US Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard veterans face higher rates of rare nerve disease ALS than other vets, study finds

Air Force pilots and maintainers inspect an A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.

U.S.

Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt.

Dylan McCrink Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard veterans had higher ALS rates than Army veterans.

Male officers had a 64% higher ALS rate than enlisted veterans, a study found.

The study points to possible service-related exposures but does not identify them.

Veterans who served in the Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , or ALS, rates 15% to 29% higher than Army veterans, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Neurology last month, analyzed records for nearly 10 million veterans receiving Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare between 2000 and 2024, including nearly 14,500 with an ALS diagnosis.

Officers were found to face a 64% elevated risk of developing ALS, compared with their enlisted counterparts.

The researchers did not determine whether particular military jobs or exposures were responsible for the difference.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a degenerative disease that damages the nerve cells that control voluntary movement.

Over time, patients lose the ability to control muscles that needed to speak, eat, move, and breathe independently.

It is often difficult to diagnose and is fatal.

"Military service is a known risk factor for the development of ALS, but little is known about what factors may contribute to that risk," Marc Weisskopf, an environmental epidemiologist at Harvard and one of the study authors, said in a Harvard announcement.