I think we do have to think about prevention
of this disease because it is a preventable disease so that one of our arms going forward
to improve the health of society has to be prevention. And that has to be preventing the intrinsic
sub-concussive hits, which the National Football League has not dealt with at all. They’ve addressed concussion. Concussion is an injury, but that is not the
injury that leads to CTE is sub-concussive hits. Now, often they go together, right? You’re getting small hits and you’re getting
big hits. But we do see about 20% of CTE without concussion. So it’s not the concussion per say. It’s the hits coming in rapid succession. The NFL has not addressed that. They have not changed the kind of playing
because nobody wants to have football without tackling, without as many collisions because
that tends to be a very popular aspect of the sport, right? And it would be a highly different game. But we made this game up; it didn’t come
down from the heavens. Nobody said we had to play it this way. So I think it’s time, collectively, to make
some changes so that it’s safe. This video was produced by BrainLine thanks to generous support from the Infinite Hero Foundation.
We made this game up; it didn’t come down from the heavens. Dr. Ann McKee explains how changes can be made to prevent CTE.
Posted on BrainLine January 11, 2019.
About the author: Ann McKee, MD
Ann McKee, MD is the chief neuropathologist for the Framingham Heart Study and the Boston University-based Centenarian Study. She is also the chief neuropathologist for the Boston-based Veterans Administration Medical Centers and for the Sports Legacy Institute.
