Did Lou Gehrig Have ALS?

There’s an interesting article at Skeptical Inquirer by Harriet Hall suggesting that Lou Gehrig was misdiagnosed. He didn’t have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis but chronic traumatic encephalopathy (repeated head trauma):

In 2010, McKee et al. published a study suggesting that repetitive head trauma in collision sports might be associated with the development of a motor neuron disease. It was based on autopsy findings of abnormal proteins in the brains of three athletes. McKee herself stressed that the findings were preliminary, but the study prompted many to question whether Lou Gehrig was correctly diagnosed with ALS or actually had CTE as a result of his many concussions.

There were many reports in major media to the effect that “maybe Lou Gehrig didn’t die of Lou Gehrig’s disease.” Dr. Stanley Appel, chairman of neurology and director of the Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston argued against that claim. He said there is a lack of scientific evidence to support that brain trauma can mimic Lou Gehrig’s disease and called the claim a disservice to Gehrig and others living with ALS. Alan Schwarz, the New York Times reporter who covered McKee’s study, said the controversy was overblown: “What both sides appear to attest—that ALS is a clinical diagnosis which Lou Gehrig had, and that some patients diagnosed with ALS have a form of it caused by brain trauma that can have an additional name but remain under the ALS motor-neuron-disease umbrella—can in fact coexist rather comfortably until everything is sorted out.”