In analyzing the brains of people who played in the US' hardest hitting league, the NFL, researcher found that about 96 percent of now deceased athletes they studied developed some form of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). Their sampling of subjects from all levels of American football revealed about a 79 percent occurrence of the brain disease.
CTE has been known to impact athlete since the 1920's, when battered boxers started to be described as punch drunk. The progressive degenerative disease is caused by the regular head trauma, including both concussive and concussive blows.
Some of the symptoms of CTE, according to Boston University, include issues with impulse control, memory loss, impaired judgement, confusion, depression, aggression, anxiety, parkinsonism and can eventually devolve into progressive dementia.
"These symptoms often begin years or even decades after the last brain trauma or end of active athletic involvement," states the university
latest look into an issue that takes some of the magic out of football Saturdays and Sundays was provided through a joint effort from Boston University and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The researchers found that 87 people out a group of 97 former NFL players were confirmed to have developed CTE. And 131 athletes out of 165 players examined by the lab, from high school to the pros, developed the disease.
The only sure way to confirm the presence of the disease is posthumous examination. But despite imperfection in the information gathering, the research corroborates previous findings and is an issue that needs an even harder look over, according Ann McKee, director of the Neuropathology Service for the New England Veterans Administration Medical Centers and the Brain Banks for the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center
"People think that we're blowing this out of proportion, that this is a very rare disease and that we're sensationalizing it," said McKee, who runs the lab as part of a collaboration between the VA and BU. "My response is that where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players."
