cases of ALS to people’s proximity to lakes and coastal waters

December 11, 2014 |By Lindsey Konkel and Environmental Health News

For 28 years, Bill Gilmore lived in a New Hampshire beach town, where he surfed and kayaked. “I’ve been in water my whole life,” he said. “Before the ocean, it was lakes. I’ve been a water rat since I was four.” Now Gilmore can no longer swim, fish or surf, let alone button a shirt or lift a fork to his mouth. Earlier this year, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

In New England, medical researchers are now uncovering clues that appear to link some cases of the lethal neurological disease to people’s proximity to lakes and coastal waters. About five years ago, doctors at a New Hampshire hospital noticed a pattern in their ALS patients—many of them, like Gilmore, lived near water. Since then, researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center have identified several ALS hot spots in lake and coastal communities in New England, and they suspect that toxic blooms of blue-green algae—which are becoming more common worldwide—may play a role. Now scientists are investigating whether breathing a neurotoxin produced by the algae may raise the risk of the disease. They have a long way to go, however: While the toxin does seem to kill nerve cells, no research, even in animals, has confirmed the link to ALS.

No known cause
As with all ALS patients, no one knows what caused Bill Gilmore’s disease. He was a big, strong guy—a carpenter by profession. One morning in 2011, his arms felt weak. “I couldn’t pick up my tools. I thought I had injured myself,” said Gilmore, 59, who lived half his life in Hampton and now lives in Rochester, N.H. Three years and many doctors’ appointments later, Gilmore received the news in June that the progressive weakening in his limbs was caused by ALS. Neither Hampton nor Rochester is considered a hot spot for ALS. Gilmore is one of roughly 5,600 people in the United States diagnosed each year with the disease. The average patient lives two to five years from the time of diagnosis.

There is no cure, and for the majority of patients, no known cause. For 90 to 95 percent of people with ALS, there’s no known genetic mutation. Researchers assume that some unknown interaction between genes and the environment is responsible. In recent years, some of this research has focused on blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria. “There’s a growing awareness of the importance of gene/environment interactions with neurodegenerative diseases. There is more interest in examining environmental exposures, including exposures to cyanobacteria, as possible risk factors for sporadic ALS,” said Paul Alan Cox, director of the nonprofit Institute of Ethnomedicine in Wyoming, which focuses on treatments for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Read more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-algae-blooms-linked-to-lou-gehrig-s-disease/?

Earlier this year, the researchers reported that poorer lake water quality increased the odds of living in a hot spot. Most strikingly, they discovered that living within 18 miles of a lake with high levels of dissolved nitrogen—a pollutant from fertilizer and sewage that feeds algae and cyanobacteria blooms—raised the odds of belonging to an ALS hot spot by 167 percent.

[Marie Marie]

1. Interesting.

[KT2000]

2. Gulf War veterans

also had young healthy men who developed ALS upon return.

[lostnfound]

4. Apparently there's a possible Cyanobacteria link there, too

http://www.pubfacts.com/detail/19929742/Cyanobacteria-and-BMAA-exposure-from-desert-dust:-a-possible-link-to-sporadic-ALS-among-Gulf-War-vet

Mats in the desert that bloom in the spring, particularly in Qatar

[KT2000]

5. thanks for this -

very interesting. Maybe they really are getting closer - let's hope.

[appalachiablue]

3. Thanks this is interesting.