ATLANTA — Three years ago, John Driskell Hopkins was on stage with Zac Brown Band when he noticed he wasn't able to strum his banjo as quickly as he had before. He couldn't jump around the stage the way he used to. He was having balance issues.
At first he chalked it up to advancing age. He was approaching 50. But shifts in diet and exercise didn't help.
Over two years, multiple neurologists were befuddled. But one doctor finally pinpointed his problem three days before Christmas last year: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and has no cure. It is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, referencing the legendary New York Yankees player.
