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from the getting-your-head-whacked-is-bad-for-you dept.
The largest study of its kind has found damage in the vast majority of former football players' brains donated for research after they developed mental symptoms during life. Of 202 former players of the U.S. version of the game whose brains were examined, 87% showed the diagnostic signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease associated with repetitive head trauma. Among former National Football League (NFL) players in the sample, that number jumped to 99%. The findings will likely ratchet up the pressure on leaders at all levels of football to protect their players. Still, the authors and other experts caution against overinterpreting the results, because the brains all came from symptomatic former players and not from those who remained free of mental problems.
"I think it is increasingly difficult to deny a link between CTE and repeated traumatic brain injury, be it through contact sports or other mechanisms," says Gil Rabinovici, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who was not affiliated with the study.
The researchers, led by Boston University (BU) neuropathologist Ann McKee, used brains from a bank maintained by the VA Boston Healthcare System, BU, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. They were donated by families of former football players. The team defines CTE, a diagnosis made only at autopsy, as "progressive degeneration associated with repetitive head trauma." The designation remains controversial with some, who call it a muddy diagnosis that doesn't include an iron-clad clinical course and the kind of clear-cut pathology that defines classical neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease.
Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Players of American Football (open, DOI: 10.1001/jama.2017.8334) (DX)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:18PM (1 child)
Professional soccer players have also been found to have high levels of CTE (presumably from using their head to deflect the ball).
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:20PM
Good point AC, I always thought using head in soccer was pretty idiotic self destructive, and a simple rule change would allow a bit more arm use to deflect without damaging the game much, while another rule change that using head means kicked out of the game until medical professionals perform a concussion or head injury analysis would fix a lot of this self destructive behavior.
Sports can sometimes be very self destructive, but its not necessary. Competitive fisherman aren't required to drink a pint of gasoline every time they catch a fish. Competitive coders aren't required to take a sledgehammer to the skull for the hell of it as they implement algos. Race car drivers aren't forced to drink engine coolant every time they race.