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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.
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!
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.
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.