Category Archives: Research

ALS and the NFL: Guest blogger

Former NFL fullback Kevin Turner died of ALS this morning at the age of 46. During his six years with the disease, he worked to raise awareness of the connection between the sport he loved and his ultimate diagnosis.

From an ESPN report:

“Football had something to do with it,” Turner said in 2011. “I don’t know to what extent, and I may not ever know. But there are too many people I know that have ALS and played football in similar positions. They seem to be linebackers, fullbacks, strong safeties. Those are big collision guys.”

Under pressure in the 1990s, the NFL conducted a lengthy study into the relationship between concussions and cases of degenerative brain illness, and concluded that there is no serious connection. Today, as Kevin Turner’s family and friends surrounded him to say goodbye, The New York Times published an article alleging that the NFL’s research on concussions was deeply flawed. The NFL, the article says, omitted findings, including more than 100 concussions that could have skewed the data in a way that Big Football simply isn’t comfortable with.  Read More>

|Categories: Life, Research | Tags: , , , | Permalink

Curses

ALS TDI announced a new fundraising campaign this week, and I think it’s a great one. Swear2Care asks people to put their money where their foul mouth is by donating a dollar every time they utter a curse word. I’m a sucker for clever taglines, and so I really enjoyed this one: ‘Cuss ALS Research Matters. That’s good stuff.

As an Ambassador for ALS TDI, I joined a call last night to discuss the campaign, among other things. The F bombs were dropping like…well, like any kind of food I try to hold in my hands these days. By the end of the meeting, we all owed the campaign quite a bit of money. And that’s the point. As the Swear2Care website says, ALS triggers a lot of emotions. It’s hard to talk about it without getting heated up, so let’s use this to our advantage.

I love to swear. I think a well-placed F-word, for example, can be just as effective as the impressive sounding vocabulary words I learned in college English. It’s a helpful form of self-expression, and even the experts agree. TIME Magazine printed a story in May 2014 about how swearing can actually be good for you. Read More>

|Categories: Cure, Parenting, Research | Tags: , , , | Permalink

Video blog!

From ALS TDI’s 11th annual Leadership Summit last month.

|Categories: Faces, Relationships, Research | Tags: , , | Permalink