Athletes' Brains Reveal Concussion Damage 328
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."
Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)
The "stay strong and positive" theory of oncology does hold. In most cases it won't save your life in the absence of other treatment, but it's been repeatedly shown that patients with positive attitudes often have more positive prospects than those who succumb to gloom and doom.
This is the same idea as having faith in your ability to jump over a large gap. If you question your ability, you become less steady on your feet, less able to time your leap, and increase the chance of your failure.
Re:It's not that surprising (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not only football. (Score:3, Informative)
http://bigheadcaps.com/ [bigheadcaps.com]
I also have a big head, and that is the only place I can buy headgear that fits well. (Except even there if they have a size selection to choose from, I have to get the biggest one.)
I do wildland firefighting, and it was an issue to get a helmet that fit me at all. The helmet I currently have doesn't provide very much protection in the back because it was only made for up to about a 7 3/4 size hat, and I am beyond that.
Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Referencing to other article (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Cancer survival not linked to a positive attitude, study finds
Print version: page 14
Some cancer patients seek out support groups and psychotherapy with the notion that improving their emotional states will extend their lives, says University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine psychologist James C. Coyne, PhD.
However, in a study in the journal Cancer, (Vol. 110, No. 11) Coyne and colleagues reported that emotional well-being in no way predicted survival among patients with head and neck cancer.
"If people want to go to a support group there are lots of advantages to it, such as a sense of belonging, but survival isn't one of them," says Coyne.
In the large-scale study conducted over nine years, Coyne and colleagues used baseline quality-of-life questionnaires to assess the well-being of 1,093 cancer patients. All participants were involved in clinical trials, which ensured uniformity of treatment and ruled out substantial health disparities in the sample. During the study, 646 patients died, and the research team found no relationship between their emotional well-being and cancer progression and death.
Though his findings strongly contradict the notion that a positive attitude is related to survival, the idea of "fighting" cancer is deeply rooted in our culture, says Coyne.
"It's the American way, that you can do it, you can fight it," he adds.
Based on the study results, Coyne believes it's important to not blame cancer patients who don't adopt an aggressively positive spirit.
"We want to recognize thatthere are lots of individual differences in coping with cancer," he says. "People have to do what's comfortable with them, but they have to do it without the burden of thinking they've got to have the right attitudeto survive."
Re:If this is true... (Score:4, Informative)
Unless making kids dummer is their job [johntaylorgatto.com].
This is the first time I've seen anyone other than me reference this excellent man and the wisdom he is willing to share. You referenced the book The Underground History of American Education. That's an amazing thing to read, for it explains not just the problem but how it came to be this way and the sort of politics that made it override the wishes of parents.
If you ever need (depending on your audience) a shorter introduction to John Taylor Gatto and his message, you may also like his essay, The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher. [cantrip.org]
I know that you referenced truth because doing so was its own reward. It does not make you want to horde it like gold and silver, but rather to share it with whomever will listen. Knowing this, I say BLESS YOU for bringing such excellence into this discussion. To lots of us, even those of us already familiar with these things, it is a welcome sight.
Re:Common F. Sense is absent again... (Score:2, Informative)
Me loose brain? (Score:3, Informative)
Uh oh!
Why me laugh?
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, my understanding is that he suffers from Parkinson's syndrome [wikipedia.org], which is not the same as the disease proper.
-b
Re:It's not that surprising (Score:5, Informative)
The tissue samples we're seeing are from guys who, for the most part, played in the 70's and 80's, back when "shut up and play you pussy, you just 'got your bell rung'" was a way of life. Now, concussions are handled with considerably more care. Is it enough? I don't know that anyone is sure yet. But at least they're being treated like the legitimate, serious injury they are.
My father was a linebacker for 8 years in the '80s, and he says something very similar. He had several concussions himself, and only when he suffered the one or two major ones did he come out of the game. He's coached for a high school and a smaller college team recently and says that even at that level everyone is so much more aware of injuries, and other dangers like dehydration and heat exhaustion, than they were when he played professionally. And before that it was worse...when he was in high school they used to take salt pills instead of water breaks.
Anyway, he's 50 now, his knees and back are shot so he walks like a 75 year old. Maybe it's because he just turned 50, but the NFLPA has recently gotten serious about former player health, so they've begun periodically checking his heart and other health problems. But thankfully the only mental problem I've noticed is that he votes Republican.
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:If this is true... (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Actually, I've read that this isn't actually the case; that while a small number of schools have very successful (and well known) sports programs that do pull in a profit, the majority of colleges do in fact lose money on their sports programs, at least for Division 1-A schools. [insidehighered.com]
The amount of money require to field a top tier competitive team - scholarships, coaching salaries, stadiums and facitilies - can reach into the tens of millions (especially for football). Only a few schools have the draw to recoup enough to make up for it.
Re:Really? (Score:2, Informative)
Untrue, and this is a major misconception. Depression often arises, without contributing factors, from fundamentally physiological and chemical problems in the brain. It then generates problems in the sufferer's life as they make bad decisions, certainly giving reasons for more psychological distress. But do not mistake the underlying problem in the majority of true depression cases: a physiological cause, independent of top-level psychological problems or events in a person's life.