Our Brains Are Not Meant To Be Traumatized Repeatedly

You've got to love irony.  Last Monday, a cross-sectional study of retired National Football League players was published in JAMA Neurology in which the authors concluded that cognitive impairment was more common in former NFL players compared to matched controls.  The authors arrived at their conclusion by comparing 34 retired players with & without a history of having sustained a concussion to 26 healthy controls.  Both neuroimaging & neuropsychological testing demonstrated changes in the athletes compared to the controls.

Then 3 days later, the National Institutes of Health announced that their autopsy analysis of Junior Seau's brain demonstrated "multi-focal tauopathy consistent with a diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy" which goes a long way towards explaining his erratic behavior & mood in retirement as described by his family.  But to be clear, this isn't proof, just evidence for a hypothesis that can never be proven in his particular situation.

We've know for quite some time that boxers are at great risk for dementia pugilistica.  And Muhammad Ali's Parkinson's disease has been linked to his years of boxing.  Earlier this month, a neurologist commented on Manny Pacquiao's twitches as possible early evidence of Parkinson's disease.

One last thought: adherents of Thai kick boxing who repeatedly sustain blows to their head have an increase risk of growth hormone deficiency & other pituitary dysfunction, presumably from repeated head trauma despite the fact that the pituitary is buried deep inside the brain.

Bottom line: take care of your brain.  Don't bang it around.  It's the only one you've got and it has to last you a lifetime!

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