Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a Former College Football Player

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 25-year-old former football player

Ann C. McKee, MD et al. JAMA Neurology, January 2016 DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.3998

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with repetitive head impacts and can be diagnosed only by autopsy after death. Authors write an observation letter about CTE pathology in a 25-year-old former college football player who experienced more than 10 concussions while playing football, the first occurring when he was eight years old.

Posted on BrainLine January 5, 2016.

Comments (3)

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I wish the USA had never misappropriated the term ''football' for a sport that really should be called ''handball'' or better yet, ''smashball''.  If anything, this is the sport that should've been called ''SOCKER'' instead of the other way around. TRUE football, the international, ORIGINAL football, is the beautiful game, and shouldn't be confused with articles stating that such devastating head injuries are associated with it. And no, heading a ''soccer'' ball doesn't do anywhere near the damage that American football (head blows) do.

In the US, women are 60 percent of people with Alzheimer's and men are 40 percent.  Alzheimer's researchers grasp for the reasons women might be at the "epicenter of the epidemic" but they seem to be completely ignoring one major factor.  Women are the victims of domestic violence much more than are men.  Most battery is directed to the chest, neck (strangulation) and head.  Many, many women in DV situations report having their head smashed against the wall or floor, or of being strangled (which cuts off blood flow to the brain).  And we know from the experience of boxers and football players that head traumas cause dementia.  So why isn’t domestic violence ever researched as a cause of Alzheimer’s?