Editorial calls for more research on the link between football and brain damage

This is an inevitable consequence of brain hurts football, an avoidable risk of it, or not? An editorial published yesterday in the journal BMJ provocative poses these questions.

Chad Asplund, director of sports medicine at the University of Georgia Regents and Thomas Best, professor and director of sports medicine at Ohio State University, gave an overview of the unresolved connection between football and gaming chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a type of brain damage caused by progression repeated mild brain injuries or bruising. 

This condition was first described by a football player in 2005 after the University of Pittsburgh experts conducted an autopsy in downtown Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Webster, whose life had taken a turn downward after retirement professional football. Since then, researchers have developed a chronic traumatic encephalopathy link to atrophy of brain tissue protein accumulation in the brain in dementia and Alzheimer's disease, memory loss, depression, anger, and Other behavioral and emotional problems.

So far, all cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy players autopsy were tested who have suffered repeated blows to the head. It's a fact of life for almost all professional football players. But some of those with the condition had never been diagnosed with a concussion. According to Asplund and Best, this suggests that a number of head injuries do not cause concussions can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy be important for him risks.

So here's the big question: playing causes of chronic traumatic encephalopathy football, or people who play football and an increased risk of developing? Repeated head injuries can, in fact, the direct cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  

At the same time, it is possible that players who suffer from brain injuries are genetically predisposed to these or other factors that increase the likelihood of developing dementia, emotional or behavioral problems or premature death.

It is essential to address the issue of cause and effect, in part because not knowing the answer sparked fear among the players. San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, one of the best recruits in the National Football League in 2014, recently announced his retirement from professional football due to concerns about the long term effects of repetitive head injuries. In addition, some parents increasingly young players, fearing the possible head injury hazard, keep their children playing football, soccer and other sports.

Health Study at Harvard University Football Players aims to provide solid answers. Its organizers hope it will do for football that the Framingham Heart Study did for heart health and Nurses Health Study did for nutrition.

The 10-year study, launched in 2013, aims to explore something more than the head injury. Includes a variety of medical conditions that affect the quality of life and the life of football players. The study is funded by the Players Association National Football League. He began hiring former NFL players. Hope this study and other research on injuries to sports-related head and brain damage can then provide guidance that players and parents need.