Traumatic Encephalopathy Essay

Statistics have shown that over 300,000, student athletes have sustained concussions per year. Concussions are the leading factor to student athletes getting CTE. CTE is a degenerative brain disease that involves a buildup of the abdominal protein (Tao). Studies have shown that 21% of high school players will contain CTE in their life (Haelle). Not only are concussions tackling athletes, but football is also causing serious bone injuries. Student athletes suffer an estimated 2 million injuries every year, which results in 500,000, doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations. Injuries go from broken figures all the way up to a broken neck or back. Studies have shown and will continue to show that football puts the greatest risk of injury on student athletes.

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.

“This sport will never die, but it will never again be, as it was until recently, the subject of uncomplicated national enthusiasm.” This thesis statement introduces us to the basis of what this article sets out to convey. Football is a tradition that is loved by America, but previously lacked the issue of concern that it does now. The most concerning issue that the author is talking about is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Caused by multiple head injuries, over a span of time, this disease results in atrophy of the brain, mood disorders, and dementia. The hidden damage caused by these injuries is taken into consideration when deciding to play football, however it is believed that this risk will deter players from joining in

Traumatic brain injury occurs when a person is hit in the head with a blunt force. This significant force to the head can happen playing recreational sports, on the playground, being in a car or motorcycle accident, falling down at home and your head impacting something, a blast or explosion. Traumatic brain injuries are also the leading cause of fatality rate and disability, especially in children, young adults and elderly. TBI is a devastating condition that affects millions of people nationwide, because it can affect the nervous system permanently, it also messes with the neurological, musculoskeletal, cognitive and much more. TBI force a family to deal with not just the physical disability, with the behavioral and emotional roller

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 2012, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) referred to this concussion crisis as an epidemic. As previous stated, repeated head trauma, such as suffering multiple concussions, is thought to be one of the main predisposing risk factors for developing CTE. Although it is unlikely that one concussion will develop into CTE, research is still be conducted on the amount and severity of a concussion that is required for a player to develop CTE. In published data that looked at the correlation between concussions and CTE, it was found that 84 % of participants with CTE had suffered at least one concussion in his lifetime. Majority of these players suffered more than 15 reported concussions during their lifetime and had over 15 years experience playing football. This evidence is sufficient enough to suggest that concussions are a contributing factor to developing CTE (Stein, Alvarez, & McKee,

Even with the advancements of equipment and rules, CTE is still effecting athletes. Athletes that have suffered significant trauma to the brain are at a severe risk for CTE. CTE has caused countless deaths, dozens of suicides and even

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 (CTE) is caused by many years of playing football. The National Football League (NFL) does not associate CTE to players that have played many years in the NFL. CTE is the root cause of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in football players. The NFL needs to take more steps to prevent injuries that cause CTE and other types of brain damages by taking hard hits more seriously and the test should be better determined for concussions.

The acronym CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy which is a continuous disease that inflicts the brain of athletes who suffered ongoing concussions and traumatic brain injuries. This disease was known to affect boxers, however, recent reports published that CTE exists in retired football players and other athletes who have a history of repetitive brain trauma. CTE triggers degeneration of brain tissue and can begin in months, years, or even decades. The symptoms of this disease is usually memory loss, impaired judgement, depression, confusion and impulse control problems.

CTE has a large influence on football players that get a lot of concussions later on in life. “The condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy was formerly believed to exist primarily among boxers, and was referred to as dementia pugilistica. It is a progressive degenerative disease which afflicts the brain of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic

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).

For the first time ever, researchers at UCLA recently have found signs of CTE in living former NFL players. Until now it was only possible to detect CTE after death. The researchers at UCLA discovered a new method of testing for CTE in living people. They tested four retired players for CTE; Joe DeLamielleure, Leonard Marshall, an unnamed player, and most notably, the Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer, Tony Dorsett. So far, the three named players have all

There is a dark cloud hanging over the world of contact sports and it is growing at an alarming rate. With the size and speed of today’s athletes, the sports of football and hockey have become more exciting, fast paced, wide open, and fun to watch. However, there is another consequence of these ever growing athletes on their sports. They have made the collisions in them increasingly more violent. The velocity that these athletes hurl themselves through the air has created an atmosphere that could not have been imagined when these sports were created. Although the athletes’ bodies have become

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), or intracranial injury, is a medical diagnosis which refers to closed or penetrative damage to the brain that is caused by an external source. Every year, TBIs affect approximately 150-250 people in a population of 100,000 (León-Carrión, Domínguez-Morales, Martín, & Murillo-Cabezas, 2005). The leading causes of TBI are traffic accidents, work injuries, sports injuries, and extreme violence (León-Carrión et al., 2005). TBI is most often fatal when the cause is an injury due to the use of firearms, a traffic accident, or a long fall (León-Carrión et al., 2005). However, fatality rates and rates of occurrence differ in various countries due to