Interesting report

Link.

• “You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig dies of Lou Gehrig’s disease?” - Christopher (“Members Only,” Episode 66).
• "You gonna tell that same stupid joke every time?"- Tony, in response to Chris' Lou Gehrig crack (“Members Only”, Episode 66).

Maybe not.

New scientific research indicates legendary Yankee slugger Lou Gehrig may not have died from the disease that bears his name, the New York Times reports. Instead, Gehrig — and some others diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — may have suffered from a different fatal disease catalyzed by concussion like trauma to the brain, according to a peer-reviewed paper to be published Wednesday in a leading neuropathology journal.

Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., and the Boston University School of Medicine, discovered that markings in the spinal cords of two deceased NFL players and a boxer who had been diagnosed with A.L.S. did not have the disease.

“Most A.L.S. patients don’t go to autopsy — there’s no need to look at your brain and spinal cord,” Dr. Brian Crum, an assistant professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic, told the Times. “But a disease can look like A.L.S., it can look like Alzheimer’s, and it’s not when you look at the actual tissue. This is something that needs to be paid attention to.”

The paper does not talk about Gehrig's case specifically, but the authors told the Times their results open up the strong possibility that Lou Gehrig's disease is a misnomer.