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What we all know — and do not know — about professional soccer and mind issues
by
Judy George, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage At this time
September 27, 2024
A number of information objects this week put skilled soccer and head trauma again within the highlight.
On Monday, a examine confirmed that one-third of former National Football League (NFL) gamers believed they’d power traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
On Tuesday, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre revealed he has Parkinson’s illness.
Favre mentioned 5 specialists advised him they believed it was probably as a result of hits he suffered whereas calling alerts within the NFL.
“All of them mentioned the identical factor,” he mentioned in an interview with TMZ Sports. “‘If it isn’t in your loved ones’ — and there is none on both facet of my household — ‘then the very first thing we take a look at is head trauma.’ Properly, hell, I wrote the guide on head trauma.”
The day after Favre’s announcement, former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer posted on social media that he had been recognized with dementia.
CTE, Parkinson’s-like signs, and dementia have been related to repeated head hits. In issues like Parkinson’s and dementia, etiology typically is unknown and questions on causality cannot be answered simply.
However an abundance of proof suggests there are hyperlinks between enjoying American soccer or different contact sports activities — notably on the elite stage — and elevated dangers of creating neurodegenerative illnesses, particularly CTE, later in life.
“There’s a dose-response relationship between the variety of years and the extent of soccer performed and danger for having CTE neuropathology, in addition to for having extra extreme illness,” mentioned researcher Michael Alosco, PhD, of the Boston College CTE Heart.
“CTE is a neurodegenerative illness that’s triggered by publicity to repetitive head impacts that happen throughout actions like American soccer,” Alosco advised MedPage At this time. “It is each the frequency and the depth of head impacts which are the drivers of the illness.”
Historic research have tied head trauma from boxing to Parkinson’s-like options later in life, Alosco famous. “This literature will be dated again to the Twenties,” he mentioned. “Extra just lately, there have been rising efforts to higher perceive whether or not repetitive head impacts from American soccer would possibly affect danger for different neurological circumstances in addition to CTE.”
A examine in 2023, for instance, confirmed that collaborating in American soccer was tied to increased odds of parkinsonism or Parkinson’s disease. “Once more, the affiliation strengthened because the years and stage of play elevated,” Alosco identified. And a 2024 post-mortem examine confirmed that almost 25% of 481 deceased athletes with CTE had parkinsonism symptoms earlier than they died; almost all had performed American soccer.
Research of professional soccer gamers even have tied repetitive head impacts to subsequent mind issues. In Sweden, for instance, elite soccer gamers had a 46% increased danger of neurodegenerative illnesses like Alzheimer’s and dementia in contrast with the final inhabitants. In Scotland, dementia deaths were greater amongst former professional gamers than matched controls.
“We see associations between CTE neuropathology and cognitive symptoms and dementia,” Alosco mentioned. “Nevertheless, dementia in CTE will also be the results of blended neuropathologies, as it’s regularly co-morbid with different mind illnesses like Alzheimer’s illness or Lewy physique illness.”
“We’re additionally more and more seeing a powerful hyperlink between repetitive head impacts and damage to the white matter,” he continued. “We’re nonetheless at first levels of understanding how repetitive head impacts from American soccer would possibly affect danger for Parkinson’s illness and different neurological circumstances.”
“We have now robust proof for the connection between repetitive head impacts and CTE,” Alosco noticed. “However, do these head impacts improve susceptibility to different mind illnesses? Do they happen impartial of, or in parallel with, CTE? What are the totally different pathologies that repetitive head impacts can induce, and why are sure ones triggered in some people and never others? Why are some individuals resilient or proof against the results of repetitive head impacts? These are questions we nonetheless must reply.”
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Judy George covers neurology and neuroscience information for MedPage At this time, writing about mind growing old, Alzheimer’s, dementia, MS, uncommon illnesses, epilepsy, autism, headache, stroke, Parkinson’s, ALS, concussion, CTE, sleep, ache, and extra. Follow
