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What Happens To a Football Player's Neurons?
An anonymous reader writes "It seems like every week there's a new story about the consequences of all those concussions experienced by football players and other athletes — just a few days ago, the NY Times reported that some athletes diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease may actually have a neural disease brought on by head trauma. But missing in these stories is an explanation of what head trauma actually does to the brain cells. Now Carl Zimmer has filled in the gap with a column that takes a look at how neurons respond to stress, and explains how stretching a neuron's axon turns its internal structure into 'mush.'"
Just to point, we are talking about American Football, not Football. It's not the same.
http://twitter.com/bash_history
Which people say that again?
It was a common thing back in the day to claim that black players were only suited to be linebackers, because the other positions in football required "too much intelligence." Now that black players have entered and excelled in those positions, sports people don't talk about that anymore.
It's funny, back in the nineteen thirties, Jewish players dominated basketball, and sports commentators made up all kinds of racial Just-So stories to explain that, too. (Because just saying "they live in the ghetto, and there's not much to do but play basketball" wasn't interesting enough.) Like how the game required a great deal of cunning and misdirection, and that Jews were very sneaky and agile, so that's why they were the best at basketball.
Uh...
Yeah, I know. The intersection of race and sports is a curious place.
Lou Gehrig May Not Have Had Lou Gehrig’s Disease
The October 2009 issue of GQ had a major article about this. Click to read it here.
I found the article actually pretty fascinating, but it is a bit of a narrative about this particular doctor's quest to bring his research into the public eye.
Also, who knew GQ had such a fantastic catalog of their back-issues? I think I might have to read their stuff more often. I know it's very un-slashdot of me, but whatever.
College football had become so lethal around 1900 that the game came within an inch of being abandoned.
The 1905 season...brought its rash of casualties. There were twenty-three football deaths. Only a handful took place in intercollegiate play, but one in particular set in motion the movement to reform the game. In a match between Union College and New York University, Harold Moore of Union died after being kicked in the head. Chancellor Henry M. MacCracken of NYU seized the opportunity to summon a reform conference.
In the 1906 season and for two years following, the verdict on the "new football" was generally favorable. In spite of fluctuations in the injury count, the number of deaths dropped to fourteen, fifteen, and ten.
Then, in the fall of 1909, the trend toward a safer game abruptly reversed itself. In a match between Harvard and West Point, the Army captain, Eugene Byrne, exhausted by continual plays to his side of the line, was fatally injured. Earl Wilson of the Naval Academy was paralyzed and later died as a result of a flying tackle. And the University of Virginia's halfback Archer Christian died after a game against Georgetown, probably from a cerebral hemorrhage suffered in a plunge through the line. . "Does the public need any more proof," wrote the Washington Post, "that football is a brutal, savage, murderous sport? Is it necessary to kill many more promising young men before the game is revised or stopped altogether?" President David Starr Jordan of Stanford referred to football as "Rugby's American pervert..."
Early headgear, seldom worn consistently, shielded the ears and surface of the head but gave inadequate protection to the skull and brain. After World War I a sponge-rubber lining was added to the crown of the helmet, and by the late 1930s a sturdy leather helmet with an inner felt lining was being used. But it was not until 1943 that all players were required to wear headgear. The plastic helmet, which distributes shock more evenly, was introduced in the 1940s amid objections reminiscent of those that accompanied the original solely leather helmets. Some critics argued--and still do--that the hard plastic helmet, used as an offensive weapon, has as much potential for causing as for preventing serious injuries. Inventing Modern Football
A very good portion of us, who have dedicated our lives to actually accomplishing things that advance human society, prefer not to worship idiots who run around on a field and consume resources.
It should also be noted that many of us have not, nor will we ever, forget who the enemy is. There is nothing wrong with maintaining the "same attitude [we] had in high school." A recent study noted that personalities are mostly fixed from age 6-7 onward. You were the enemy then, you are still the enemy now.
And in case my point is not clear: If you are or ever were a jock, go fuck yourself.
I am a former lineman/college football player with a motor neuron disease, and long time nerd and slashdot reader. (That is surely a rare and perhaps unique combination one would think).
I find this study and the response quite interesting as you can imagine.
The phenotype of my disease tracks Calpain deficient limb girdle muscular dystrophy and to a lesser extent polymyositis. Yet doctors (including several at NIH) have never been able to make a definitive diagnosis. For example, repeated biopsies did not show dystrophic changes in the muscle and new genetic tests for Calpain deficiency were negative. This does not rule out that I have either or both diseases but the new study is very interesting given my football history.
I have been trying to figure out from the article and a Real Sports story whether all of the known players had a phenotype consistent with ALS (eg death in 2-4 years). I don't really track with ALS, not the least of which because I have had serious disease for more than a decade and I should live a good while longer at the current pace -- hopefully decades. One wonders if everyone they found has ALS like symptoms if that points to my motor neuron disease being coincidental with football or whether the study focussed too narrowly on only one type of motor neuron disease.
Another interesting aspect is that there are hints on Real Sports and the articles I've seen that some friends and teammates might have had the newly described disorder. For example, two close-friend boxers were discussed on Real Sports.
Given that the newly described disorder is still incredibly rare (only 16 times or so more prevalent than ALS), having friends or teammates get the disease seems highly unusual -- perhaps indicative or some viral or other modality coupled with the head trauma -- though of course you can always have two lottery winners living next door.
In this regard, one of my football coaches with whom I spent four years working died in his 40s of "ALS" and his symptoms began about 3 years after mine.
Cheers.