What has research revealed?
It has been revealed in a study by researchers at the University of Glasgow that there is a strong link between football and dementia, finding that ex-professional football players are 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia than the general public.
It was found that former professional footballers have a 5 times greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s, a four times greater risk in Motor Neurone disease and double the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
Who was this research by?
The research was commissioned by the Footballer’s Association and the Professional Footballer’s Association and follows the 2002 research which found that England Football player, Jess Astle suffered from CTE from being repetitively heading footballs. The study assessed the medical records of 7,676 footballers who played professionally throughout 1900-1976, comparing against medical records from the general population.
The cause of the brain damage was inconclusive in the study; whether caused by repeated concussions, concussion management, heading the football, style of play, design of the football, personal lifestyle or other factors; further studies will be undertaken in order to examine the causes.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease which is caused by repeated head injuries, which typically don’t appear until many years after the sustained injuries and worsen over time. CTE is most commonly found in athletes, war veterans and individuals who have suffered repetitive brain traumas.
Why is this important?
The Brain & Mind experts at Re:Cognition Health welcome this research and the news of continued studies. Our team has recently held a conference appropriately titled “Seeing is Believing” which looked into new diagnostics of mild Traumatic Brain Injury, CTE and PTSD, educating the industry and helping change the future of brain injury diagnosis.
Our team are leaders in the field, working on early and accurate diagnosis and understand the impact of chronic brain injury leading to progressive neurodegenerative disease and dementia. We strongly urge any individual concerned about CTE to arrange a medical investigation, an early diagnosis has the power to shape the prognosis.
Whether or not you have been an amateur or profession football player in the past, or if you are worried about your memory, it is important to be proactive as soon as possible to find out what opportunities exist, right now, to gain access to new generation medications currently available in international clinical trials. These emerging medications are designed to slow and ideally halt further progression of memory loss and other cognitive symptoms.
Contact the friendly team at Re:Cognition Health to find out more:
Phone: 0203 355 3536