The inside of the skull has lots of sharp edges and the human brain is very soft. Banging the head is not good. Banging it repeatedly is really not good.
A new study on football players is troubling. It is very small, but perhaps it makes sense to perform yearly cognitive tests on NFL players. Of course the spectacle of the game and size of the business are such that it seems unlikely anything will be done.
Brain damage commonly associated with boxers has been found in a sixth deceased former N.F.L. player age 50 or younger, further stoking the debate between many doctors and the league over the significance of such findings.
Doctors at Boston University’s School of Medicine found a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brain of Tom McHale, an N.F.L. lineman from 1987 to 1995 who died in May at age 45. Known as C.T.E., the progressive condition results from repetitive head trauma and can bring on dementia in someone in their 40s or 50s.
Using techniques that can be administered only after a patient has died, doctors have now identified C.T.E. in all six N.F.L. veterans between the ages of 36 and 50 who have been tested for the condition, further evidencing the dangers of improperly treated brain trauma in football.
This is of no surprise. The same thing happens with impact of a car or motorcycle accident. Or just going to a concert and doing some headbanging and shaken baby syndrome.
Posted by: Ajlouny | April 26, 2009 at 21:25