Junior Seau Case Shines a spotlight on Football Violence

This blog is mostly concerned with the sport of boxing.  Many years ago(1966?), I wrote an essay defending boxing against criticism of its risks for head trauma.  At the time my thesis stated "Boxing is no more dangerous than hockey, rugby or football and those sports were tolerated in public schools.  Why not boxing?"

The argument was that boxers deliberately set out to injure their opponents and this is not the case in the other contact sports.  The reality of hockey 'goons' and football players being told to tackle to injure opponents disproves that argument.

Ironically, Muhammad Ali was the World's Heavyweight Champion at that time and he suffers from a type of Parkinson's disease associated with head trauma.  Freddie Roach is another high profile name in the boxing business who "stayed for a few too many fights" and is paying a similar price as Ali.  

When I wrote about boxing's nemesis it was named  dementia pugilistica or Boxers’ Encephalopathy.* More crudely sufferers of the condition were said to be "punch drunk".  The symptoms are the same as is being described in the following article.

 

Football, hockey and boxing have similar risks judging by the evidence given by neurologists.  My essay was not an early warning about sports injuries causing cumulative damage.   My goal was to see boxing given a fair shake.  It was an argument,as it turns out, for equal opportunity head trauma was being defended.  Crystal ball malfunction is my excuse.   But with the evidence mounting almost daily, it would be reckless for overseers and participants to ignore the facts any longer.

Sports Safety is a growth industry with all the governing bodies of these sports under pressure to end dangerous practices.  Safety is a matter of enlightened self-interest when the profitability of a sports franchise comes under threat of class action suits, like the NFL faces now.

 

 

Junior Seau Dead: Case Highlights Questions of NFL Violence, Brain Injury, Possible Link to Depression, Suicide - ABC News

By MIKAELA CONLEY

May 2, 2012

Seau was found dead from a gunshot wound to the chest at his home in Oceanside, Calif. Wednesday morning.

If Seau did indeed commit suicide, his death would bear a resemblance to that of other athletes in hard-hitting sports, including Chicago Bears football player Dave Duerson. Duerson shot himself in the chest in February of last year. He left a note requesting his brain be sent to the "NFL brain bank" for study.

Several former NFL players have committed suicide in recent years, and many experts believe the deaths could be related to repeated blows to the head. 

 

Some doctors see as a growing link between head trauma, mental illness and suicide, a connection that has come to the forefront of sports safety research in the last decade. 

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative and progressive disease found in people who have experienced multiple blows to the head, has shown up in the brains of several former athletes who committed suicide, including Duerson. 

CTE has similar brain features to that of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's disease. 

Last May, Dr. Ann McKee, co-director of

 Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, 

a research center that studied Deurson's brain after his death, told reporters that 

Duerson "had classic pathology of CTE and no evidence of any other disease," 

ESPN reported at the time. 

"Exactly how the brain damage causes mood disturbance is not clear," said Dr. John Whyte, director of the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Philadelphia,  "There could be biological changes going on, or changes in the neurotransmitters that affect mood, or it could be a psychological factor that this brain injury has disrupted work and family life so much that it has really changed your life." 

Until more research has been done, Whyte said the public should not jump to conclude a definitive link between concussions that Seau may have experienced in his career and death. But repeated blows to the head may also damage parts of the brain that have to do with impulse control and the ability to weigh the long-term consequences of decisions. 

"Some people may feel really bad one day, but they can say, 'OK, this thought is out of proportion with reality,'" said Whyte, "whereas, if you're acting on impulse to certain emotions, you may feel bad one day and that can lead you to take action." 

A concussion is caused when the brain is shaken so hard that it hits the inside of the skull, resulting in brain trauma. Studies have contributed to the growing concern over head injuries, particularly concussions, in football and other contact sports. 

For reasons that remain unclear to experts, having one concussion makes a person more prone to further concussions. According to a study published in Neurosurgery last year, American football players who sustained three or more concussions were significantly more likely to develop depression and had were five times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. 

According to statistics from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, about 47 percent of high school football players sustain at least one concussion each season. And 35 percent of those who reportedly suffered from a concussion actually sustained two or more in the same season. 

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 2 million brain injuries are suffered by teenage players every year. 

While there is more concern over players and suicide, Whyte said sports are likely becoming less dangerous because of all the research being devoted to safety guidelines, proper equipment and the aftermath of a career of brain injuries. 

In 2009, the NFL instituted new rules that require clearance from independent neurologists to allow players who suffered concussions to return to the field. The league also imposed stricter guidelines to reduce the number of helmet-to-helmet hits. 

"The focus on sports safety has become much more vigilant about brain injuries and more strict with return-to-play guidelines," said Whyte. "But we certainly need more research to confirm whether these athletic-related injuries are leading to suicides." 

 

 
 Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/junior-seau-dead-case-highlights-questions-nfl-violence

*note:

 

Boxers’ encephalopathy refers to the constellation of major neuropsychologic defects in amateur and career boxers—affecting 10–20% of the latter group—and is the cumulative result of recurrent brain damage and progressive communicating hydrocephalus due to extrapyramidal and cerebellar lesions. 

 

Wechsler and Bender Gestalt testing reveals variable organic mental disease and impaired short-term memory, dysarthria, nystagmus, reasoning ability, and motor skills. Acute boxing injuries include cerebral oedema, ischemia, and temporal or uncal herniation

 

Source: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Dementia+pugilistica