I've been following the blog of someone who has had ALS for the past three years. I stumbled upon the blog shortly after the author's diagnosis and have been a regular reader ever since.

In learning more about the disease and reading about the effects it has had on my "friend", I truly cannot think of a worse way to die. A comment recently left on the blog led me to do some internet research, and while doing that I was reminded that it seems that a surprising number of ALS patients were former runners.

The way it appears is that, clearly, not all runners get ALS, but a surprising number of ALS patients were former, avid runners.

The author of the blog that I read was a runner, and, in fact, first thought something was wrong when one of his legs seemed "heavy" during his runs. In surfing the net today, I read about like Darcy Wakefield, who wrote a memoir called, "I Remember Running: The Year I Got Everything I Ever Wanted - and ALS". But there are lots of others - young runners (not swimmers, not tennis players, not cyclists) who get this horrible disease.

So far, science/medicine doesn't acknowledge a connection.

Anyone else give any thought to this or know anyone going through a battle with ALS?