Sportsmen who suffer from repeated wafts of the head could be at higher risk of developing dementia later in life found a new study. They have found the strongest proof that repeated concussion could cause nerve degeneration disease like Alzheimer’s. People who played two professional games like rugby and boxing those suffered long term damages from their careers.
The research team from the University of Rochester in New York considered autopsies of twelve professional sportsmen who died due to brain or neurological disease. All of them suffered from newly typified disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. In this condition dementia is located years after repeated concussions.
Three among them were diagnosed with ALS which is member of a family of disease known as motor neuron disease. This disease causes gradually worse paralysis. The team especially looked for protein known as TDP-43. It was found in the brain and spinal cord of the male athletes.
Researchers knew that injury to one nerve can set off flow of other nerves. Experts from brain injury pointed to new areas of research and potential ways to prevent long term injury from concussions reported the study published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology.
If you could somehow give a person a drug, you could potentially prevent an illness known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, said Dr Jeffrey Bazarian. This is the first pathological proof that showed association of repetitive head trauma experienced in collision sports with motor neuron disease, explained lead researcher Dr Ann McKee from Boston University School of Medicine.
Researchers’ studies whether drugs including hormone progesterone, monoclonal antibodies and the antibiotic minocycline could stop the process of nerve obliteration that follows injuries such as a blow to the head or stroke.