Medical team examines 202 NFL players and finds Chronic Brain Damage

Boston University School of Medicine found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 110 of 111 former National Football League players, (Meese, 2017). So the first question that you are asking yourself is what does that even mean or why should I care? 

Fair enough. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE is a degenerative disease of the brain commonly found in people who have had repeated hits to the head and body. Here's the thing - doctors can only find this problem with certainty once the person is dead. Yeah, I know that's a bummer.

So how does all of this happen? Think of a boxer who can take a punch but keeps coming at you even through he or she is knocked about the head and should go down. The boxer is 'punch drunk' and keeps getting hit. So each punch makes the brain slightly weaker and soupier. So over time you have more soup than brains. I know what you are saying, 'that's a bit overly dramatic'. Well, here what it says in medical books. The neuropathological appearance of CTE brains show 1. reduce size (shrinkage); 2. focal perivascular epicenters (soup); 3. neurofibrillary tangles in the frontal neocortex (bits of stuff); 4. microscopic neuronal loss (brain breakdown). 

Yeah...now in english. In people with concussions and sub-concussive hits to the head or body, it is like hitting your brain over and over. The results is breakdown of the neurons. This leads to a build up of an abnormal protein substance termed 'tau'. These changes can take months, years or even decades to fully develop. It is not related to being a professional athletes only to being an athlete with repeated concussion. 

The brain breakdown effect resembles memory loss, confusion, impaired judgement, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, suicidality, parkinson's like symptoms, and even a form of dementia. So there you are. You hit you head or body against a wall hard enough or long enough and you break. This study suggests something even worse than that - if you hit your head against a wall gently but consistently, (sub-concussive hits), you get the same result - your brain breaks. 

This study gives us even more information. The 202 brains came from individuals playing contact sports at all levels of play. All levels. This means that playing high school and college or even youth league can lead to CTE. Here's more, 87% or 177 of the 202 had CTE. Yes, those are bad odds. Playing a competitive sport is more likely to lead to CTE then not. Even worse, if we just consider the NFL players 110 or the 111 brains had CTE. That's 99%. If a player reaches the big show and gets all his dreams, he will break his brain. Sometimes when you win - you lose. 

Of course publishing this information caused the U.S. Congress to jump into action. A number of congressional members made statements and proposed committees. While others stressed the importance of continued study. The NFL's spokesperson Brian McCathy pointed out the study is important to assist science and medicine is finding answers. He delivered a strong statement. It was followed by the NFL pointing out that the study does not show a direct connection and prevalence of head trauma and CTE. Whhhhaaaattttttt?? I guess things are like they use to be.

So what is a person to do who just wants to play a contact sport? Player beware. Know the odds. Pray? 

The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association. An article about the study appeared in the Washington Post Sports section July 25, 2017.