The debate began nearly 10 years ago when the National Football League (NFL) had for the first time tried to obscure evidence linking the repeated head injuries of the players to chronic obstructive encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, On the search. Since then, the evidence supporting this association has grown, with more and more volunteers volunteering to report depression and suicide. However, the precise manner in which recurrent head injuries are associated with chronic cerebral encephalopathy and associated psychological symptoms remain controversial.
The largest study of its kind ever produced the strongest evidence to date of a relationship between frequent head injuries to football players and the incidence of cerebral palsy (CTE). But the study, published recently in the journal The Journal of the American Medical Association, has seen significant shortcomings and has also sparked calls for more research to measure the impact of head trauma on players. Their age.
The new study builds on findings dating back to 2013 when Anne Mackie, a neuroscientist at Boston University, and her colleagues published the post-mortem report of 68 male athletes and veterans of chronic chronic encephalopathy, a report they described as a spectrum of Illnesses associated with that condition. McKay and her colleagues observed two specific sets of clinical symptoms: one involving mood and behavior disorders observed in younger individuals, and other cognitive disorders developed at a later age.
Based on their findings, the team suggested a number of criteria for the diagnosis of chronic chronic encephalopathy, similar to those used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In their proposal, they also identified the stages in which these diseases - and the behavioral symptoms associated with them - increase over time. According to the researchers' standards, early symptoms of encephalopathy include headaches, attention deficit, and later develop into depression, short-term memory loss, cognitive impairment, and finally aggression and madness.
In the latest study, the researchers examined the brains of 202 deceased footballers, all of whom were donated to a brain bank that was established to investigate the long-term effects of recurrent head injuries among athletes, military personnel and victims of domestic violence. The researchers obtained the detailed histories of all the individuals who examined their brains. The team measured the brain sizes and then studied them for neurological diseases associated with Chronic Cerebral Palsy.
Of the 200 persons examined in the study, 177 were diagnosed as having chronic chronic encephalopathy, depending on the pre-determined pathological characteristics. The game has been practiced for 15 years on average, in high school, university, or professional level. Their deaths ranged from an average of 67 years. The most common causes of death were nerve damage (39 percent), cardiovascular disease (19 percent), and suicide (10 percent). It was found that the severity of the symptoms of encephalopathy is linked to the intensity of the exercise of the game; all those who had played in high school only suffered a mild degree of disease, while severe symptoms appeared on more than half of those who were playing the game at the university, and on Semi-professionals, professionals.
Behavioral and mood-related symptoms were common in all former US National Football League (NBA) veterans who were diagnosed with chronic cerebral encephalopathy. Symptoms were found in almost all 26 individuals with moderate disease, and 75 of the 84 who were Acute disease. Other common symptoms included anxiety, depression and recklessness. The symptoms of verbal aggression, physical violence, suicidal thoughts, and substance misuse were also observed in the majority of those with mild chronic cerebral palsy, but post-traumatic stress disorder was not common. It was found only in three cases of mild injury, nine Cases of former players who have been affected more severely.
In spite of the high incidence of Chronic Cerebral Palsy among those surveyed, the authors call for caution in interpreting their findings. One important limitation of the study is the bias of the sample. The brain was donated specifically for the purpose of examining the relationship between head injuries and chronic chronic cerebral palsy. This does not necessarily mean that the prevalence of the disease among the larger groups of individuals with recurrent head injuries is as high as that recorded in this study. The sample is also not representative of the total number of footballers, most of whom play only in youth teams or high school teams. "The sample we studied is very clear," says Bobby Abdelmahdi, one of the study's co-authors, an assistant researcher at the McKee Laboratory. "Families may have paid to donate to the brains of loved ones because they saw symptoms, or were aware of the link between recurrent head injuries and football, [so] we can not jump to any conclusions about the incidence of the disease at this stage The whole community, or even among football players in general. "
"Determining the exact nature of the relationship between recurrent head injuries and chronic chronic cerebral encephalopathy may require repeated, well-designed, longitudinal studies." This research may finally begin to determine the real impact of shocks on brain structure and function.
However, experts say the new discoveries are spectacular. "It's a very important and persuasive study," said John Hardy, a professor of neuroscience at University College London, who was not part of the team that conducted the study. "There's no doubt that there's a serious problem in American football, . "We now have very good evidence of a problem ... a problem that needs to be resolved immediately in terms of changing the rules of the game to reduce the collision of heads if the game is to continue."
But Hardy admits that the new findings do not determine the degree of the problem. "As the authors pointed out clearly, the cases were selected on the basis of clinical suspicion of chronic chronic encephalopathy," he says. "A more comprehensive effort is needed now. Hardy calls for both current and retired athletes to be subjected to further studies looking for definitive evidence of brain damage by using scanning techniques and measuring potential damage to blood and cerebrospinal fluid. "Finally, we need systematic data to understand how big the problem is."
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Which is worse for the brain, American football or Rugby?
@hmusdhtaq both but specifically the rough foutball of rugbuy is worse for the brain
I remember reading somewhere that one NFL team is now trying to use Rugby style tackling as according to them its much safer and also more effective.
Tackling technique in today's NFL isnt all that good, and its what leads to so much helmet to helmet contact. Rugby players tackle with great technique as they cannot afford to carelessly throw their bodies into a guy due to lack of head protection.