Contact Sports and Dementia

Like so many Louisianans, I spend my Sundays going to church in the mornings and watching football in the afternoons. It is one of the great pastimes for my family and friends. Each week we are waiting with anticipation for our team’s next game. We are engulfed in the cheering and high-fiving when our team (Saints of course!) tackle, sack, and block the opponent team. It seems like the harder the hit is the more excited we get. Sometimes I catch myself cheering for those hard hits. With the excitement of it all, we often forget the actual impact those hard tackles can have on players especially when that hard tackle causes a serious injury like a concussion. 

A concussion is an injury to the brain or spinal cord due to jarring from a blow, fall, or the like. Professional, collegiate, and high school football players can sustain multiple concussions during their tenure playing the sport. The impact of multiple concussions can be injurious.  It can have an immediate effect on young players such as the case of former Bengal’s receiver Chris Henry whose autopsy revealed years of brain injuries before his fatal accident.  Long-term effects have been revealed in the case of Alex Karras who succumbed to dementia, and Jim McMahon who has been recently diagnosed with dementia. 

A preliminary study conducted by Dr. Christopher Randolph, clinical professor of neurology at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, affirms that 1 in 3 retired football players will develop some sort of cognitive impairment.  In a separate study conducted by Dr. Bennett Omalu, he demonstrates a link between multiple concussions problems of NFL players and depression and early-onset dementia. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati researches wrote in the journal Neurology that professional football players are much more likely to die from Alzheimer's disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and other conditions cause by brain-cell damage. These researchers discovered that professional football players:  had triple the risk of death caused by diseases that destroy or damage brain cells compared to other people, had four a times greater risk of dying from ALS or Alzheimer's disease, and had about the same risk of death from Parkinson's disease as the rest of the population. They found that speed-position footballers were over three times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative cause than non-speed position players. These studies are preliminary but offer an interesting perspective to impact of violence in some sports.  More information on these studies can be found at www.fitzsimmonsfirm.com, Christopher Randolph, PhD, et al. Characterization of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Retired NFL Players, and Neurology ® the Official Journal of Medical Journal of Neurology (AAN). 

More research is being conducted to determine whether there is a conclusive link between recurrent concussions and dementia in football and similar contact sports. As much as I enjoy football, I have become increasingly aware of the impact it can have on players. Safety comes first before entertainment. I would rather these players practice safety than forfeit their health.  This doesn’t just apply to adults but also to kids playing contact sports. Make sure they are wearing the proper helmets and equipment for the activity. Always seek treatment first if you think you may have a concussion and encourage others to do the same. Once a first concussion is diagnosed, don't return to the activity that caused it until the symptoms go away and a doctor has given the okay.  Be safe and encourage safety. Now let’s watch some football!