A new study indicates that men who take part in hobbies like golf, gardening, and woodwork are at a higher risk of developing a progressive, incurable neurological disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The results add to a growing link between this disease and exposure to toxins in the environment.
ALS is a fatal neurological disease characterised by progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. The disease, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease (named after the baseball player who died from it), does not impact a person’s mental functions or their senses (their ability to see or hear), and is not contagious.
As a person’s motor neurons degenerate and die, they stop sending messages to the muscles, leading to weakness, twitches (fasciculations), and atrophy (where the muscles waste away). Eventually, a patient living with this disease will lose the ability to walk, talk, chew, and perform other vital functions, such as breathing. This occurs when the brain loses its ability to control voluntary movement.
At present, the exact causes for the disease are still unclear; previous research has suggested an increasing link to both genetic susceptibility and the exposure to certain contaminants, such as pesticides and heavy metals.
Now, research from the University of Michigan has shown a disturbing link between recreational activities, such as golf, gardening, and woodwork, and an increased risk of men developing the disease.
“We know that occupational risk factors, like working in manufacturing and trade industries, are linked to an increased risk for ALS, and this adds to a growing literature that recreational activities may also represent important and possibly modifiable risk factors for this disease,” Dr Stephen Goutman, lead and co-corresponding author of the study, said in a statement.
During their research, Goutman and colleagues surveyed 400 people living with ALS (recruited from a University of Michigan clinic) and 287 without the disease and asked them to fill out a self-report concerning their hobbies and forms of exercise. The data were then stratified by sex.
The results were worrying. They found that men who spent time swimming, playing golf, carrying out woodwork or metal work, hunting and shooting, and gardening were all at increased risk of developing ALS. Golf appeared to be the most concerning hobby, leading to a three times higher risk of developing the disease.
“This analysis reveals several important avocational exposures and activities that influence ALS risk and phenotype”, the authors write. “Further, certain risks are specific to sex, suggesting that the factors influencing ALS may differ between males and females, necessitating additional investigation.”
This outcome is particularly curious. There were no significant indicators that these activities were linked to an increased risk for female participants.
“It is surprising that the risk factors we identified appear to be specific to males,” Goutman said.
“While these activities may also increase ALS risk in females, the number of females in our study was too small for us to come to that conclusion.”
Despite these results, none of the hobbies assessed were linked to earlier onset of, or death from, ALS in either sex.
So, what’s going on here? Well, Goutman and his team believe these results add to the growing body of evidence linking environmental exposure with the rise of ALS. The researchers call this lifetime accumulation of exposure “the ALS exposome.”
For instance, golfers and gardeners may be exposed to pesticides as they move around the course or tend to their yards; woodworkers may be exposed to formaldehyde and other organic solvents that are present in resins or wood treatments.
“Our goal is to understand what occupations and hobbies increase ALS risk because identifying these activities provides the first step towards ALS prevention,” senior author Dr Eva Feldman, director of the ALS Center of Excellence at the University of Michigan, added.
“For a disease like Alzheimer’s, we know that a list of factors – including smoking, obesity and high lipids – can increase risk by 40 percent. Our goal is to establish a similar list for ALS to create a roadmap to decrease risk. With apologies to Robert Frost, it is currently the ‘road not taken’, and we want to change that.”
It should be stressed that the situation is still too early for doctors to advise their patients to give up any of these activities. More research is needed first, and prospective studies are underway to explore people who work with or in the production and manufacturing of metals. They are also seeking to assess family histories of ALS patents.
The study is published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
Source Link: Golfing And Gardening May Put Men At Up To 3 Times More Risk Of Motor Neuron Disease