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What Happens To a Football Player's Neurons?

Posted by timothy on from the hut-hut-huuuuuut dept.

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.'"

5 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    .........I didn't know athletes/footballers had neurons.

  2. American Football is not Football by hernol · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just to point, we are talking about American Football, not Football. It's not the same.

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    1. Re:American Football is not Football by PotatoFarmer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just to point, we are talking about American Football, not Football. It's not the same.

      True. A medical story regarding non-American Football would likely cover one of these topics instead:

      1. How a nudge to the shoulder can translate into a compound leg fracture.
      2. How grabbing your shin while writhing on the ground can partially alleviate the pain of a compound leg fracture.
      3. Whatever is in those magical spray cans the trainers carry around, and how they can instantly heal a compound leg fracture immediately after a penalty has been awarded.

  3. The amount of replies to this story by Anarki2004 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The number of replies to this story seems to indicate that perhaps a vast majority of slashdotters don't particularly like football players. I was actually hoping for some technical insight and whatnot, but it would seem everybody is still maintaining the same attitude they had in high school.

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    1. Re:The amount of replies to this story by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Funny thing is, at least in places (not Texas) that don't take high school football too seriously, football is an excellent opportunity for a nerd to get into the "in" crowd.

      In fact, it's how I became "cool." It didn't matter how well you played or how annoying or ugly you were, as long as you survived hell week and stuck with the team, you were in with the cool people(and, by extension, the juniors and seniors and the parties that they threw and all the pussy surrounding that whole scene). You were allowed to scream, cuss, punch lockers, high-five, whatever you had to do to shrug off the pain...as long as you took your hits and didn't cry like a bitch on the field.

      Plus, a working knowledge of sports makes it much easier to bond with others and make new friends. And, of course, the health benefits. Now if only those damn San Diego Chargers would quit taking bribes and fucking up in the playoffs so I can see them win at least one super bowl before I die.