Scientists have confirmed the danger of the game to players
Scientists from University College London and Cardiff University have found that heading in soccer may cause dementia. The article was published in the journal Acta neuropathologica is.
Approximately 15-20 percent of professional boxers develop so-called encephalopathy of boxers — chronic traumatic encephalopathy (organic brain damage). It is caused by frequent minor traumatic brain injury and is manifested by dementia and movement disorders. At risk are also professional players, often playing with his head.
In 2015, the family of English footballer Jeff Asla (Jeff Astle) opened a Fund in support of studies of the Association between traumatic encephalopathy and football.
Jeff Astle in action for West Bromwich Albion#WBAFC #WestBrom #Baggies pic.twitter.com/xo3nBc309z
— Football Memories (@footballmemorys), 20 January 2017
Jeff ASL died in 2002 at the age of 59 years of traumatic encephalopathy. There are many reports of the development of dementia in professional football players, retired. However, studies on this issue, only little is known, and a post-mortem study of the brain for abnormalities was performed only in four cases.
The authors of the article analyzed the state of the brain in 14 men who played football on average for 26 years (13 of them were professional players and one Amateur). From 1989 to 2010, after the end of their football career, the scientists monitored their cognitive abilities. Six of them also were able to examine the brain after death.
All 14 players in the elderly (average age 63 years) were observed the symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. So, in all men there is a progressive dementia, ten of them were also observed movement disorders, including parkinsonism, difficulty walking, and the disorder of articulation.
At the opening of all six men showed damage to the transparent peregorodki (partition between the front ventricles of the brain), four confirmed chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Also, they had discovered comorbidities: hippocampal sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and vascular pathology, making a contribution to the development of dementia.
As the authors note, of course, the results do not allow us to say that all discovered violations were the result of only the game of football, and to analyze the relationship further studies are needed.
Even more traumatic than European football is American soccer: approximately 96 percent of players will develop chronic encephalopathy. To protect against injury while playing American football staff from the University of Michigan have recently developed a new design of helmet that, unlike the available samples not only reduces the peak power of the blow, but his momentum. A research team from the University of Virginia even proposed to build in helmets American football permanent magnets to the outside like poles. These helmets start to repel each other before the collision.
Sophia Zolotovskaya