TOO MANY FOOTBALL HITS CAN CHANGE THE BRAIN

I have chosen this article because it talks about health and sport. It tell us about a disease call CTE that affects our brain and it was known to occur in people who had experienced repeated hits to the head, such as boxers, hockey players, wrestlers and military veterans — usually as they enter their 40s to 70s. However, a disturbing new study now reports CTE in a young college football player.

CTE is short for chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It is one of several diseases caused by changes to a brain protein called “tau”. After head trauma, tau proteins can change.

In CTE, tau proteins begin to change in the prefrontal cortex. This area — located right behind the forehead — is involved with decision-making, emotion and behaviour. So CTE victims are likely to become moody, aggressive and depressed. Some commit suicide, or attempt to do so.

This man I mentioned before had played football for 16 years. He had received too many head traumas. A major concussion during his first year of college led to headaches, blurred vision, memory loss and insomnia. He stopped playing football and also he left university.

However, problems continued and the young man died of a heart attack at age 25. His family agreed to let researchers examine his brain. Researchers believe that he had died because of a post-concussion syndrome. Nobody could imagine that his brain had developed CTE until they opened it. He was too young. In addition, Tau tangles tied up cells in 10 regions of the brain. They had never before found it to be so widespread in someone as young as this man.

This team reported its findings on January 4 in JAMA Neurology.

I have chosen this piece of news because nowadays everybody is very concerned about health and sport. I found then very interesting and this is something curious that all people could enjoy reading. 

Published by Antonio Villarejo