Taking Precautions Why are constant blows to the head causing these fatal diseases? Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal painless disease that slowly breakdown the motor neurons in the spinal cord. ALS is absent muscle cells attacks every part of the body except the brain. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a non-curable disease that is formed by constant recurring head trauma damaging the malfunction of the body. CTE damages the brain by the buildup of abnormal proteins called Tau. Athletes are getting diagnosed with these two diseases at a very young because they are participating in contact sports so young. Contact sports have a huge impact with ALS and CTE because they are not educating the athletes about the diseases and they are not demanding a change on the safety rules. With contact sports comes with constant blows to the head that create concussions and brain injuries and they are very prone to be the main reason of why athletes are getting CTE. While the rules of the game should not be changed, the safety rules should be, the athletes should be getting educated on ALS and CTE to know the risks of the contacts sports. ALS being a fatal disease it is not contagious it is heredity. ALS is a progressive neurological disease that that affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. “Amyotrophic” comes from the Greek Language meaning “No muscle nourishment” and when the muscles have no nourishment it wastes away, “lateral” is the spinal cord and
Signs such as memory disturbances, behavioral and personality changes, parkinsonism, language, and gait abnormalities are just some of the few consequences people have to live with who are affected with CTE.1,5 The condition is characteristic of atrophy associated with medial and temporal lobes, ventricle dilation, and widespread tau-immunoreactive pathology. Evidence all points that repetitive traumatic brain injuries lead to CTE before any clinical manifestations arise.1 By instituting proper head protection, as well as safer return to play guidelines after head injury, CTE can be dramatically reduced in athletes all around the world. In more drastic approaches, certain high impact sports can be eliminated as a whole in order to greatly reduce CTE in athletes. There is no cure, no treatment options, and no tests available yet to diagnosis this disease. Experts urge that the best preventative to CTE is to avoid all contact sports in altogether, something that millions fail to
Since the 1920s, there has been a severe disease linked to athletes. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a disease that effects athletes that have had head trauma. The trauma causes the brain tissue to deteriorate. The changes can become apparent after months, years, or even decades. CTE is linked to memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia. (“What”, 2009). CTE has caused football to change as well as the equipment. CTE is now widely known and is effecting, not only professional athletes, but also high school athletes. Concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy are serious conditions that can affect anyone and have adverse effects.
Football is a physically demanding sport. Every time the ball is snapped, the players lunge into one another at high speeds, along with hard-hitting force, resulting in physical injury to the body and traumatic blows to the head. Players take full-on hits that jolt their bodies back and forth. With the impact of acceleration, deceleration, or collision, the brain is shaken violently causing it to rattle inside the skull. The repetitive hits to the head, that football players endure, bring about mental and cognitive problems, which eventually lead to traumatic brain injuries. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, is a progressive degenerative brain disease which has recently been found in deceased NFL athletes with a history of repetitive head trauma (SLI.com).
This paper connects contact sports with degenerative brain diseases. It also shows that CTE is not only connected to football because of the continuous tackling inducing trauma to the brain, but also soccer where heading the ball can often cause brain damage. This is supported by research of retired NFL football players and soccer players whose brains showed evidence of CTE. Also when the Mayo Clinic studying the brains of those who did not participate in contact sports showing no evidence of CTE. Based on scientific evidence degenerative brain diseases such as CTE are caused by successive concussions. Since concussions are one of the most common brain injuries seen in contact sports today there is a definite association between contact sports and degenerative brain diseases.
High impact sports (like football, soccer, etc.) are capable of giving severe concussions and a good amount of long term negative effects. “The NFL revealed that it expects nearly a third of all retired players to develop permanent brain impairments…” (15). People are getting injured in their own careers willingly. More and more
This problem is very important for people to understand in order to protect athletes and military personnel. The health of a persons brain is linked to this problem and people need to be aware of the damage constant hits to the head can cause. The parents of young athletes who are unaware of these things need to be educated so they can try to prevent chronic traumatic encephalopathy as best as possible. This is something that needs to be well know especially because the only real treatment of this is prevention of these constant head injuries. Once the damage has been done, it is irreversible. This is unlike that of a concussion because a concussion is reversible through the proper care and treatment. The symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy
Professional athletes can be at risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,Chronic Traumatic Encetholpothy and concussions. The reason they can occur is because of brain trauma. ALS is a diseases in which certain nerves cells in the brain in the spinal cord slowly die, it is also responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movements. On the other hand CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans and others that have a history in repetitive brain trauma. In CTE, a protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spreads throughout the brain cells, killing brain cells. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that affects your brain function. Concussions are usually caused by a blow to the
I conducted research regarding head injuries such as concussions in athletes and came across to find many sources have said the leading cause of death from sports-related injuries is traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury can happen when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain tissue. A concussion is a part of traumatic brain injury which happens a lot in sports like football. According to a report made by NCCSIR, several football players associated with brain trauma complained of headaches or had a previous concussion before deaths. There have been suggestions made that the cause of concussions in football players happen because of many hits over time not by a single
In recent times, arguments have arisen surrounding the safety of athletic involvement in high risk sports, specifically football, and its links to the onset manifestation of neurological illnesses such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE, is a neurodegenerative illness caused by repeated concussive or subconcussive impacts to the brain. The disease is diagnosed posthumously and is characterized by the excessive accumulation of the tau protein inside the brain, ultimately leading to the atrophy of the cerebral hemispheres. People with CTE exhibit early signs of
“Research on this issue is moving at such a fast pace, but each additional piece of scientific data helps inform players about the risks and allows us to make decisions about making the game safer” (Maland). Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE is one of the top head trauma diseases related to professional American football. CTE is a rare disease found in athletes who have had repetitive brain trauma, this constant strain on the brain triggers a progressive degeneration of the brain tissue or concussions and a buildup of an uncommon protein called tau. Even after the last head trauma the changes to the brain can occur months, years, or decades after (What is CTE). At this point in time there is no cure for CTE, however there are several
Athletes should be put through training that is informative about the dangers of ALS and CTE. Helmets and other protective gear should have softer padding that does not deplete the protection of the gear. As in soccer being hit in the head or using your head to make a goal is inevitable. However, some players should learn to moderate the constant head bunting to prevent them from getting seriously injured. In the boxing league or sport constant hitting to the head is the norm is the sport. In order to stop boxers from getting ALS or Parkinson’s the guidelines should have a rule stating that a boxer must take time for their head to heal completely to avoid any serious injury. The money that these sports make needs to put towards research and development to protect the athletes from getting these
After many studies, researchers have found that a tremendous amount of football players will develop a brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This disease is found mostly in athletes who have encountered direct contact to the head. Most of the time, football players will be afflicted with CTE after receiving multiple hits on or near the helmet. Over time, these hits start to affect players in a negative way causing brain trauma, later resulting in CTE. Consequently, CTE has symptoms that are not pleasant and could change players and their families lives forever; some of the symptoms include mood swings and memory loss. CTE also leads to other health afflictions; from the article, Anne McDonnell states, “Brain injuries
Many players are dying due to this brain trauma CTE is caused by repeated blows to the head. Players are getting better and harder hits are doing more damage to the brain than several years ago, rules are being reformed to make sports much safer(Weir 4) It's no wonder that kids and adults are getting hurt much more often than many years ago athletes are naturally getting bigger The average weight for an athlete has gone up 50 pounds since ten years ago.
Nearly one third of all professional football players are expected to develop long-term brain trauma and experience these problems earlier in life than somebody who did not participate in sports. A brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), has more recently became a danger to current and former athletes during a sport that includes blows to the head. Scientists have been aware of the symptoms of head trauma for almost 100 years but not the full extent of it. In recent years, studies that display how CTE affects athletes has furthered our understanding of the dangers of repetitive head trauma.
Have you ever heard about CTE? CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic sub concussive hits to the head. An article about the dangers of CTE was recently posted on CNN.com by Jason Hanna, Debra Goldschmidt, and Kevin Flower.