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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ELA (ALS in English) is a disease capable of wreaking havoc in our nervous system. Today It has no cure And what we know about its origin is quite limited. Throughout decades of study, we have been discovering risk factors related to the appearance of this disorder but perhaps the strangest was detected a few years ago in a town in the French Alps.
The unique case of Montchavin. A few years ago, a group of researchers discovered that the French people of Montchavin, located near the Alpine border with Italy, has a high incidence of ELA. After investigating the case, the team pointed out as possible culprit To a very concrete element of local gastronomy, the fungus Gyromitra gigasa type of false colmenilla or false morilla.
ELA. The Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisknown among other names as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a disease that affects neurons, both in our brain and spinal cord. It is a disease that is progressing until it ends the life of who suffers it. Today we do not know a cure, although there are treatments that relieve Some symptoms and increase the life expectancy of patients.
The symptoms of this disease usually appear from the age of 50, although there are earlier cases, and They can start With problems walking, writing or speaking. The disease It generates the loss of muscle strength and coordination capacity, problems that extend to different muscle groups.
Unknown cause. Today we have no accurate record of what mechanisms unleash this ailment, although we know Some risk factors correlated with their appearance. What we do know is that about 10% of cases are related to a genetic variant, and that the disease is more common among men than among women.
Among the known risk factors are tobacco and exposure to certain environmental toxins. A higher prevalence has also been detected among people who did military service.
The incidence of this disease It is between one and 2.6 annual cases per 100,000 inhabitants; with an approximate prevalence of about six cases per 100,000 per 100,000 people.
An enigma in the French Alps. A few years ago, the cases of Montchavin unleashed the curiosity of the French neurologist Emmeline Lagrange. The health and its team accounted for 14 cases of ELA diagnosed between 1990 and 2018 linked to residents in this town, including migrants and people who had their second residence in Montchavin.
Examining the case, the team did not find genetic factors that could justify the high incidence in the town. Although they found cases of smokers, they also ran into healthy habits in the group. Nor did they find clues of possible pollutants in land, air or water, or radon traces, a pollutant that could also be linked to this disease.
From Pacific to France. As the journalist Terence Monmany narrates In an article For the medium Knowablethe team found a thread to throw on the remote island of Guam. On this island located in the archipelago of the Mariana Islands, in the Western Pacific, another team had detected a possible relationship between the consumption of potentially toxic seeds and the prevalence of neurological diseases (including ELA) among the natives.
Although science is not settled in the causes of this epidemic, this hypothesis placed the consumption of food in the center of the debate. According to Detaine Monmanythe native chamorros treated these seeds with water to reduce their toxicity before their culinary preparation. This process would not be able to eliminate all toxins, giving rise to subsequent neurological damage.
Gyromitra gigas. Something similar could be happening in Montchavin, not with seeds but with a mushroom. As the team observed, the cases could be drawn up to people linked to the collection and consumption of the fungus Gyromitra gigasa type of false morilla. It is a fungus in a toxic principle, but that, as in the case of Guam, can be treated to reduce its toxicity.
In spite of this, the team maintains in its work that the incidence of the ELA in the town can be linked to its toxins and DNA lesions caused by these in the long term. The details of that study were published in 2021 In an article In the magazine Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
A spurious relationship?
Image | Henk Monster / Alexey Laa
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