SCIENCE in your LIFE
The Brain and American Football
By T.B.
How concerned about brain injuries should athletes be? It is known the brain is super important in day to day life. However, the way the brain works and how certain events can affect the brain for a short time or for a lifetime. Is something as simple as a sport worth risking your mental health or even your child’s mental health?
Injuries to other parts the treatment and recovery time are easier to judge. The body part is limited as much as possible on movement and usage. The brain can’t just be turned off till it’s good to go again. C.T.E. is a disease common among football players which can only be diagnosed by an autopsy on the brain. This disease causes the brain to lose mass and cause the brain function incorrectly. The effects of C.T.E. include memory loss, reduced ability of memory, and mood swings. Aaron Hernandez a tight end for was convicted of murder then killed himself. He was later diagnosed with one of the worse cases of C.T.E. in anyone his age he was only 27. Former NFL linebacker Junior Seau was also diagnosed with C.T.E. after his autopsy.
Football is a violent sport and the constant blows to the head are causing mental health problems down the road. Programs such as Heads Up Football focus on teaching kids to tackle properly without dropping their heads or using the tops of their helmets. Rules lowering the amount of hits to the head and neck region are also in place.
The negative to this is more players getting hit lower causing season ending injuries. The problem is when a player has a major bone, muscle, or ligament injury their season is usually over. A concussion typically allows a player to be back the next week. While in the terms of getting back on the field this is ideal. It is not for long term health.
Schultz, V., Stern, R. A., Tripodis, Y., Stamm, J. M., Wrobel, P., Lepage, C., . . . Koerte, I. K.
(n.d.). Age at First Exposure to Repetitive Head Impacts Is Associated with Smaller Thalamic Volumes in Former Professional American Football Players. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28990457
Please send any questions or comments to Dr. Spitzer (spitzern@marshall.edu )
Note: Any opinions expressed in these articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent those of Dr. Spitzer, the Department of Biological Sciences, or Marshall University.