Happening In Sports

While the NFL is putting new rules and regulations on equipment and which type of tackles are allowed, living retired NFL players are found to already have symptoms of CTE (Fainaru, 2013). Through brain scans and research done by UCLA, they have identified proteins in player’s brains that cause CTE, which as Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director or North Shore Neurological Institute said, is the “holy grail” to studying CTE and finding ways to cure and prevent it (Fainaru, 2013). While this is a break through, there is still no cure or way to treat CTE (Fainaru, 2013). But this research also raises questions about CTE and the NFL. Will players be required to be tested for CTE? Can players be denied playing anymore if CTE is found? Will this greatly affect the way that football is currently played? As the research is still being collected, there is still no definite answer to any of those questions, but the NFL has acknowledged the correlations of CTE and concussions caused by playing in the NFL and assures that they will do all they can to help prevent severe brain trauma to their players, including donating $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to conduct further research on CTE (Kroll, 2013).

The first step to reducing the danger of CTE, is putting more time and money into CTE research. One of the most challenging circumstances dealing with CTE research is that so far researchers have only been able to confirm CTE through post-mortem brain examinations. While people may exhibit signs of CTE such as anger, depression and memory loss, it is impossible to know whether the player is afflicted by CTE or another disease without destroying the brain. To further understand CTE researchers must be able to develop a way to accurately detect CTE in living patients, and properly treat them accordingly. The second, and most common form of reducing CTE risk, lies in producing newer and better equipment. In an article by NeurologyAdvisor, they have decided that, “Most of the public believe that equipment, including new and improved helmets, mouthpieces, sensors, and more have the most potential for improving safety” (Williams). A topic that is currently being discussed, but has little backing, is a new mouthpiece that will be able to record the force of the hit that players receive. This mouthpiece will be connected to a computer that trainers and medical officials on the sidelines can monitor and be alerted when it is possible that a player may have a concussion or other head injuries. While this is a

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or better known as CTE has gained momentum in areas of public awareness and scientific involvement in recent years due to the popularized sport on American Football. During recent years, the media has been swaying and educating the public on the adverse outcomes that CTE can initiate. However, the first discovery of this disease was diagnosed by pathologist Harrison Martland and can be related back to the late 1920’s; the first true cases were identified in the physical sport of boxing. During that time, CTE was commonly known as dementia pugilistica meaning “punch drunk” from the wobbly nature of boxers during repetitive hits to the head.1,2 It was determined that dementia pugilistica (also known as boxer’s

A CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a, “progressive degenerative disease that is believed to plague people who've suffered severe or repeated blows to the head” (Murphy). A player can have a CTE and not even know that they are suffering from it. This is because CTEs can only be discovered after the person dies. Paul Bright, for example, was a football player who played from the time that he was seven until he was a freshman in high school. He had experienced only one concussion, but it changed his entire life. His family and friends described him as hard working and upbeat, but then, something changed. He became reckless and erratic; these traits caused him to die at age twenty-four from a motorcycle wreck. His mother sent his brain off to be tested and discovered that he had been suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This brain disease had caused him to make the type of impulsive decisions that took his life (Murphy). In addition to the CTEs players may experience, the likelihood of dying from brain and nervous system issues increases significantly for football players. Studies from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health discovered that, “death involving neurodegenerative causes among the retired players was three times higher than in the general U.S. population, and the risk for two major

In the world of football, big hits are something that are looked at in a positive light. They are seen as a way of asserting dominance over other players and it is celebrated by teammates. Big hits are a very crucial, almost necessary, part of the game that millions of people gather to watch every Sunday. However, in the past decade, the NFL and other organization have realized that concussions can lead to very serious problems later in life. One of these problems is known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). It is a degenerative brain disease, much like Alzheimer’s, that mainly effects individuals in high contact sports such as boxing or football. Over time, this connection between concussions and CTE has become more common knowledge and more people have started asking the question “do the risks of children playing football outweigh the benefits?”. The answer to this question is yes, football is entirely too violent for children to be playing. According to “Big Hits, Broken Dreams”, one in ten football players gets a concussion, and 35% of players have more than one. The video also states that only 50% of high schools in the United States have a certified athletic trainer on the field (CNN, 2012). If concussions are really a concern for the schools, then why are there not more athletic trainers on staff at these schools to deal with sports injuries? This also forces the public to question these schools even more because if they are willing to cut costs and not hire a

Did you know that 99% of the dead NFL players had signs of Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when scientist looked through their brain (Ventras)? Most people wouldn’t know this fact, but scientist do and have known this since 2002. Even though they are making improvements, there is still an alarming rate of concussions happening. This report will discuss who is affected, how it can be prevented, how it is affecting sports today.

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.

During a match, players will take many hits to the head. At this time, their brains are being rattled around. They may not look injured, but this is an injury that will affect them in present time or in the future years to come. According to Boxing Regulation, many MMA fighters will obtain dementia pugilistica. This disease is similar to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. With these risk of trauma, more people are losing their lives.

Many argue that because of how many concussions football players sustained in their careers is the reason why the players are now suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia. They also believe it can be traced back to their high school career, which now has the young stars parents’ concern. How many concussions happen in sports? According to the BrainLine website, 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports related each year in the United States, during 2001-2005, from ages 5-18 accounted for 2.4 million sports-related ED annually, of which 6% (135,000) involved a concussion. Football accounting for more than 60% of high organized sports concussions. According to Forbes website article, that recent research proved that eighty-seven out of ninety-one ex-NFL players tested positive for brain diseased linked to head trauma. The researchers who studied a large amount of people who have football from a high school, college, or professional level has found evidence of CTE, which is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in over half percent of their participants. Of the brains, the researchers studied, most of them belonged to former NFL players. The problem with CTE is that it can only be detected or found after death. CTE is “an abnormal build-up of tau- a protein that can spill out of cells due to blunt force trauma and can choke off or disable neural pathways that control things such as memory, judgement, and fear”

The rapid escalation of attention in regards to concussions, and the harsh long term health issues these injuries produce, has immensely transfigured legislation in society, sports and within the courthouse. These injuries are evoked through nationally recognized contact sports such as hockey, football, soccer and rugby. These sports entail high levels of aggression through tackling, sliding and fighting. Aggressive behaviors are found in athletes who have intense urgencies to compete and win which may result in rough contact with opposing athletes. The increased awareness on the crisis has specifically targeted sport organizations, schools and government to intervene by putting in policies and regulations to promote safety for all athletes.

In America, the sports industry is one of the largest and most powerful country; whether the sport is football, baseball, basketball, or any of the other sports the country has. Recently reports and documented cases have risen involving some of these sports’ greatest athletes, as well as current players, dealing with concussions (Famous sports concussions, 2012). Numerous athletes, some of them being the sport’s highest profile players, were found to have several mental illnesses and diseases, that have been attributed to head injuries sustained while they were playing their sports. The biggest and most predominant of these injuries is concussions. They can cause not only immediate issues, but also a lifetime of health problems (Smith, 2009). Sports related concussions lead to brain deterioration, which leads to long lasting effects throughout life.

New evidence is now coming out showing that repeated brain trauma significant enough to cause concussions is causing long term effects that do not show up until later in life. This issue is knows as CTE or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This new condition is not yet well understood but the researchers know that it is in part caused by repetitive brain trauma. CTE has many negative side effects and symptoms that many retired NFL athletes are now starting to show which include; executive dysfunction, memory impairment, depression, and suicidality, apathy, poor impulse control, and eventually dementia. Since this is a CTE is a new finding research and findings are slow to come because their is yet to be a clinical diagnosis, findings have only come from post-mortem research and the individual's mental and physical history before his or her death (Baugh & Stamm, 2012). “Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) has found neuropathologically confirmed CTE in football players with no history of diagnosed or reported concussions (but who played positions, such as lineman, with the greatest exposure to repetitive hits to the head). This is a good example as to why concussion recognition, treatment, and prevention is so important. CTE so far is only showing up in athletes who are retired and ages 40 and older. These are the athletes who competed before

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.

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.

There are many contact-sports, where players sometimes get into an accident and injured themselves. There are many incidents that players lost their lives and the percent of injuries increasing day by day. There also some sports where players have to wear head-gear in order to protect brain such as American football, Cricket, baseball etc.Sometimes It also cause long-time effect to brain. Specially in contact sports, because of having enthusiasm in game, players  some time lose focus and get into accident with another player.