12:09 AM CST on Tuesday, December 30, 2003
By ROBERT MILLER / The Dallas Morning News
©2003 Belo Interactive

Medical researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, in accepting a $200,000 gift to study amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, noted that the disease strikes Gulf War veterans more than other people their age.

The donation from the Horace C. Cabe Foundation, created by an Arkansas lumber family, will foster research into the disease that's also commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS usually strikes people between the ages of 50 and 70 and rarely appears before age 45.

Recent research at UT Southwestern focused on veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.

A study published in Neurology – the first peer-reviewed study of ALS among Gulf War veterans – brought to light the fact that veterans of that war have developed ALS and died from the disease as much as three times more frequently than people of comparable ages in the general population.

Half of the foundation's gift will be used to complete and equip a neurology laboratory in the medical center's new research tower.

The remaining $100,000 will support basic scientific research under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Elliott, associate professor of neurology and internationally renowned ALS authority.

"ALS is a neuro-degenerative disorder that attacks the nerve cell in the brain and spinal cord, leading to muscle weakness in the arms and legs and difficulty speaking, swallowing and breathing and eventually loss of all muscle function," said a spokesman.

The disease was named Lou Gehrig's disease after the legendary New York Yankee first baseman retired in 1939 at age 35 after being diagnosed with the illness. He died two years later.

"We are on the verge of tremendous breakthroughs in ALS research, so this generous gift of the Cabe Foundation is particularly timely," said Dr. Kern Wildenthal, UT Southwestern president.

"It will help us continue moving toward the urgent goal of curing this devastating disease."