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Athletes' Brains Reveal Concussion Damage
jamie found a story on research about what concussions do to athletes, with the insights coming mostly from the study of the donated brains of dead athletes. The NFL has the biggest profile in the piece, but other sports make an appearance too. Turns out that repeated concussions can result in depression, insomnia, and the beginnings of something that looks a lot like Alzheimer's. "The idea that you can whack your head hundreds of times in your life and knock yourself out and get up and be fine is gone," said [retired wrestler] Nowinski. "We know we can't do that anymore. This causes long-term damage."
I remember an ESPN interview of a retired NFL linebacker. He'd had multiple concussions in his playing days. He was quite mentally damaged, at the ripe old age of 45.
One day he went out for a drive, and when he got to his block, he couldn't recognize his own house. So he decided to just keep driving around the block, over and over. More than an hour elapsed before one of his family members spotted the car out the front window and went outside and flagged him down.
It wasn't the first time seemingly simple things/memories just completely escaped him
Unless making kids dummer is their job.
It honestly depends. At my old college, the sports stuff fell under an entity completely distinct from the school. It was initially set up this so that what you were describing couldn't happen. The school was one thing, and the sports were another, so that the school _couldn't_ give money to sports. And it turned out, the sports teams (well, specifically football) actually ended up turning _huge_ profits. Since they can transfer this to the school, the extra money ends up getting spent on new buildings and equipment.
The point I'm making here, in an admittedly roundabout way, is that sports actually tend to pull in a decent amount of money, so that the funding usually isn't that major.
Beyond that, 'starving' art and science budgets isn't exactly common, and the schools that do it are generally lacking enough money to even manage the basics (e.g. requiring HS students to share books) and usually have minimal sports programs. The rest of the time, it's usually only for lack of interest that arts and sciences don't get much funding; if kinds started a robotics club (or the like), they wouldn't have a hard time getting funds. But they rarely do, and for that, we should blame the parents.
Physical sports where concussion's occur are not going to go away. People will always sacrifice their body for potential fame and fortune. The fallacy of "a concussion will never happen to me or have lasting effects" is strong amongst young people, those typically playing these types of sports. Plus, using football as an example, is so ingrained in North American society: from high school through to college/university to a Professional paying job that the game will not go away. What needs to change is the way these sports are played.
Where there just as many concussions when people wore the thin leather helmets vs today's super helmets? Players dressed up in all that protective gear feel invincible literally throw themselves around and taking more hits and risks. You don't see near as many concussion injuries in a sport like rugby. While similar in nature those players aren't spearing others with their head to make a tackle.
The answer is marketing. A highly visible sports program does seem to increase the visibility of the school and in response, the school gets a bigger pool of student applications and can choose better students out of that pool. But I agree that the idea that we have these "athlete scholars" is usually a farce, their is a double-standard for athletes and universities do whatever they can to ignore huge problems with athletes cheating, etc. The universities really need to stop spending so much money on their athletic programs and worry about their core missions, which are education and research, which does NOT include entertainment.
As for TFA, for us sedentary desk-jockeys, we think of "exercise" as healthy, but anyone who has played a sport in some sort of serious way has probably noticed that athletics at this level is not healthy, it's damaging to the body, it doesn't surprise me that the brain is no exception. I played competitive ultimate frisbee on a regular basis for several years and I was beginning to get knee trouble. Looking at the health problems some of the older players had was enough to make me quit. I'd much rather still be able to walk when I'm 50 thank you.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
One of my local tack shops is staffed by a lady who had her bell rung enough times being thrown from her horse (sans helmet in those days) that she can't ride for risk of getting her last concussion. And she makes sure that everyone starting has a good *properly* fitting helmet. (Even someone with as big a head as me - finding proper fitting hats is a lifelong challenge!) So no. Concussions are not limited to only American Football.
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
This is nothing new, and has been described and studied for decades as 'Dementia pugilistica', and ..."first described in 1928 by Harrison Stanford Martland in a Journal of the American Medical Association article..."[from the above linked wiki article]
Having watched the changes in both George Foreman and Cassius Clay(AKA Mohammed Ali) over the years in interviews, this was pretty obvious even to a medical layman.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
but anyone who has played a sport in some sort of serious way has probably noticed that athletics at this level is not healthy, it's damaging to the body
This has actually been a big thing for me. I do martial arts and have experienced a wide range of styles and schools. When I go to a school and see a master in his 30s with knee problems, I move on.
I've developed a theory that there is a balance that one decide when picking a marital art. One one side, there are brutal styles with lots of sparing that will make you incredibly strong / effective. But the strain on the body will result in you only being strong for a limited number of years. Since I'm not a soldier and am not fighting for my life, there's no benefit in me studying one of these styles for an extended period of time. These would include Krav Maga, Jujitsu, and many Tae Kwon Do styles (depends on the round-house kicking technique).
There are gentler styles that still are effective martial arts but without stressing one's body to the point of failure after a few years. This includes Aikido (even though you fall, you fall gently), Iaido (just don't cut yourself), and possibly Kendo.
I can't say my observations are perfect, but I've seen a lot more old yet effective practitioners of these styles than of the first styles.
To "stay positive in oncology" (that is, if cancer patients have an optimistic/positive posture) has been confirmed multiple times to be effective. And it's not purely psychosomatic, either: patients with a positive attitude are much more likely to take an active role in their therapy.
I have quite recently read about a study that confirmed this very thing, again.
And this from a guy who is totally against stuff like chakra, "meridians", "energy flows" and other such horseshit.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
At least unlike the suck it up and be a man approach to concussion, a positive outlook is unlikely to cause harm. It may even improve quality of life for the remaining time.
Er, no, its been repeatedly shown to be completely bunk, as was discussed (with citations) in response to the previous response to GP claiming the same thing even before the parent was posted.
Then you missed his point. The point is that things like efficiency or this image of a great competition among nations are our goals, not healthy development of strong, mature minds that can think critically and are not easily deceived. I recommend that you read his book, The Underground History of American Education (the entire book is available for on the Web site, for free) in order to really understand the difference. Yeah it's a full book and no you won't be able to instantly read it, but believe me when I tell you that the subject is worthy.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
I have read several places that for a fighter to be "punch drunk" was not known during the bareknuckle days. It makes sense that the heavy gloves allow a man to hit his opponent harder in the head than he could otherwise. One proponent of this opinion was Louis L'Amour. Better known for being a great western writer, he also had a long and successful career as a heavy-weight fighter.
I've read something similar to what you are quoting and while I don't particularly disbelieve it I do wonder how the "positive thinking doesn't help" idea fits in with the observed lowered life expectancy for people with depression. In fact just getting health insurance after being diagnosed with depression can be very difficult.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
Actually, my understanding is that he suffers from Parkinson's syndrome, which is not the same as the disease proper.
-b
Head trauma *is* correlated with the onset of Parkinson's.
Past episodes of head trauma are reported more frequently by individuals with Parkinson's disease than by others in the population. A recent methodologically strong retrospective study found that those who have experienced a head injury are four times more likely to develop Parkinsonâ(TM)s disease than those who have never suffered a head injury. The risk of developing Parkinsonâ(TM)s increases eightfold for patients who have had head trauma requiring hospitalization, and it increases 11-fold for patients who had experienced severe head injury.
Marketing. It has everything to do with what's visible in the community. Parents and alumnis see sports scores in the local paper. You don't generally see as much about the arts and sciences as much in the media.
-- http://ninthagenda.com/
So, it must be two of these three things: illegal, good for you, and bad for you?
Considering that most things are either good or bad for you, and that nothing can be both really, they should have just said "we ban illegal drugs."