Ezzard Charles in Summary

[IamInuit]

Yeah its hard to say. Maybe its accumulative? Its surprising that a real long term study has never been done. They could start say at the beginning of the 20th century closely look at the cause of death of boxers and their symptoms prior to death. One would think that if is cause was associated with head trauma their would be evidence all over the place from the last 100 years. Evidence being the symptoms since ALS would not have been a diagnosis for a great portion of that century.

Apparently one thing that got the research headed in a different direction is the discovery that Lou Gehrig himself had a history of repeated head trauma. But you make a good point. One thing I found shocking was that most ALS patients don't have autopsies done. I'd have thought a disease we didn't udnerstand would have had MORE reason to take victims to autopsy as a learning tool. But I guess that's not how the law works.

Indeed. I watched a doc some time ago on brain injury in wrestlers, and foot ball players and why many chose suicide. They actually examined the brains and the results were astonishing. Both had the same damage to the same area of the brain.