Sports concussion epidemic CTE, one of the many brain diseases that can kill you with ease, and the only reason you have this disease is because your coach said to “lead with your screws on your helmet”. Sounds terrible, but this is just one of the many issues with sports concussions. According to, "http://www.protectthebrain.org" an estimated 3.8 million people suffer each year due to sports related concussions. Is “all that we can do”really all that we can do to prevent these brain traumas. Your brain is quite literally who you are; why not take it as seriously as possible?
So what
exactly causes CTE? Just a single hard hit to your head has the potential to
cause serious injury in your brain. Usually these types of hits result in a concussion. However, the hits that are taken to
the head can become frequent, and over time the multiplying blows to your head can
eventually cause CTE. The brains of football players with CTE will actually
have shrinkage as a whole. As well as certain areas such as the medial temporal lobe; this specific lobe is
important for your memory. Furthermore “Some parts of the brain show tangles of tau protein. We all have tau protein, but it forms tangled fibers
in CTE and in certain other neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s” (Skwarecki). Scientists are working
hard and figuring out how these tangles are created as well as the way they are
connected to the symptoms people
exhibit. Typically the severity of CTE is made up of four levels. Each parts symptoms are: level 1: attention problems and
headaches, level 2: short term memory problems, depression, and mood swings, level 3: explosiveness, aggression, and memory loss, and finally level 4: memory loss, horrible cognitive problems, and dementia. Now not every football
player get CTE, in fact many do not get it at all. Football players that play
more seasons, and people that began playing at a young age, are much more inclined to
have a chance of developing CTE. CTE isn’t reserved for just
football players either, military veterans, boxers, and even soccer players can suffer from CTE.
The history of all this CTE talk
starts with a pathologist in Pennsylvania named Dr. Omalu. This man, against all odds, constructed a massive push
forward in concussion studies. An article suggests that, “On a foggy,
steel gray Saturday in September 2002,
Bennet Omalu arrived at the Allegheny County coroner’s
office and got his assignment for the day:
Perform an autopsy on the body of Mike Webster,
a
professional football player.
Omalu did not, unlike most 34-year-old
men living in a place like Pittsburgh, have
an appreciation for American football.”
(JEANNE MARIE
LASKAS). So when Dr.
Omalu
began the autopsy of Mike Webster, everything
started out very typical of a heart attack case.
He
continued the autopsy and made his way to Webster’s
brain. Omalu sat there and was
very intrigued by Webster’s
brain. He started to think to
himself about why a big athletic human being can just go crazy so seemingly
overnight. At first Omalu thought
that it could just be something as
simple as what is known as “punch
drunk syndrome” which originated from
boxers getting hit in the head so much.
Even though football players wear protective helmets,
your
brain is still quite exposed to serious blows.
Omalu
did his basic visual examination of the brain and it seemed normal and healthy,
just
like any other brain. He would not give up
though, knowing that something
was not right. Dr.
Omalu
then brought the brain to his superior Dr. Cyril
Wecht. He got permission to
run more tests on the brain in hopes of uncovering the secret that lied behind
Mike Webster’s radical behavior.
After
countless hours and days, Omalu
finally found it; there were brown and
red spots everywhere in one of the brain samples.
Tau proteins were everywhere,
destroying cells that are accountable for emotions,
temper,
and
so on. This is the reason Mike
Webster went “loony”.
This was just the beginning of CTE.
The only way to beat CTE or cure it is
flat out prevention. However football is
not going away so, what are we going to
do about these constant hits to the head?
So far we have recently
discovered that CTE is
a form of dementia. Although it is still “up
in the air” here is how we think
we can cure CTE, “The concept is to put
neuroplasticity on hyper drive,
in other words
build a larger,
thicker than normal web of brain neurons and neuron connecting cells so to
strengthen our central nervous system. Football players make their bodies as strong
and tough as humanly possible,
we must do the same for our brain.
We must grow and strengthen our brain generating neuroplasticity”
(Janet Rich Pittman).
There
are three steps in doing this. Step
1 is to do aerobic exercises for at least 6 days a week for the rest of your
life. Step 2 is exercising
your brain itself, creating and earning
mental accomplishments for yourself. Finally
step 3 is to eat as natural as you can without any processed food of any kind,
at least 8 hours of sleep every single night,
and to find your purpose to live.
CTE is one crazy disease that is near
impossible to avoid as a football player,
especially as a professional. CTE
has never been taken as serious as it deserves,
and it shows. CTE can and will kill
many in a terrible fashion. What
we have learned in the past, and what we know now needs to contribute more
towards how we treat these types of head traumas.
CTE
is one of the most destructive outcomes to any contact sports player. The question still remains though; are there any solutions to put an
end for CTE? Well many are trying, such as helmet modifications, different protocols, even cannabis.
Starting
out with the helmet modifications,
in the past,
first modifications that were made
was usually an outer-shell that would be around the
helmet. Many players hated this design and
never actually used any of the outer-shell type modifications. However, new designs are quite innovative. A helmet organization called “VICIS” made a helmet that would crumple, similar to how the body of a car
acts in a crash.
An article stated, “The
helmet has been picked up by 25 of the 32 NFL teams as well as about 20 college
programs and will be rolled out during spring practices this year,
though it is not known how many will actually be worn. In terms of safety,
VICIS is far better than its competitors.
33 helmets were tested by the NFL, including
23 from Riddell and Schutt,
and the VICIS ZERO1 finished first among its competitors,
showing that this is the safest model on the market”
(Chmura). It’s
great to see companies becoming more and more inclined to make helmets that
will protect these football players from future problems.
Even though it’s
a very good thing that we are now being more active on this topic,
(CTE)
it is also devastating that it took so many deaths and lawsuits just to get a
big push for more research.
The
NFL has been ridiculed for having a loose concussion protocol system forever
and finally, just last year made
some changes. Things like requiring
a non-biased neurotrauma consultant at every single game.
The changes went underway on December 11th of 2017 by the NFL’s
head, neck,
and spine committee. The consultant at
games will monitor the plays by broadcast coverage and will push protocol
whenever needed, such as contacting the
team’s medical staff that
are there on the sidelines to make sure that they are aware of what’s
going on. For the big playoff
games, there will be an
additional neurotrauma consultant will be there;
that
way, if another player gets
hurt then the other consultant will take on that situation immediately.
This article continues
on to state, “Among other changes, an
impact seizure will be treated as a loss of consciousness and force removal of
a player from a game. A player who stumbles
or falls to the ground trying to stand,
unrelated to an orthopedic injury,
will be sent directly to the locker room for examination.
If
a player passes the exam,
he could be allowed to return to the game”
(France-presse). 
Desperate
to find a way to eliminate or at least slow down CTE,
scientists
have now turned to cannabis.
Even though there is no solid evidence,
there have been a few reports of cannabis having the ability to give
neuroprotection. “Cannabis contains
dozens of biologically active compounds known
as cannabinoids, including some that
preliminary research suggests may help limit the degeneration of brain tissue
associated with CTE.
One
2016 study showed that the cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
can limit brain
inflammation and the accumulation of
harmful proteins in brain cells seen in people with Alzheimer's
disease” (Basen).
Although
marijuana has tested benefits,
it will be a very long while before cannabis will be allowed to protect the
brains of professional athletes.
While
CTE is a devastating brain disease that seems unstoppable,
our scientists are working their absolute best,
and they will eventually find a solution to protect our athletes.
Whether
it is improved helmets, more intense protocols,
or even marijuana; we will find a cure.
Works
cited
Pittman, Janet Rich. “3 Ways to Beat
CTE.” The
Brain Nerd, Helping Prevent, Even Reverse Alzheimer's/Other Dement, 10 Aug. 2017, www.thebrainnerd.com/single-post/2017/08/10/3-Ways-to-Beat-CTE.
Skwarecki, Beth. “All About CTE, the
Brain Trauma Common in Football Players.” Vitals,
Vitals.lifehacker.com, 22 Sept. 2017, vitals.lifehacker.com/all-about-cte-the-brain-trauma-common-in-football-play-1818667327.
UC Davis Health, and Department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. “Bennet Omalu, M.D., M.B.A., MPH, CPE,
DABP-AP, CP, FP, NP.” Department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, 2018, www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/pathology/our_team/faculty/OmaluB.html.
Leaskas, Jeann Marie, and Nick Veasay.
“Bennet Omalu, Concussions, and the NFL: How One Doctor Changed Football
Forever.” GQ, GQ, 15 Sept. 2009, www.gq.com/story/nfl-players-brain-dementia-study-memory-concussions.
Mayo Clinic. “Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo
Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Apr. 2016, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20370925.
-Basen, Ryan. “Can Science Solve
Football's Concussion Crisis?” NBCNews.com,
NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/can-science-solve-football-s-concussion-crisis-ncna809771.
-France-presse, Agence. “N.F.L.
Changes Concussion Protocol.” The New
York Times, The New York Times, 25 Dec. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/12/24/sports/football/nfl-concussion-protocol.html.
-Chmura, Chris. “The Solution To
CTE In Sports May Be Coming Sooner Than You Think.” Medium, Section240, 17 May 2017,
medium.com/section240/the-solution-to-cte-in-sports-may-be-coming-sooner-than-you-think-7fbfd01be135.
-McDermott, John. “This Doctor
Thinks He's Found a Way to Treat CTE. So Why Won't Anyone Fund His Research?” MEL Magazine, MEL Magazine, 23 Aug. 2017,
melmagazine.com/this-doctor-thinks-he-found-a-way-to-treat-cte-so-why-wont-anyone-fund-his-research-6e736caa05d.
concussion legacy foundation. “What Is
CTE?” Concussion Legacy Foundation,
30 Aug. 2017, concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE.
brain injury research institute. “What Is
CTE?” What Is CTE? | Brain Injury
Research Institute, 2018, www.protectthebrain.org/Brain-Injury-Research/What-is-CTE-.aspx.
No comments:
Post a Comment