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Posts Tagged ‘Brain’

I grew up down the street from Gene Upshaw, Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders, and Head of the Player’s Union for years. I love football.

That said, my 12-year-old son and I have an ongoing debate over whether or not he can play PeeWee Football (in the San Ramon Valley it’s called Thunderbirds). As a psychologist, I have told him repeatedly that the damage done to his body, in particular his brain, is not worth any success that may be had playing football. I have followed the research findings over the past 5 years with regards to brain trauma and football and here is what I have found.

The brain is the consistency of a wet sponge or a soft boiled egg. The human skull is hard to keep your brain safe from injury. However, the inside of the skull has pointed ridges which can damage the brain when the head and body are stopped suddenly, such as that which happens on many plays in football. Even those hits which do not result in a concussion still bruise the brain to an extent.

Damage to the brain is not as simple as one has a concussion or one does not. It is not black and white. Damage to the brain occurs on a continuum. One way to think of it more accurately is to imagine a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being uninjured and 10 being a severe concussion. Obviously, this is overly simplistic, but a step above thinking of concussions as binary (i.e., I have a concussion or I do not).

Even lesser hits in football can result in minor bruises to the brain, bruises which may not be considered even mild concussions. But there is still a cumulative negative effect on the brain. And we’re beginning to see the results thanks to former NFL and college players who have donated their brains after death.

Researchers have known for roughly 20 years that ex-NFL players suffer from the degenerative brain disease known as CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE is the only fully preventable cause of dementia of which we know.

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A new study has revealed that the brain of a deceased 18-year-old former college football player showed early signs of CTE. This is the youngest age that signs of CTE have been found, to my knowledge.

The same study also report that Mike Borich, a former college football player who passed away at the age of 42, showed advanced signs of CTE. This is the first time that advanced signs of CTE have been identified in a former college player who never played in the NFL. It is also the first time that CTE signs have been found in one who played the position of wide receiver. This means that the damage done to the brain in high school and college football is taking a toll on the brain that adversely affects quality of life later on. Adverse effects of CTE may include symptoms such as change in personality, self-destructive behaviors, addictive behaviors, memory loss and more.

According to Dr. Robert Cantu, a leading sports concussion expert and clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University School of Medicine, ‘ It is our hope that this evidence helps draw the focus of the CTE discussion to amateur athletes, where it belongs. Young men and women are voluntarily exposing themselves to repetitive brain trauma without full knowledge of the potential consequences, and the rules of the games are designed without an appreciation for the risks carried by the players.’

Cantu and the other co-directors of the BUSM CSTE, Robert Stern, PhD, and Chris Nowinski, a former division I football player, published a paper that reported these CTE findings in the July issue of the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology (2009, vol.68¸ pp. 709-735). The results were also presented to the NFL Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee and NFL Players Association.

As long as I’m in charge of my son’s health, he won’t be playing football. The risk is too high. The importance of a healthy brain is too great. A healthy brain is necessary for a thriving, happy and meaningful life. Odds are, he will be angry with me for some time. I’d rather deal with his temporary anger than with his permanent brain trauma.

Dr. John Schinnerer is in private practice helping people learn anger management, stress management and the latest ways to deal with destructive negative emotions. He also helps clients discover optimal human functioning via positive psychology. His practice is located in the Danville-San Ramon Medical Center at 913 San Ramon Valley Blvd., #280, Danville, California. He graduated summa cum laude from U.C. Berkeley with a Ph.D. in psychology. He is collaborating with the University of New Zealand on the International Wellbeing Study to look at what we do right and what make for a meaningful, thriving life. Dr. Schinnerer has been an executive and psychologist for over 10 years. Dr. John Schinnerer is President and Founder of Guide To Self, a company that coaches clients to their potential using the latest in positive psychology, mindfulness and attentional control. Dr. John Schinnerer hosted over 200 episodes of Guide To Self Radio, a prime time radio show, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Schinnerer’s areas of expertise range from positive psychology, to emotional awareness, to corporate culture, to sports psychology. Dr. Schinnerer wrote the award-winning, “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought,” which is available at Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. His blog is among the top 3 in positive psychology ( http://drjohnblog.guidetoself.com )

http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/football-and-brain-trauma-should-you-allow-your-child-to-play-youth-football-4591067.html

A new report about the severity of repeated head trauma will surely shock the football community from youth to NFL players and cause them to rethink the dangers of concussions on the field.

According to clinical researchers at Boston University School of Medicine’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, the brain of a recently deceased 18-year-old high school football player showed the earliest signs of an incurable brain disease caused by the kind of repetitive head trauma he experienced on the football field.

Surprising researchers was the age of the player and the level of brain damage. “The findings are very shocking because we never thought anybody that young could already be started down the path to this disease,” said Dr. Robert Cantu, a clinical professor of neurosurgery at BU Medical Center and a co-director of the brain study institute. “It should send a very powerful message to people at every level of football that they need to care about this issue and treat concussions with respect.”

In the same study, postmortem exams of the brains of seven former NFL players who died between the ages of 36 and 50 showed that six of the men suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease caused by multiple head injuries. It afflicts individuals similarly to early-onset Alzheimer’s.

The 18-year-old high school student, whose identity was withheld at his family’s request, had suffered numerous concussions playing football and other contact sports.

Dr. Ann McKee, a neurologist and director of BU’s brain bank and co-director of the study center, said she has conducted postmortem exams of thousands of brains. “I have never seen this disease in the general population, only in these athletes. It’s a crisis, and anyone who doesn’t recognize the severity of the problem is in tremendous denial.”

CTE is known to generally show symptoms only many years after a football player leaves the sport. Had the teen lived, neurologists said, he eventually would have developed early-onset dementia that would have advanced until his death.

Athletic administrators, coaches, athletes and parents need to be aware of the long-term dangers of repeated concussions in football and other contact sports and take action to encourage safer helmet design, stronger rule enforcement and immediate medical treatment following head trauma.

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