(CNN) – There’s something about military life that is putting our nation’s vets in harm’s way, and it’s not the usual suspects.
It’s not a military action or terrorist threat, but a horrifying disease that weakens muscles to the point of paralysis, ultimately trapping people inside their bodies, completely aware, yet unable to move or even breathe without help.
It’s Lou Gehrig’s disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and studies show that if you’ve served in the military — any branch, any war, or even if you served in a time of peace — you have a much higher risk of dying from it than if you were not in the military. And no one seems to know why.
David Masters was serving in Kuwait when his symptoms first started.
“I was weight training, working out in the gym, and my right arm did not want to cooperate, did not want to keep up,” explained Masters. “I was 28, just turning 29 years old, and I thought it was a pinched nerve, but it kept getting weaker and weaker.”
In the best shape of his life, Masters had his sights set on a bodybuilding career. After his temporary duty assignment in Kuwait ended, the staff sergeant returned to the States, but Air Force doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
“I was frustrated, my bodybuilding career that I was trying to get off the ground was over, and I just gave up. Then my fingers started to act up, getting numb. By the time I went to a doctor for that in early winter 2006, the doctor said, ‘You need to see a neurologist right now.’”
He was diagnosed with progressive muscular atrophy, which studies show can turn into Lou Gehrig’s disease. Sure enough, by March of 2010, Masters was diagnosed with full-blown ALS. But most cases don’t have such a slow progression.
Karen Russo’s husband, Carlo, is another case. A Marine, he served for four years in Hawaii as a photographer and journalist during the Vietnam era, but never saw combat. A chef by trade, he began developing symptoms much later in life, at age 55.
“He had weakness in his right hand and arm, he kept dropping things,” said Karen. “Then his right leg weakened and he fell a couple of times, which was really out of character. The doctors did an EMG (needle electromyography); it’s a test that’s pretty definitive for ALS. He was diagnosed the same day. That was in August. By Thanksgiving he was in a wheelchair.”
Tim Hoyt also never saw combat. He was drafted into the Vietnam War at age 19, but spent his two-year stint as a radio-electronic specialist stationed in Germany.
He was diagnosed with ALS in March 2013, at the age of 65. It wasn’t long until he had to leave his job as a chemistry professor at the University of Puget Sound, where he was known as “the Wiz” for his looks and love of scientific magic shows.
“It was my arm that went first,” said Hoyt. “My right arm, right hand got very weak, I couldn’t hold the chalk to the blackboard. It’s now progressed to (my) left arm. Both arms and hands are useless. I’m still walking, though I’m weak.”
Lou Gehrig’s disease was discovered in 1869, almost 150 years ago. But according to the ALS Association, the prognosis for anyone diagnosed with the disease is the same as it was then: “death in an average of two to five years.”
Between 5% and 10% of ALS cases are hereditary; the rest occur for unknown reasons. Smoking, being male, white and older than 60 are the most closely associated risk factors for the general population. Beyond that, studies are contradictory or unclear, especially when it comes to the military connection. Basically what we know is that veterans have a 60% higher risk of getting ALS than the general population.
“We don’t know what about service could lead to increased risk of the disease in veterans,” said Patrick Wildman, vice president of public policy for the ALS Association. “It could be a variety of factors from head trauma and excessive physical activity to exposures. It also could be a combination of a genetic predisposition with an environmental trigger.”
The Mayo Clinic guesses that reasons for the connection “may include exposure to certain metals or chemicals, traumatic injuries, viral infections and intense exertion” but says that “exactly what about military service may trigger the development of ALS is uncertain.”
