Amanda Flores
Mr. Needham
ERWC Per. 2
25 October 2017
Head to Head
Over recent years there had been increasing attention focused on the neurological sequelae of sports-related traumatic brain injury, particularly concussion. Concussion can often lead to ALS and CTE. ALS is mostly found in Athletes, which affects the athletes playing ability. CTE is found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma, mostly athletes as well. CTE includes symptomatic concussions. The sports world should educate the players about the dangers of head to head collision and also enforce different rules without changing the traditional game. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a genetic disorder that has proven
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CTE is found mostly in Athletes because of head injury occurring in sports. Researchers believe CTE is related to build of an abnormal form of a protein called Tau in the brain, which can lead to brain cell death.
Diagnosed at such a young age, usually non-athletes get diagnosed with ALS at the age of 40-70 with average age at 55. Non-athletes don't suffer with injury to the head as much as Athletes do. Athletes however, tend to be diagnosed with ALS between 20’s and 30’s. CTE was discovered in 3 of 14 high school players and 48 of 53 college players. One Athlete named Junior Seau, who committed suicide in May, two years after retiring as one of the linebackers in the NFL. Seau suffered from the type of Chronic brain damage. The family of Seau stated “ a lot of head-to-head collisions over the course of 20 years of playing in the NFL, developed the detention of his brain and ability to think logically” (paragraph 4), resulted to the disease of CTE.
Repetitive head trauma resulting from collision sports such as Football and Boxing may be associated with ALS. A traumatic brain injury is an injury to the brain caused by the head being hit by something or shaken violently. A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or when the head is moved quickly back and forth. Females and males concuss differently, females are more likely to suffer with migraines during child-bearing age (paragraph 2).
CTE affects many different athletes all over the world. Chronic Traumatic encephalopathy or normally referred to as CTE is a brain disease that affects people who have had multiple head injuries. It is found in many cases of ex NFL players who took many hits to the head when playing over their careers. There are many documented cases of it across other sports and some military veterans as well. We have made large strides in learning more and more about the terrible disease. The game of football has changed since we have learned so much more about the terrible disease in recent years. We could prevent concussions by changing the way players practice.
Which are the two major factors that leads to ALS and CTE´s. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury and most of the time temporary. It is caused by an external impact to the head causing the brain to crash against the skull. Common symptoms are dizziness, headaches, sensitivity, balance issues, and slower processing speeds. There are many differences between male and females when it come to concussions. One of them is the type of test done because men and women both have different reactions to a concussion. While for men it is very obvious and can be determined by simple questions, a girl it is quite different because they do not respond the same way to a concussion. Most concussions just require rest letting the brain recover, but when athletes do not do this it becomes a problem. When this happens toxic proteins start to enter the spinal cord which have been tied up with ALS and CTE. Lou Gehrig born on June 19, 1903 is a good example because of his consistent game record. He suffered from so many concussions and injuries while setting this record, but he never rested because he wanted to keep his streak going which gave him the name “The Iron Horse” It is said that his head was so swollen that he had to borrow Babe Ruth's hat because his would no longer fit. These consecutive blows to the head are the actions considered to have caused his ALS. which was diagnosed in 1939 and later died in 1941 two years after his
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
“Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a progressive disease of the brain found in athletes who have a history of repeated brain trauma…” (Harris) CTE is closely associated with Alzheimer’s, another gradual, deteriorating brain disease that destroys the individual’s ability to remember, make decisions, and eventually takes away the ability for people to complete every day functions. Alzheimer’s is usually diagnosed around the age of 65 or older as a result of brain cell failure. (Alzheimer’s Association) CTE, on the other hand, affects individuals younger than 65. Generally, with CTE, people who are athletes are diagnosed around forty or fifty years of age. The athletes who are most affected with CTE, are those who have played
CTE occurs when there is a “build up of tau, a protein that spills out of cells due to blunt forced trauma.” (FORBES) This build up of tau can disable neural pathways in the brain that control things like memory, judgment, and fear. (FORBES) CTE has also been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). CTE was discovered in 2002 by Bennet Omalu a forensic pathologist. The first player to be diagnosed with CTE was Mike Webster, a former center for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Webster died in 2002 from a heart attack. However, during his autopsy his brain showed severe damage which then became known as CTE. Ultimately, doctors believe that Webster’s death could have been a result of the CTE that they found. (coll.) According to Boston University and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’ study, 87 out of 91 former NFL athletes have tested positive for the brain disease, CTE. It is important to note that this study was also performed on former high school and college athletes and the results were similar. Therefore, the danger of concussions is not just within the spectrum of the NFL.
CTE is a brain disease that is due to repeated head trauma that as you know affects many pro football players. Almost all of the brains that have been donated for research by NFL players have had traces of CTE. This
One major medical term that is thrown around when people bring up head injuries in sports is CTE or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE is progressive degenerative disease that can only be found and diagnosed postmortem. This is found in players of sports at all ages but mostly found in players of middle age and players of football, ice hockey and most contact sports. Most people that suffer from CTE have sustained multiple concussions or head injuries and ignored the symptoms or came back to early from the injury. Most professional sports athletes know of this disease and one hockey player stated
Contact sports like football, boxing, wrestling, and hockey have health risks associated with repetitive head trauma that can produce concussions. Players of these types of sports are at a significantly higher risk for developing long-term brain damage and cognitive impairment later in life. A concussion is a subset of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and results from shaking the brain within the skull. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (the “AANS”) has defined a concussion as “a clinical syndrome characterized by an immediate and transient alteration in brain function, including an alteration of mental status and level of consciousness, resulting from mechanical force or trauma.” (Sports-related
However, athletes are more vulnerable to the disease than others. This is further explained in NCBI.gov which states, “CTE seems to happen with people that suffered repeated concussions. Most likely occurs with multiple blows to the head without loss of consciousness.” This proves that since athletes are usually exposed to having a concussion, it increases the risk of having CTE. The risk of receiving a concussion and having CTE shines light on the need for new equipment to protect the head. These collisions to the head change the lives of many young athletes because diseases like ALS and CTE.
CTE affect player with concussion because they can start developing CTE. CTE is known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy which is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma. Recent data have shown 17% of individual with repetitive mTBI may develop CTE. Athletes who return to play before their first event are healed place themselves at a significant risk of a second significant brain injury and the adverse effects of the cumulative process. Even though that the player might be clear from concussion but CTE continues to progress, continue to execute their effects and as long the individual lives, the worse the symptoms become. CTE can affect player behavior, mood, memory, and
Since 2009 over 500 players have come forward with personal legal suits regarding long term effects of concussions. The NFL conducted research from 1994 to 2009 lead by one Elliot Pellman [1]. At the time he was employed by the Jets franchise and claimed that no data had shown up. He then reported that they did not find any direct connections between head injuries received while playing, to long-term consequences. Since this study funded by the NFL, a lot of progress has been made proving them wrong. One of these big discoveries was CTE. CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found most commonly in athletes. It is caused by multiple concussions that then trigger progressive degeneration of the brain tissue, including the build up of an abnormal protein called tau. [1]. These changes to the brain can begin months, years, or even decades after the last concussion or end of active lifestyle. This can lead to memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, paranoia, impulsive control problems, aggression, depression, and eventually progressive dementia [6]. In 2008 Dr. Robert Cantu of Boston University’s school of medicine partnered with a team to create the worlds first research center dedicated to studying CTE [6].
They are: cerebral neurasthenia, chronic traumatic brain injury, chronic brain injury, compensation hysteria, concussion neurosis, delayed traumatic apoplexy, dementia traumatic, encephalopathy traumatica, litigation neurosis, postconcussion neurosis, post concussion syndrome, post-traumatic concussion state, post-traumatic head syndrome, post-traumatic psychoneurosis, terror neurosis, traumatic constitution, traumatic encephalitis, traumatic encephalopathy, traumatic encephalopathy of boxers, traumatic hysterias, traumatic insanity, traumatic neurosis, traumatic psychosis, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. (2) Dr. James Noble, a Columbia University neurologist who was invited to write an editorial to accompany the article, said he hopes this case will bring attention to amateur athletes who may be at risk for CTE even if they don’t play professionally. But Eric Nauman, a professor at Purdue a member of the Purdue Neurotrauma Group, said while the case provides more evidence of the danger of repeated impact to the head. Researchers should also be looking for cases of CTE in individuals without obvious symptoms, Nauman said. Toward the end of his time on the field, he felt his brain slowing down and knew something was wrong. He saw himself in the stories of former NFL
So what is this CTE that changes an athlete's life forever ? CTE is when you get multiple head trauma. It is a Neurodegenerative disease that causes damage to Neurons. The brain starts to die when having CTE. CTE can only be diagnosed after death when examining someone's brain.
Firstly, CTE is caused by different factors, but in general, CTE is caused when a person had repeatedly experienced concussions or brain trauma. The brain trauma could be due to blows to the head, explosions, severe shaking, abrupt stops during movement, or repetitive hitting to the head. CTE can be very common among athletes that participate in extreme physical activities that involve a lot of physical contact between another person or object, such as boxing,
Although researchers say that they are not sure why people in general get ALS there are some reasons why it happens. Athletes might get ALS due to the possibility that physical activities might somehow increase exposure to environmental toxins or make it easier for the brain and body to absorb the toxins. Another cause can also be that proteins are not being processed correctly by the nerve cells. On the other hand young athletes that are being diagnosed with CTE are getting this disease because of head injuries that lead to trauma as well as concussions. When an athlete has a concussion it is important to rest, but if the athlete is not resting and not following the doctor's instructions it can be very severe. If there tends to be multiple concussions or head injuries and are not taken care of the proper way it is more likely to develop CTE. Researches are still trying to figure out the causes of both of this horrific diseases that are destroying athlete's life. Researchers are also trying to come up with some sort of cure that may be able to resolve this diseases. Therefore concussions or head traumas can lead to this if the athlete is does not know how to take care of that