American scientists: engaging in contact sports increases the risk of dementia those who exercise are most likely to develop dementia. In their opinion, engaging in contact sports, in which people regularly receive blows to the head, increase the risk of developing this ailment, RIA Novosti reports, citing a publication in the journal Neurology.
Experts have studied markers of brain damage – hyperintensity white matter – which appear as bright spots in pictures. They were able to identify a relationship between the number of zones of hyperintensity visible on an intravital MRI scan, and manifestations of small vessel disease, as well as other indicators confirming damage to the white matter at the time of autopsy.
American experts compared the autopsy and MRI data of those involved traumatic activity of athletes. It turned out that about 90 percent of these people were once American football players. The rest played football, boxing, or were injured while serving in the army. A large number of them suffered from dementia before death, and 71 percent from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Earlier, a charity for the study of dementia in the UK said that the disease is increasingly affecting people over the age of 40. Doctors have named the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The first alarming sign can be considered vision problems, due to which the patient acquires difficulties in recognizing objects. Another sign of developing dementia, experts called aphasia – a condition when a person cannot find the right words to convey what he wants to say.