On Nov. 10, Retired Lt. Col. Baltzell had a letter in The Press discussing ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and the military. It made me just a little curious. If this is really out there why haven’t I heard of it? After all, I attempt to stay informed, so I did a little checking. Now I’m really curious why I hadn’t seen this before.

With studies done by Mayo Clinic, Harvard University and others, the VA in 2008 made ALS a presumptive disease (meaning no further evidence needed to prove the military caused it). This is huge. Anyone my age or older will remember the long drawn out battle with mountains of evidence, and it still took years for the VA to admit that there might be a correlation between Agent Orange exposure and the multiple illnesses Vets were reporting. I realize that Lou Gehrig’s Disease might not look good on a recruiting poster, but you have to wonder what other horrid diseases or syndromes are being kept from us, or more importantly, from those who would sign up.

For years I tried to tell myself the dramatic increases in diseases like autism, ADD, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s was just a matter of better diagnostics and reporting. Now I’m wondering what have we done to ourselves and our children, and what isn’t our supposed watchdog agencies not telling us in order to protect the corporate world?

Below are some of the sources I found about ALS and the military.

http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1583

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis/DS00359/DSECTION=risk-factors

MIKE TEAGUE

Coeur d’Alene