Former NFL Player Duerson’s Brain Boosts Evidence Around CTE

[AngryAmish]

Source: wsj

Boston University researchers concluded that another brain donated by a former NFL player shows all the characteristic signs of a progressive brain disorder known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.

This time, the player was Dave Duerson, who committed suicide in February after leaving a note saying he wanted his brain to be studied. (To avoid damaging brain tissue, he shot himself in the chest rather than the head.)

In total, 13 of the 14 brains of former NFL players studied by the BU group have shown signs of CTE.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/05/02/former-nfl-player-duersons-brain-boosts-evidence-around-cte/

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I may have given up on football. The cost is too high.

I played football (badly). I boxed. I have had dozens of concussions as medically defined. Have I lost something? I don't know.

What I do know is I have a son who is four months old and he will never play football, even if he begs me.

[Drale]

1. I wonder if any of the new equipment that has been introduced

over the last 25-30 years has had any effect.

[TheMadMonk]

8. No, just the intensity of the game has increased.

The intensity of most sports has increased enormously.

1956 Olympics, competing gymnasts had spotters on the floor in competition to guard them through such complex moves as a backward walkover. (Well maybe not walkovers.)

[Blue_Tires]

2. tragic story all around...

[Bombero1956]

3. this was bound to happen

Humans have gotten larger both naturally and by use of HGH and other steroids. The amount of punishment these guys are handing out has been surpassed by the body's ability to absorb these hits.

[Odin2005]

4. And people have the audacity to claim that NFL players are paid too much.

[TheMadMonk]

9. At the top end, WAAY too much. Same goes for ALL types of professional...

...sportsmen. Make that professional entertainers of all stripes.

[SkyDaddy7]

5. I played soccer from 5yrs old until I was 22...

I had two diagnosed concussions but I also had a broke foot, torn cartilage in both knees that led to 7 scopes, 4 on one knee & 3 on the other...And to end my soccer career while I was playing in the USAF I tore my ACL & MCL in my right knee.

No sport is safe...If I could have children I would try to get them into music, science or some other educational hobby.

[AngryAmish]

10. Golf is pretty safe.

[w8liftinglady]

6. If you are REALLY bored... my neurologist and neurosurgeon have done tons of research

http://www.dcoe.health.mil/Content/navigation/documents/TSC_Presentations/Diaz-Arrastia%20-%20Mild%20Traumatic%20Brain%20Injury%20Lessons%20from%20the%20Civilian%20Experience.pdf

[tblue37]

7. I told my son as he approached his teenaged years that he would not be allowed on the footall field.

He did martial arts, lifted weights for muscle tone, and ran. But no football.

[KittyWampus]

11. Martial Arts is actually a pretty big field. Lots to work at mastering.