Sometimes I think of football, wrestling and boxing as modern versions of jousting and broadsword tournaments, minus the horses. Players smack each other around and get hurt all the time. So, watching the Super Bowl is painful for me. It's not that I'm not a big football fan (I'm learning) or that I can't stand the enticing commercials (I love them), but more that with every HIKE! I wince as the defensive and offensive lines smash their backs and glutes against each other. But I wince even more when the running back is tackled and his head bounces as he hits the ground.
About a week ago I read an article on how football players suffer multiple concussions and how these concussions could possibly lead to permanent brain damage. This seems logical to me. If you continuously drop your computer, even if you try to fix the old parts, eventually it's going to go put-put-put and then kaput.
It's not only football - or just concussions. Whether it's football, boxing, running or snowboarding - any high impact sport will eventually take its toll all over your body. But concussions have recently taken the spotlight because their cumulative effect can cause lasting and progressive brain damage.
What exactly is a concussion? Your brain hangs out in your cranium surrounded by cushioning spinal fluid, which generally prevents it from bouncing around in your skull. But if your body or head is struck suddenly, like by a fist or a large 300-pound linebacker or the ground, your brain can smack into your skull and become stunned. A concussion can cause temporary amnesia, coordination problems, nausea, confusion, headaches and depression.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is brain damage caused by head trauma. CTE is when toxic proteins build up in the brain, initially impairing some functions, eventually killing brain cells and possibly progressing into dementia. The toxic proteins cause plainly visible damage throughout the brain, similar to what one might expect to see in the brains of elderly people suffering from dementia. Similarly, each time you drop the computer, a few screws and chips come loose and scatter, and eventually, if you drop it enough times, these bits clog the rest of the machinery and prevent proper work.
The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine has reported findings of CTE in both recently deceased former Tampa Bay Bucaneer Tom McHale and a recently deceased 18-year-old boy who played high school football and suffered multiple concussions. McHale is the sixth former NFL player since 2002 found to have suffered from CTE. The other five former NFL players between the ages of 25 and 50, whose brains were also examined neuropathologically, were diagnosed post-mortem with CTE.
CTE is not pretty. It affects many regions of the brain, including those that control emotion, sex drive, memory, balance and coordination. This kind of damage can cause erratic behavior, depression and irrational impulses. And because it is a progressively degenerative, it only gets worse as we get older.
One seemingly unlikely effect of head trauma is long-term depression. A study published by the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University in 2008 reported that there is a neurological basis of depression in patients who have suffered concussions.
Depression can reach up to 40 percent in head trauma patients. Patients suffering from major depression have the same patterns of brain activity as concussed athletes with depression. One study has found that of over 2,500 retired pro-footballers, players were three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression if they had suffered three or more concussions.
It would seem that our helmets are not working so well, because while they protect our skulls, they aren't doing as good of a job on our brains. And the ethical questions start to arise: Do we let our children play football, skateboard or learn karate, knowing that we may be putting them in harm's way? Must we decide between the youthful "now" and the painful "future"?
It is important to consider that thousands of athletes take a beating every day, and so far, only a few studies have been conducted. It may be that only professional or long-term high impact sportsters suffer from this sort of damage or that there aren't enough studies out to know just how much damage we inflict upon ourselves every time we play ball.
But many studies show that high-impact sports are good for muscle tone in your older years, and experience shows that team sports, such as football, help shape psychologically stronger and more competitive future leaders. Sports can prepare us in ways that nothing else can for the challenges of our futures. So wear that helmet, and take care, if you want to get there.
