Men who engage in recreational activities such as golf, gardening and woodworking are at higher risk of developing ALS, an incurable progressive nervous system disease, a study has found. The findings add to mounting evidence suggesting a link between ALS and exposure to environmental toxins.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, causes progressive motor function loss and cognitive changes. While a definitive cause for the condition hasn't been identified, studies have increasingly suggested that the condition is caused by a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental exposure to things like pesticides and heavy metals.
A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan Medicine has added to the growing evidence about what contributes to ALS, linking recreational activities like golf, gardening and woodworking to an increased risk of men, specifically, developing the condition.
“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,” said Stephen Goutman, lead and co-corresponding author of the study.
The researchers surveyed 400 people with ALS and 287 without the condition and asked them to self-report their involvement in hobbies and non-work-related activities. Activities were then stratified by male and female sex.
They found that the risk of developing ALS was increased in men who engaged in swimming, golf, woodworking, hunting and shooting, gardening or yard work, and metal work. Golf, particularly, was associated with a three-times-greater risk. Interestingly, no recreational activities were significantly associated with an increased ALS risk in women. None of the activities were linked to earlier onset of, or death from, ALS for either sex.
“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.”
The study’s findings add to mounting evidence suggesting that ALS has an environmental cause. Gutman said outdoor activities such as golfing, gardening and yardwork might expose people to pesticides. Past studies have found a link between golf and garden maintenance occupations and increased ALS risk. And extensive studies into the effects of woodworking on health led the researchers to believe that formaldehyde exposure could contribute to risk.
“Our goal is to understand what occupations and hobbies increase ALS risk because identifying these activities provides the first step towards ALS prevention,” said Eva Feldman, another of the study’s corresponding authors. “For a disease like Alzheimer’s, we know that a list of factors – including smoking, obesity and high lipids – can increase risk by 40%. 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.”
The study was published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
Source: Michigan Medicine
