Head Trauma In Sports

CTE is a brain disease found in individuals with annals of head trauma. It has specifically been found in athletes with numerous concussions. So far it can only be diagnosed in the deceased, but Dr. Julian Bales and his staff in UCLA have discovered symptoms in living players such as Hall of Famer Anthony “Tony” Dorsett, Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure, and NFL All-Pro Leonard Marshall. CTE can cause memory loss, dementia, depression, suicidal thoughts, cognitive and emotional difficulties (Waldron par 1, 2, 3). Is it a compelling issue? A total of 171 concussions were reported in the NFL in the 2012-2013 season; 88 thus far in the 2013-2014 season (Frontline pt). Those are just numbers in the professional level. There are thousands of kids playing football either in youth, middle school, high school, or college level. The diagnosis is currently in progress, researchers are optimistic this could lead to a legitimate treatment, how to manage, and hopefully a cure. Furthermore, this can also possibly lead to an answer to a connection between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Junior Seau, Mike Webster, Terry Long, and Justin Strzelczyk (all of whom are dead now) are all men who played in the NFL for an extent period of time. This is not the only thing they have in common. These former players had an uncustomary

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.

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).

Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.

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

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.

It is the moment football fans live for: the running back brakes through the line and heads up the field only to be sacked moments later. In the time it takes for the crowd to stand and cheer, the running back has forgotten where he is. His struggle to remember the four words he was just given on the sidelines increases every moment. His obvious concussion will keep him from playing for a few weeks but then he will be as good as new and ready to play again, right? But what about the long term affects of his concussion? When Mike Webster died at the age of 50 in 2002 from heart failure, his autopsy showed more than just a heart condition. Dr. Omalu, from the University of Pittsburgh found chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, which shows atrophy to the brain similar to Alzheimer 's. CTE is a progress degenerative brain disease said to be caused by repetitive brain trauma, such as hard hits in football (Tanaka and Wells). Dr. Omalu 's discovery of CTE has brought up many questions including what is CTE and what are its effects, and did the NFL know about the possibility of CTE and why do they keep denying its existence. Because of Omalu 's discovery CTE and the NFL are in the limelight as players past and present worry if they are at risk. As more and more people learn about CTE, the level of urgency to find answers to these questions rises. In response, the NFL and other companies are backing research in hopes of finding ways to prevent and cure CTE, all while learning

Science says concussions are inevitable; 96 percent of all NFL players and 79 percent of all football players test positive for brain disease (Source: Frontline League of Denial 9/18/15 Concussion Watch Article). Prior to 2002, the NFL’s approach to preventing, treating, and managing concussions and CTE was very different than it is today. My essay will explore what some of those differences were and whether or not changes in the NFL are improving the outcomes and quality of life for current and former NFL players.

The National Football League (NFL) generates billions of dollars a year and it produces the most watched events on television. However, recent research has showed that the game of football might be too dangerous for someone to consider it to be a full-time job, and the players have taken notice. A recent trend has started consisting of players retiring well-before the “prime” of their careers, and this is due to the physical damage that isn’t always so clear to the eye. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative brain disease, has reared its ugly head in the brains of former NFL players. This disease is caused by repetitive collisions to the head and concussions, something that occurs with football players at an extremely

CTE is a problem arising among professional athletes dating back to the 1920’s. (Jay Barry Harris) Many of these athletes, mostly retired, have struggled in their later years with mental illnesses such as memory loss, depression, substance abuse, and suicide. (Saulle and Greenwald) Concussions are the most common occurrence in athletes with an estimated 1.6–3.8 million sport-related concussions reported annually in America (Daneshvar et el). Concussions are the main source of CTE, however this can be an underrepresentation of the true number because many athletes do not seek medical attention or vocalize their symptoms. Many athletes fail to report their symptoms because of their desire to continue playing. In a 2009 CTE review, it found that 46 out of 51 neuropathologically diagnosed cases of CTE occurred in athletes, which translates to 90% (Mckee et el).

Over the past several years, concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) have become hot topics in the world of football. The long lasting effects of concussions and CTE experienced

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

A recent study of college football players has shown that those who participate in high contact sports and have had a concussion before have a 300% higher chance of having another one in comparison to athletes that have never had a concussion before (Jolicoeur et al, 2007). The NFL and NCAA have enacted several rule changes in order to minimize the occurrence of concussions. These new rules, like many before them, have come under the scrutiny of the very athletes that they were meant to protect. The NHL and NHL Players Association in 1997 together created a program in order to get a better understanding of concussions and how to prevent them (Burke et al, 2011). According to Covassin (2008), athletes who have had more than one concussion take a longer time to recover with each concussion that they suffer from.

Concussions are becoming known as one of the largest issues in sports. A concussion is defined by the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Concussions as “a traumatically induced transient disturbance of brain function and involves a complex pathophysiological process (E. Abreu 2).” In simpler terms, concussions are stress to the brain tissue caused from an impact. When studying the effects of multiple concussions on the brain, Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered a brain disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of former NFL player Mike Webster. CTE proves the cognitive and psychological damage that multiple concussions do to the brain over a lifetime. Concussion awareness has been created by new research about concussions, advancements in technology, and the results from Dr. Omalu’s CTE study.