New Research Points to Brain Injuries in College Football

[Redfairen]

As the National Football League continues to face scrutiny and litigation over concussions, new evidence shows that brain injuries may be a problem at the collegiate level too. According to a study published today in PLOS One, college football players who sustain hits to the head may experience long-term brain damage even if they aren’t concussed.

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic used blood tests, brain scans, and cognitive and other tests to assess brain trauma in 67 college football players over the course of the 2011 season. Although none of the players experienced concussions, blood tests showed that the 40 players who absorbed the hardest hits had elevated levels of an antibody linked to brain damage. These players then underwent brain scans at the University of Rochester Medical Center. When the scans were analyzed in a double-blind process, researchers found abnormalities that were predicted by the presence of the antibody.

“This positive correlation could be an early indicator of a pathological process that, with time, could perturb players’ brain health,” says Nicola Marchi, a professor of molecular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, who co-authored the study with Lerner colleague Damir Janigro and Rochester’s Jeffrey Bazarian. “All football players have repeated subconcussive hits—throughout the game, the season, and their careers,” he says, but without external symptoms of injury, the hits were hard to measure. The blood tests appear to offer an early warning system.

.......

The Cleveland study released today shows that even players who don’t sustain concussions may be at risk, and it focuses new attention on college football. That in turn suggests that the risks may be far more widespread than previously acknowledged: Around 20,000 men play at the highest levels of college football, compared with the 1,700 players in the NFL.


http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-06/new-research-points-to-brain-injuries-in-college-football

[pipoman]

1. Not even considering

high school and pre-high school..contact sports of all types cause many accidents, impairments, and injuries. There is a price to be paid by society for allowing these sports.

[peace13]

2. Where do we stop?

Horseback riding, bikes, roller skates, motorcycles, sledding, skiing, snow boarding, car accidents....walking on wet floors. So, OK the research shows head hits are very damaging to the brain, now how can we control the damage?

My sister is a horse woman. She had several head hits from riding horses. By age 55 she was completely disabled, no walking no bowel control, and more. Now three years later everything has been taken from her. Her speech is undecipherable, she can only poke with one finger and thank god for her iPad game, without that, she could do nothing. But ask her if she would have given up horses and the answer would be no.

It will be great when we can turn the research into cures because like as we may, we can't control accidents. Peace , Kim

[pipoman]

3. Exactly

there is inherent danger in living...we either try to legislate safety to protect everyone from possibilities and live with what we create, or we accept some risk and live in freedom..