• Lou Gehrig and Superoxide
Free Radicals
• The Study of Human Genetic
Characteristics
• Analyzing Pedigrees
Autosomal Recessive Traits
Autosomal Dominant Traits
X-Linked Recessive Traits
X-Linked Dominant Traits
Y-Linked Traits
• Twin Studies
Concordance
Twin Studies and Obesity
• Adoption Studies
Adoption Studies and Obesity
Adoption Studies and Alcoholism
• Genetic Counseling and Genetic
Testing
Genetic Counseling
Genetic Testing
Lou Gehrig and Superoxide
Free Radicals
Lou Gehrig was the finest first baseman ever to play major
league baseball. A left-handed power hitter who grew up in
New York City, Gehrig played for the New York Yankees
from 1923 to 1939. Throughout his career, he lived in the
shadow of his teammates Babe Ruth and Joe Di Maggio, but
Gehrig was a great hitter in his own right: he compiled a
lifetime batting average of .340 and drove in more than 100
runs every season for 13 years. During his career, he batted
in 1991 runs and hit a total of 23 grand slams (home runs
with bases loaded). But Gehrig’s greatest baseball record,
which stood for more than 50 years and has been broken
only once—by Cal Ripkin, Jr., in 1995—is his record of
playing 2130 consecutive games.
In the 1938 baseball season, Gehrig fell into a strange
slump. For the first time since his rookie year, his batting
average dropped below .300 and, in the World Series that
year, he managed only four hits—all singles. Nevertheless,
he finished the season convinced that he was undergoing
a temporary slump that he would overcome in the next
season. He returned to training camp in 1939 with high
spirits. When the season began, however, it was clear to
everyone that something was terribly wrong. Gehrig had
no power in his swing; he was awkward and clumsy at first
base. His condition worsened and, on May 2, he voluntarily
removed himself from the lineup. The Yankees sent
Gehrig to the Mayo Clinic for diagnosis and, on June 20,
his medical report was made public: Lou Gehrig was suffering
from a rare, progressive disease known as amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS). Within two years, he was
dead. Since then, ALS has commonly been known as Lou
Gehrig disease.
Gehrig experienced symptoms typical of ALS: progressive
weakness and wasting of skeletal muscles due t