"The disease is widely believed to stem from repetitive trauma to the head, and can lead to conditions such as memory loss, depression and dementia."
“People think that we’re blowing this out of proportion, that this is a very rare disease and that we’re sensationalizing it,” said [Dr. Ann McKee, the facility’s director and chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Healthcare System]. “My response is that where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players.”
ADDED: This is a good time to revisit the old Freakonomics episode,
"The Dangers of Safety":
DUBNER: So wait a minute. Let’s figure this out. If the helmet, which we think of as a safety device, is being used as a weapon — why not get rid of the weapon? There are sports we play without helmets — rugby, Australian rules football. What happens if you try to play American football like they did in the old days, without a helmet? Here’s Quintin Mikell again.
MIKELL: It would probably be—there’d be a lot less head injuries, I know that for a fact, and I can tell that the tackling would actually be a lot different. You know, you can’t–nobody wants to mess their face up willingly, so, you wouldn’t go in head first, you wouldn’t go in trying to destroy somebody, you’d go in just to get them on the ground. And maybe it wouldn’t be as exciting, or, I’m not sure, but I know there’d definitely be—there wouldn’t be as many injuries.
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46 comments:
Who knew that politics also involved repetitive trauma to the head?
I don't remember wiping the computer... wait what is wiping a computer?
I want to know the truth, and for the players to get the help they need, because I love the sport.
But are there any control groups? Anyone overseeing their testing? Are the people who most believe in this also the ones who developed the test and make the diagnosis? it seems there's a confirmation bias risk there.
Also, it's nice to see the VA involved with the NFL, when there are so many vets dying waiting for help.
It is not just men in the NFL.
Women can get this by banging their head into the headboard over and over and over.
I am Laslo.
Follow the money.
Could this be bigger than the tobacco settlement?
"We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”
The link goes to PBS.org. Could they not find a campus rape?
The same thing happens with condoms.
"Follow the money.
Could this be bigger than the tobacco settlement?"
Bingo !
"It is not just men in the NFL.
Women can get this by banging their head into the headboard over and over and over."
Haven't you heard of safe sex? Putting a pillow between their head and the headboard?2
Make helmets the size of Smart Cars.
The clock is ticking on the Obama administration.
So, who did they have already in place to give it a push? The VA.
Over 80% of the Association of Trial Lawyers political contributions go to democrats.
I watch a lot of rugby and Aussie Rules football. Neither has the forward pass, thus there is less velocity associated with tackles. While I can imagine linemen and running backs in American football playing sans helmet, I think receivers without helmets would be carnage.
There is a foam football-helmet cover made by Pro-Cap that would reduce head and other injuries caused by helmet impact. A player for The Buffalo Bills used to wear one and he said it prevented concussions and added five years to his career. The league should make them mandatory or incorporate the material in a new helmet design.
Also, rugby prohibits blocking. Not sure about Aussie Rules, though you don't see it very often (if ever).
I saw on ESPN that the players studied were showing symptoms before getting into the study. Thus the high percentage. If you are only looking at ducks, then most of the ducks are ducks!
"There is a foam football-helmet cover made by Pro-Cap that would reduce head and other injuries caused by helmet impact. "
The problem here is that the injury, if it is real and I'm not yet sure it is, could be the result of deceleration injury to the brain. That will be impossible to prevent as long as high velocity impacts are still present. The best suggestion has been to ban helmets.
This is what causes Contra Coup injuries. The "Coup" is where the brain hits. The Contra-Coup is the opposite side. The brain doesn't decelerate as fast as the skull does and it pulls away from the skull opposite the blow. That tears small vessels. They bleed.
But are there any control groups? Anyone overseeing their testing? Are the people who most believe in this also the ones who developed the test and make the diagnosis? it seems there's a confirmation bias risk there.
This.
What is the incidence of this disease among soccer players? Or better yet, field hockey players.?.......The pay off at the end of the research or the researchers attitude towards the research must in some way influence the research.......I think they should bring back gladiatorial combat. If they had a crack trauma team on the scene, fatalities could be kept to a minimum.
Leather helmets?
How much of the damage is caused by players resuming activity too soon after concussions? I suspect quite a bit of it.
The foam helmets would help somewhat, as they would make the deceleration more gradual, but they wouldn't be a cure-all.
Helmets have changed significantly since my days in high school football. Today, they are much lighter, flexible, and seem to pop off more easily. When I was playing, if your helmet came off, your head was in it.
If the helmet, which we think of as a safety device, is being used as a weapon — why not get rid of the weapon?
Football uniforms - face hidden, giant padded shoulders - are for show.
William said...
...I think they should bring back gladiatorial combat.
One would think that highly paid genetic freaks on steroids should be doing something a lot more entertaining than football (or basketball), wouldn't one?
Hockey is going to be another sport where there will be some quite grim news.
It's a much smaller lawsuit, though.
What do you think the NFL wants to talk about? Tom Brady or the Concussion Settlement. Roger Goodell is a public relations genius.
But, But, without those brutal hits how will we draw the audience we need to make the balance sheet look right. I quit watching football after I read what Michael Vick eloquted to in court. Nothing that has happened since has changed my mind.
There will always be athletes willing to take on the odds and mortality for the bucks.
No monetary settlement is large enough to reverse anything in the crania (?) and restore any semblance of normal life to those demented.
The game (re: the NFL) is not long for this world. The NFL has deep pockets, but maybe not deep enough to sustain it. Even with ESPN raking it in, they are turning into a collection of SJW's on other topics. It won't be long before we will be seeing a series of negative reports.
A sample from the NYTImes after week 1, Jets/Browns: "It took all of 14 minutes for the first concussion to occur, another 25 for a star Jets player to tear up his knee, and three and a half quarters for a player to be carted off the field, motionless, as teammates, opponents, fans and many thousands of TV viewers looked on."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/sports/football/a-quick-reminder-of-footballs-violence.html
"The disease is widely believed to stem from repetitive trauma to the head, and can lead to conditions such as memory loss, depression and dementia."
As opposed to "known to" and "does lead"
"Although the incidence and prevalence of CTE is currently unclear, it likely varies by sport, position, duration of exposure, and age at the time of initial or subsequent head trauma, as well as with additional variables such as genetic predisposition. To date, there have been no randomized neuropathological studies of CTE in deceased athletes, and as such, there is a selection bias in the cases that have come to autopsy. If one considers the prevalence in deceased professional American football players who died between February 2008 and June 2010, there were 321 known player deaths [14] and the brains of 12 of the 321 underwent postmortem neuropathological examination at Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (BU CSTE). All 12 examined neuropathologically showed evidence of CTE, suggesting an estimated lifetime prevalence rate of at least 3.7%. If one assumes that all deceased players who did not come to autopsy did not have CTE, and that the amount of head trauma in professional football has remained fairly constant over the past 5 decades, a prevalence rate of 3.7% would result. Although this represents a conservative estimate, it suggests a significant public health risk for persons who suffer repetitive mild traumatic brain injury.
...
Genetic variations may also play an important role in moderating the relationships between head trauma, neuropathological changes, and disordered cognition and behavior."
...
"These changes often include cerebral atrophy, cavum septum pellucidum with fenestrations, shrinkage of the mammillary bodies ..."
Oh no!
+
"Concussion is a frequent occurrence in contact sports: 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur annually in the United States (1–3). Most sport-related head injury is minor and although the majority of athletes who suffer a concussion recover within a few days or weeks a small number of individuals develop long-lasting or progressive symptoms. This is especially true in cases of repetitive concussion or mild traumatic brain injury in which at least 17% of individuals develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) (4). The precise incidence of CTE after repetitive head injury is unknown, however, and it is likely much higher. It is also unclear what severity or recurrence of head injury is required to initiate CTE; no well-designed prospective studies have addressed these important public health issues (5–10)."
Dementia pugilistica in an alcoholic achondroplastic dwarf
"Dementia pugilistica is classically seen in boxers. We describe the case of a 33-yr-old achondroplastic dwarf who developed the pathological hallmarks of the condition, probably as a result of chronic occupational trauma. Dementia pugilistica has not been previously described in achondroplasia.
Key words
Dementia pugilistica,
trauma,
achondroplasia,
dwarf-throwing,
circus"
More politicized garbage science. The forces trying to take down the NFL are motivated because it is popular with the wrong kind of people and they were picked on in high school or got dumped by a jock and never got over it.
TLDR: more head injuries in football because players aren't as tired, protective gear, and style of play.
Long version: I played football for three or four years and rugby for over 20. The tackling in football is characterized by maximum speed and force each play. Some players move at over 20mph. Much more violent and frequent collisions. The long (relatively) rest periods facilitate this. Rugby is a continuous sport like soccer, with few rest periods and two 40-minute halves. That is to say you are almost always feeling pretty gassed. The forwards (big, slower guys) ironically run the most, often 5-7 miles in a match. Just try hammering other players too much, you will be dog tired and useless in no time. Getting up after tackles and getting back into play quickly is stressed by coaches and experience. American rugby players, conditioned by football, have to learn not to tackle so hard. I've heard opposing British players whine to referees that we "...were tackling too hard." 1. Techically true, but 2. What pussies.
BTW while the foam helmet covers might help impact force, they are 'sticky' and anecdotally lead to more neck injuries from the many times the helmet will catch rather than slide on other helmets, bodies, the ground , etc.
Did you that repeated trauma to the head can cause short-term memory loss?
Did you that repeated trauma to the head can cause short-term memory loss?
Did you that repeated trauma to the head can cause short-term memory loss?
There is a rule against hitting with the head. There is a rule against hitting an opposing player in the head with the helmet. I have never watched a game - college or pro - in which the referees did not miss an easy call for violations of these rules. The NFL referees are the worst about this. It is a very easy penalty to see, yet they will fail time and again to call it. The best suggestion I have heard for minimizing head injuries was made by Rodney Harrison. He said that any violation of the rules regarding hits with or on the head should lead to expulsion from the game - similar to a red card in soccer. He thinks, and I agree, that will quickly solve the most flagrant problems.
Best suggestion I've seen for reducing head trauma in football is to remove face masks. Won't help with those inadvertent head-smacks (like those in soccer), but who wants to lead with their face and teeth (besides Doug Planck)?
Did you that repeated trauma to the head can cause short-term memory loss?
Someday, when someone writes "The Decline and Fall of America", one of the chapters will be titled "Soccer Moms". Because football is just too rough, don't you know. People get hurt and everything.
And, yes, "Lawyers and Vast Amounts of Money" will be another chapter title.
Boxers brains are part of the sport. Surprise, surprise football is the same as boxing.
The human head does not do side impacts and stay normal. The knee and hip injuries are painful in old age. But the brain going Alzheimer's is a penalty most parents will not let be part of their child's life.
I can't believe I'm the first person to point out in the early 20th century, football was almost ended by the slew of fatalities in the game. Eliminating helmets might reduce concussions, but only by replacing them with deadly events!
How many people died in car wrecks last year? How many were mangled? How many now have trouble remembering what day it is?
We have reasons for choosing our favorite concerns. They aren't necessarily what we pretend they are.
Let us plebes have our gladiators. We need them. Else, we will make them ourselves.
My guess is that it was 91 out of 91 but everyone knew that would be BS, so they tweaked the test a little to make it look every so slightly more reasonable.
When I first began playing HS football in 1958 the early Riddell "Kraylite" hard shell helmets were vastly different from the ones the same company makes today. They were known as "suspension" helmets in that instead of heavy padding there was an interior web of canvas straps holding the head in suspension so that no contact with the shell of the helmet was possible and the head was thus shielded from direct contact from blows. Additionally, the face-mask was attached by raw-hide laces rather than screwed directly to the helmet as they are today. Thus when the face-mask was struck during contact there was an absorption "give" as the mask shifted slightly rearward absorbing some of the force of contact rather than transmitting it all directly to the skull. Why the manufactures went away from this construction to the heavy padding currently in use I do not know, Anyone?
1. "Best suggestion I've seen for reducing head trauma in football is to remove face masks. Won't help with those inadvertent head-smacks, but who wants to lead with their face and teeth?"
That was the same argument used against the introduction of helmets in pro ice hockey, namely, that once players started to wear head protection the incidence of high-sticking would increase.
2. "Dementia pugilistica is classically seen in boxers."
If it weren't for padded boxing gloves, perhaps Muhammad Ali would not have suffered brain damage despite his superb skills as a boxer.
3. "What is the incidence of this disease among soccer players?"
Among European professionals, allegedly high, based on limited study, although I suspect the dearth of research on the problem is because headers are such an integral part of the sport no one wants to see them banned. It's hear no evil, see no evil....
4. "The game (re: the NFL) is not long for this world."
If concussions are a problem for the NFL, then they are equally a problem for college sports, particularly for those schools with powerhouse football programs like Wisconsin. Instead of expending so much misguided concern on a false college "rape" crisis, universities ought to be directing their attention to the problem of violence on the football field, of which there is far more than there is off the field.
There is nothing that can be done in the way of helmet design to prevent brain injury. I heard an expert on this on the radio after Junior Seau killed himself. He said that the current helmets have reduced skull fractures and cuts, but don't protect from concussions. His analogy: take a cardboard box with a rubber ball in it. It doesn't matter how much foam that you wrap around the box, if you drop it, the ball still bounces around inside the box.
A Notre Dame player that never had a known concussion and never played in the pros had evidence of CTE on autopsy. (He died from non-football injuries after graduation.)
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