The neurological risks of playing association football

Summary Aims: The present study aims to provide a narrative review of the literature surrounding concussion and head injury in football and its clarity in evaluating the risk of long-term neurological disease. Findings: Epidemiological studies have shown correlations between participation in professional football and increased incidence of neurodegenerative disease and there have been reports of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brains of former players in autopsy. These findings have been assumed by some to be the result of repetitive brain injury from head injuries and/or from heading the ball over a player's career. Data linking increased heading exposure with dementia is conflicting, and studies are limited by the reliance on retrospection and undocumented reports of concussion. It remains unclear whether CTE is unique to sportsmen or a variant of dementia pathology endemic in the population. Conclusions: Although logically appealing, there is no current evidence that heading is the cause of neurodegeneration amongst footballers and risks should be balanced by the protective mental and physical benefits of the sport. Physicians have an important role in providing balanced views in this emotive and controversial area.

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Effects of Polyphenol Intake on Metabolic Syndrome: Current Evidences from Human Trials

Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity ◽

10.1155/2017/5812401 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 64

Author(s):

Gemma Chiva-Blanch ◽

Lina Badimon

Keyword(s):

Metabolic Syndrome ◽

Type Ii Diabetes ◽

Randomized Trials ◽

Virgin Olive Oil ◽

Epidemiological Studies ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Aromatic Plants ◽

Polyphenol Intake ◽

Public Health Strategies

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors which severely increases the risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Several epidemiological studies have observed a negative association between polyphenol intake and MetS rates. Nevertheless, there are relatively small numbers of interventional studies evidencing this association. This review is focused on human interventional trials with polyphenols as polyphenol-rich foods and dietary patterns rich in polyphenols in patients with MetS. Current evidence suggests that polyphenol intake has the potential to alleviate MetS components by decreasing body weight, blood pressure, and blood glucose and by improving lipid metabolism. Therefore, high intake of polyphenol-rich foods such as nuts, fruits, vegetables, seasoning with aromatic plants, spices, and virgin olive oil may be the cornerstone of a healthy diet preventing the development and progression of MetS, although there is no polyphenol or polyphenol-rich food able to influence all MetS features. However, inconsistent results have been found in different trials, and more long-term randomized trials are warranted to develop public health strategies to decrease MetS rates.

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Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Review

Rehabilitation Research and Practice ◽

10.1155/2012/816069 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Michael Saulle ◽

Brian D. Greenwald

Keyword(s):

Military Service ◽

Clinical Presentation ◽

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ◽

Head Injuries ◽

Emotional Disturbances ◽

American Football ◽

Closed Head Injuries ◽

Apoe4 Allele ◽

Closed Head

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is a long-term consequence of single or repetitive closed head injuries for which there is no treatment and no definitive pre-mortem diagnosis. It has been closely tied to athletes who participate in contact sports like boxing, American football, soccer, professional wrestling and hockey. Risk factors include head trauma, presence of ApoE3 or ApoE4 allele, military service, and old age. It is histologically identified by the presence of tau-immunoreactive NFTs and NTs with some cases having a TDP-43 proteinopathy or beta-amyloid plaques. It has an insidious clinical presentation that begins with cognitive and emotional disturbances and can progress to Parkinsonian symptoms. The exact mechanism for CTE has not been precisely defined however, research suggest it is due to an ongoing metabolic and immunologic cascade called immunoexcitiotoxicity. Prevention and education are currently the most compelling way to combat CTE and will be an emphasis of both physicians and athletes. Further research is needed to aid in pre-mortem diagnosis, therapies, and support for individuals and their families living with CTE.

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Top Ten Reasons Why All Athletes Need to have Neuropsychological Testing

10.47363/jpsrr/2019(1)101 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-2

Author(s):

Michael F Shaughnessy ◽

Keyword(s):

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ◽

Neuropsychological Testing ◽

Head Injuries ◽

Return To Play ◽

Research Journal ◽

Post Test ◽

Control And Prevention ◽

History Of ◽

Tackle Football

Currently, we are more and more aware of head injuries, concussion and the risks and dangers of athletes being exposed to long term risk and injury.Twenty years or so ago, coaches relied on side line assessment to decide as to whether an athlete who“has had his/her bells rung” should return to play. Currently however, there is much more sophisticated sideline assessment (such as Impact) and other laptop instruments. There are many, many reasons why athletes should undergo pre-and post-test assessment as well as sideline assessment. These will be summarily discussed. These issues have also been discussed by:Arginteanu (2019) and others have clearly specified the need to be concerned and observant regardingthe concept of return to play and even return to the classroom. Hernandez, Giordano, Goubran, Parivash, Grant, Zeineh and Camarillo (2019) have discussed sports related concussions and Corman, Adame, Tsa, Ruston, Beaumont, Kamrath, Liu, Posteher, Tremblayand van Raalt, (2019) have published on sports related concussions. Rose, Yeates, Nguyen, McCarthy, Ercole, Pizzimenti, (2019)have written on youth tackle football. Engleman (2013) writing in The Rotarian pp 27-30 suggests that “youth football leagues should require coaches and encourage all parents, to take the “Heads IUP” training course available at www.cdc.gov. The web site of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” There is much concern about CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy- which is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain. This is usually discerned in individuals who have some type of history of repetitive brain trauma or injury. This could include soccer, basketball, baseball, softball (at least many players DO wear helmets) and wrestling (in terms of wrestling, players do wear protective devices for their ears, but still may suffer concussions and head injuries. Shaughnessy and Laman (2012) have provided an excellent review of evidence based intervention and treatment/rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury. This was published in the Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies and is a serious review of the literature in this realm.

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Repeated Mild Closed Head Injuries Induce Long-Term White Matter Pathology and Neuronal Loss That Are Correlated With Behavioral Deficits

ASN NEURO ◽

10.1177/1759091418781921 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 175909141878192 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Eric M. Gold ◽

Vitaly Vasilevko ◽

Jonathan Hasselmann ◽

Casey Tiefenthaler ◽

Danny Hoa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cortical Neurons ◽

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ◽

Head Injuries ◽

Closed Head Injury ◽

Neuronal Loss ◽

Significant Loss ◽

Behavioral Deficits ◽

Closed Head ◽

Behavioral Impairments

An estimated 5.3 million Americans are living with a disability from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). There is emerging evidence of the detrimental effects from repeated mild TBIs (rmTBIs). rmTBI manifests its own unique set of behavioral and neuropathological changes. A subset of individuals exposed to rmTBI develop permanent behavioral and pathological consequences, defined postmortem as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. We have combined components of two classic rodent models of TBI, the controlled cortical impact model and the weight drop model, to develop a repeated mild closed head injury (rmCHI) that produces long-term deficits in several behaviors that correlate with neuropathological changes. Mice receiving rmCHI performed differently from 1-hit or sham controls on the elevated plus maze; these deficits persist up to 6 months postinjury (MPI). rmCHI mice performed worse than 1-hit and control sham mice at 2 MPI and 6 MPI on the Morris water maze. Mice receiving rmCHI exhibited significant atrophy of the corpus callosum at both 2 MPI and 6 MPI, as assessed by stereological volume analysis. Stereological analysis also revealed significant loss of cortical neurons in comparison with 1-hit and controls. Moreover, both of these pathological changes correlated with behavioral impairments. In human tau transgenic mice, rmCHI induced increases in hyperphosphorylated paired helical filament 1 tau in the hippocampus. This suggests that strategies to restore myelination or reduce neuronal loss may ameliorate the behavioral deficits observed following rmCHI and that rmCHI may model chronic traumatic encephalopathy in human tau mice.

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Consent, capacity and compliance in concussion management: cave ergo medicus (let the doctor beware)

British Journal of Sports Medicine ◽

10.1136/bjsports-2020-102108 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. bjsports-2020-102108

Author(s):

Michael Turner ◽

David Maddocks ◽

Majid Hassan ◽

Adrian Anderson ◽

Paul McCrory

Keyword(s):

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ◽

Return To Sport ◽

Executive Dysfunction ◽

Return To Play ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Long Term Outcomes ◽

School Sports ◽

Long Term Consequences ◽

Prospective Longitudinal

While the acute effects of concussion and mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) are well understood, the certainty in the medical literature regarding the long-term outcomes of sports-related concussion is limited. Long-term deficits that may result from single, repeated concussions, and possibly subconcussive impacts, include cognitive dysfunction, depression and executive dysfunction. Perhaps most troublingly, repetitive head impacts have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), although the precise risk of long-term consequences remains unknown. CTE represents a distinct tauopathy with an unknown incidence in athletic populations; however, a cause and effect relationship has not yet been demonstrated between CTE and concussions or between CTE and exposure to contact sports, as no prospective longitudinal studies have been performed to address that question. Studies of high-school sports exposure and long-term outcomes have not demonstrated consistent findings.Medical advice regarding return to play and the risk of acute and/or long-term consequences is therefore problematic. It is important that the individual’s right to make their own choices regarding their health is respected. Team, coach, parental, peer or financial pressures should not influence this decision. The choice to return to play after a concussion or mild TBI injury is the athlete’s decision once they have (1) recovered from their injury and have the legal capacity to make an informed decision; (2) been medically assessed and (3) been informed of any possible long-term risks in a language that they can understand.Given the current lack of certainty in relation to long-term outcomes from concussion, is it possible to provide a framework to inform players of current evidence, as part of a consent process, even if the information upon which the decision to return to sport is based remains uncertain and evolving?

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Relación entre optimismo y rendimiento deportivo. Revisión sistemática

Anales de Psicología ◽

10.6018/analesps.34.1.270351 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 153 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Francisco José Ortín Montero ◽

Alejandro Martínez Rodríguez ◽

Cristina Reche García ◽

Enrique Javier Garcés de los Fayos Ruiz ◽

Juan González Hernández

Keyword(s):

Athletic Performance ◽

Interrater Reliability ◽

Epidemiological Studies ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Sports Performance ◽

Review Of The Literature ◽

Inclusion Criteria ◽

Future Studies ◽

Revisión Sistemática

<p>Optimism is a moderating psychological factor in sports performance. The aim of this study is to review the current evidence regarding optimism and sports performance. To this end, a systematic review of the literature was conducted, taking in consideration only those that followed PRISMA guidelines (Urrútia & Bonfill, 2013). The following databases were used with the predefined inclusion criteria (optimism and sports performance): PubMed, WOS, Scopus, Psycinfo and SportDiscus. The study was assessed using the Critical Reading and Evaluation of Epidemiological Studies (Berra, Elorza-Ricart, Estrada & Sanchez, 2008). Interrater reliability was verified withCohen’s Kappacoefficient(2 judges). The majority of the studies performed correlational analyses between LOT scale results and athletic performance (<em>n </em>= 7). As a result, a positive correlation was observed between optimism and athletic performance. In general, the quality of the studies was considered average. Future studies should take in consideration the use of additional, higher quality and more rigorous experimental procedures.</p>

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Central Nervous System Trauma

Escourolle and Poirier's Manual of Basic Neuropathology ◽

10.1093/med/9780190675011.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 65-81

Author(s):

Colin Smith ◽

R. Ross Reichard

Keyword(s):

Nervous System ◽

Head Injury ◽

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ◽

Head Injuries ◽

Abusive Head Trauma ◽

Subdural Hemorrhage ◽

Central Nervous System Trauma ◽

Brain And Spinal Cord ◽

The Brain

This chapter covers the pathological changes seen in the nervous system, both the brain and spinal cord, as a result of the application of forces, including blunt force, penetrating, and blast head injuries. Forces can result in both focal pathology, such as contusions and subdural hemorrhage, and disseminated pathology, such as diffuse traumatic axonal injury; the macroscopic and microscopic changes of these lesions are discussed. In addition, the age-dependent pathology that may be seen, including abusive head trauma in infants, is discussed. While many of the changes associated with head injury are acute and cause immediate clinical problems, there is discussion of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, an evolving entity possibly associated with the long-term complications of head injury in some individuals.

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