Interesting study to think about before the big game this weekend:
Certain age-related diseases may arise earlier in professional football players, new study finds:
Former professional football players — particularly linemen — are more likely than nonplayers with similar demographic characteristics to develop diseases typically associated with advanced age when significantly younger, according to new research published Dec. 8 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
These former elite athletes also tend to experience age-related conditions — hypertension and diabetes, among others — earlier, compared with the general population. Looking across all conditions, these athletes' health spans were reduced by nearly a decade.
Notably, the effects persisted even after the researchers accounted for body mass index and race, two powerful risk factors for the diseases studied.
[...] Importantly, the health span for each former NFL player age group most closely resembled American men a decade older. For example, 66 percent of the former players in the 30 to 39 age group reported an intact health span, compared with 62 percent of men in the general population ages 40 to 49.
Searching for game-related aspects that might be important for this premature emergence of aging diseases, the researchers separated data from the former football players group into linemen and non-linemen.
This analysis showed that linemen, who experience more contact during games than non-linemen, had notably shorter health spans across all decades of life. This subgroup tended to develop age-related diseases sooner than their non-linemen peers.
"We wanted to know: Are professional football players being robbed of their middle age? Our findings suggest that football prematurely weathers them and puts them on an alternate aging trajectory, increasing the prevalence of a variety of diseases of old age," Grashow said.
"We need to look not just at the length of life but the quality of life. Professional football players might live as long as men in the general population, but those years could be filled with disability and infirmity."
Journal Reference:
Rachel Grashow, Taylor Valencia Shaffer-Pancyzk, Inana Dairi, et al., Healthspan and chronic disease burden among young adult and middle-aged male former American-style professional football players, BMJ, 57, 2022. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106021
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 07, @08:54PM (1 child)
It turns out getting hit over and over and over again, many times in the head, is bad for you.
But I understand the appeal of the NFL: It's the same as the appeal of the gladiator games was in ancient Rome, namely that a lot of people find it entertaining to see other people getting hurt. And if you don't believe that's why people like it, tell me why sports networks like to show "the biggest hits ever" in slow-motion so you can see someone getting their arm broken in excruciating detail.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 08, @02:57AM
If you haven't seen this, and you care about anyone who plays football seriously, you should watch it - then get them to watch it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussion_(2015_film) [wikipedia.org]
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dalek on Tuesday February 07, @09:15PM (1 child)
At what point in the player's life are they recording their body mass? Is it at the time of the study, or is it the player's body mass while in the NFL?
This is important. Linemen, particularly offensive linemen, tend to be very heavy. Recent data put the average weight at 314.8 pounds. The study focuses on former NFL players, and many of the linemen probably lose weight once they stop playing football. If the study is accounting for the weight of the linemen after retiring, it almost certainly isn't accounting for how heavy those players were during their careers.
I'm not convinced it's the physical contact that's linked to diabetes and hypertension. I have no doubt that conditions like CTE are more severe in linemen because of the hits they take on pretty much every play. I certainly believe that conditions like dementia and arthritis are worse in linemen in part due to the hits they take. But for hypertension and BMI, it seems more plausible that this is linked to the peak weight during the playing careers of linemen, particularly offensive linemen. You'd probably see something similar with defensive tackles, where size is valued to try to stop the run, and they average 310 points. Defensive ends are also fairly heavy, but not nearly to the same extent. They do help with stopping the run, but they're expected to be faster so they can rush the quarterback from the edge. I think the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension is due to the weights of the players during their careers, not when they're retired.
The article needs to explain when the weights of the players was taken. The heights and weights are self-reported, but it's not clear if they're asking players how heavy they were during their careers, and I suspect they're looking at BMI after players retire and lose weight.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Wednesday February 08, @03:52AM
Further, linemen are more likely to have used steroids, and anything that negatively impacts the hormonal system (especially thyroid and gonads) will accelerate aging.
"The Fridge" Perry's playing weight went as high as 352 pounds, and reportedly now is over 450 (at age 60)..
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 07, @10:46PM
Current NFL players age past their "best used by" dates in two seasons. Or sooner, in some cases.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by istartedi on Tuesday February 07, @11:22PM
They looked at me like I was a communist alien when, in my 1st year suite at UVa I asked why *college* players didn't have a union too. When they won the NCAA basketball championship, there was this tiny little part of me that wanted to display some pride; but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Yes, basketball is not as bad but it's still exploitation on a grand scale. Baseball has its problems, but at least the farm system pays a little and doesn't masquerade as "amateur" sports in the fashion that robbed Jim Thorpe of Olympic medals. I've slowly become a bigger baseball fan over the years, in part because of that.
Yeah, they're finally coming around and threw them this "image and likeness" bone. How they get away with this all is beyond me... OK, answering my own question here--it's because people just want to tailgate with a bucket of fried chicken and cold beers, and not think about it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 08, @02:27AM (1 child)
See also: https://www.healthline.com/health/do-short-people-live-longer [healthline.com]
If you're short not due to malnutrition but the "breed type" then you tend to live longer than those who are very tall.
Maybe there's about the same amount of spare stem cells for every human. And if you're bigger or use them up a lot you eventually run out of them...
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25458-blood-of-worlds-oldest-woman-hints-at-limits-of-life/ [newscientist.com]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday February 08, @09:12AM
I wonder if anyone's ever done a study of the possible correlation between being elected to Congress and being incredibly old? Strom Thurmond sort of set the record, but I bet the whole ruling gerontocracy would make for interesting study subjects.