from Chicago Tribune

Junior Seau was a star. He was the kind of football hero that put butts on couches and raised Sunday TV ratings.

Junior Seau died on May 2 of an apparent suicide. In echoes of the suicide of another former NFL great Dave Duerson, Seau killed himself with a shot to the chest, presumably because he wanted to preserve his brain so that experts could determine whether he was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a form of progressive brain damage caused by multiple concussions. It can cause mood changes, memory difficulties, neurologic impairments, and dementia.

The tragedy of CTE—make that one of the many tragedies—is that the damage can be suffered when a person is young, strong, and seemingly quick to recover from any injury… but there is no way to diagnose CTE. The only way to tell the extent and progression of the injury is to examine the brain after death. Hence, one of the new preferred suicide methods for people who believe they have suffered enough brain injury to cause CTE is a gunshot to the chest, preserving the brain for autopsy.

According to an article on the Huffington Post:

After defensive back Andre Waters’ suicide in 2006, Dr. Benet Omalu of the Brain Injury Research Institute at West Virginia University told the New York Times that the 44-year-old “Waters’ brain tissue had degenerated into that of an 85-year-old man with similar characteristics to those of early-stage Alzheimer’s victims.”

When the Bengals’ troubled Chris Henry died, Dr. Omalu and his colleagues determined that the wide receiver suffered from the same chronic traumatic encephalopathy. He was 26 years old.

Seau was a former All-Pro linebacker who played for 19 seasons in the NFL, for the San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots, and Miami Dolphins. According to an article on Forbes.com, on the day Seau’s death was reported, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handed out suspensions for the New Orleans Saints players involved in the team’s bounty program.

Have you heard about the bounty program? As we wrote in a previous blog, the New Orleans Saints had a bounty program, in which players were paid thousands of dollars for hard hits that knocked opponents out of games. Supposedly, players were paid $1000 for a “knockout hit,” and another $1000 if a player needed to be carried off the field. Those are just some of the tactics that have driven more than 1000 former NFL players to sue the league for their head trauma and potentially permanent disability.

How many more players and former players will have to commit suicide before the NFL puts more safety measures in place? Then again, maybe the hundreds of pending lawsuits against the NFL will be the deciding factors. Very often, safety and progress only come after an issue has been screened through the filter of the legal system:  Bad actors go to trial, good laws evolve.

Better a courtroom than an autopsy room any day.

RESOURCES

To read the HensonFuerst blog about the bounty program, click here: “Organized Savagery” in the NFL

To read the full article in Forbes.com, click here:  NFL’s Junior Seau Dies in Suspected Suicide

To read the full article on the Huffington Post, click here:   Junior Seau–Changing the NFL Forever

Ray Easterling, former player for the Atlanta Falcons, died Thursday at age 62 of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to an article in The New York Times, Easterling was part of a group of former NFL players who sued the league, claiming that it had failed to treat players for concussions, and for attempting to conceal links between football concussions and long-term brain injuries.

An article on USAToday.com reported that the 61st concussion lawsuit was filed in federal court in Philadelphia by 28 former NFL players. In total, more than 1,260 players have filed concussion-related suits against the NFL. The suits blame that the players suffered long-term damage from concussions due to the league’s “carelessness, negligence, intentional misconduct, and concealment of information.”

As we wrote in previous blogs last year, multiple concussions can result in a brain disorder known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. This progressive, incurable condition leads to memory loss, depression, and dementia. Unfortunately, the only way to definitively diagnose CTE is after death, by autopsy. Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy has been researching the link between football and CTE. Of the brains of 15 former NFL players, 14 showed signs of CTE.

Concussion Safety

According to The New York Times, Easterling’s widow, Mary Ann Easterling, will continue to pursue the lawsuit on behalf of her husband, and she is urging the league to establish a fund for players with traumatic brain injuries related to their playing days.

“Half the time the player puts themselves back in the game, and they don’t know what kind of impact it has,” she said. “Somehow this has got to be stopped.”

Friends and Easterling’s attorney, Larry Coben, said that Easterling had not been himself for about the past six months. According to Coben:

“I could tell he was not on his game. He kept repeating himself and getting confused. It’s pretty tough, pretty tough.”

To read the full story in The New York Times, click here: Ray Easterling, of Atlanta’s Gris Blitz, Dies at 62

To read the full story on USAToday.com, click here:  Easterling’s death will impact concussion lawsuit

To learn more about the NFL lawsuits, click here:  NFLConcussionLitigation.com

To watch our video about concussion, click here:  Concussion Safety

Over the course of a year, we write hundreds of blogs. In case you missed some, here is a round-up of the most important traumatic brain injury (TBI) stories of the year. (To read any of the blogs, click on the title and you’ll be taken directly to the story.)

U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords

The year did not start off well. On January 8, 2011, a man went on a shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona. Six people were killed, 13 were injured, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head. The rapid response of the medical team saved the lives of a dozen people shot in the rampage, including Giffords’. Over the course of the year, her recovery has been better than anyone could have predicted, a tribute to the medical advances in brain injury treatment.

• Arizona Shooting Spree Aftermath
• Gabrielle Giffords’ Recovery Called Ideal

Long-Term Effect of Concussion

The biggest brain injury story by far is about the long-term effects of concussion, especially in athletes. This year, scientists linked multiple concussions to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a kind of central nervous system damage that happens when people suffer repeated head injuries, typically soldiers or athletes in high impact sports, such as football or ice hockey. Early symptoms of CTE include memory problems, difficulty concentrating, and disorientation. As the disease progresses, people with CTE show behavioral problems—poor judgment, aggression, sexual compulsiveness, erratic behavior, and drug and alcohol abuse—as well as increasing nervous system symptoms, including tremors, staggering gait, deafness, and dementia. Unfortunately, the only way to definitely diagnose CTE is to examine the brain of the affected individual during an autopsy. From kids to football players to hockey teams, concussion has been the biggest TBI story of the year.

• Concussion Has Long-Term Effects for Teen Athletes
• Football Player Dave Duerson Donates Brain to Research
• NFL to Diagnose Player Concussions on the Sidelines
• Will NHL Take Action Against Concussion?
• Athletes’ Dementia: New Name for an Old Disease
• What You Need to Know About Youth Sports Concussion
• Football Players Sue League Over Concussion Risks
• Football Players Demand Better Health Monitoring
• Repeated Head Trauma Can Lead to CTE
• Kids Suffer Long-Term Effects from Head Trauma

Cheer Safety

What do you call an activity requires strength, stamina, flexibility, agility, planning, and coordination with team members?  What if the participants were required to train with weight-training and aerobic exercises?  And what if that activity was performed in gymnasiums, in stadiums, and on outdoor fields?  And what if teams competed regionally and nationally? Sounds like a sport, right? Well, not to sports authorities. Cheer (what used to be called “cheerleading”) injures participants like a sport, including some devastating head injuries. That’s why we wrote a 3-part series on cheer as a sport.

• Cheerleaders Are Athletes, Part One
• Cheerleaders Are Athletes, Part Two
• Cheerleaders Are Athletes, Part Three

How to Hire an Experienced Brain Injury Lawyer

TBI is a difficult, complex injury for doctors to treat…and for lawyers to pursue. If you are considering pursuing a legal case, it’s important to choose an attorney who knows the complicated ins and outs of brain injury. That’s why we’ve provided this guide:

• How to Hire an Experienced Brain Injury Lawyer

VIDEOS

In addition to blogs, we also create videos about important health, medical, and legal topics. To see all of our available videos, please visit our YouTube channel here:  HensonFuerst YouTube Channel

Here are links to some of our brain injury videos:

Symptoms of Concussion

Epidemic of Concussion in Youth Sports

Hiring an Experienced Brain Injury Lawyer

Three months ago, we wrote a blog about how some folks were calling to ban fighting in major league hockey. The call for action came on the heels of three deaths:  35-year-old Wade Belak, who committed suicide; 27-year-old Rick Rypien, who was found dead in his home; and 28-year-old Derek Boogaard, who died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Boogaard’s brain was given to a laboratory at the Bedford V.A. Medical Center in Bedford, Massachusetts, so it could be examined for signs of damage. The goal:  To see whether years of hockey fights and head injury had done permanent damage. According to Dr. Robert Cantu, co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University’s School of Medicine:

“There’s no way to know how much was damage caused by fighting as opposed to hits to the head sustained in the normal course of playing the game. Personally, though, I suspect it’s caused more by fighting,” Cantu said. “In my practice, when I’ve studied ‘enforcer-type’ guys and we discuss fights, they say roughly one in four times they get concussed. But they never bring it to the trainer’s attention. They just go to the box and try to recover enough to make it back to the bench when the penalty’s over. It’s the code. They’re afraid if they admit it, they’ll be out of a job.”

The results are in. According to an article in The New York Times, Boogaard had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurological disorder thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head. It can only be diagnosed after death, via autopsy and examination of the brain, but symptoms often reveal the disorder. Memory loss, mood swings, impulsiveness, addictions, and in the late stages, a person with CTE can develop symptoms that look very similar to dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

Boogaard’s brain was the fourth hockey player brain examined, and all four were found to have CTE. According to The New York Times:

But this was different. The others were not in their 20s, not in the prime of their careers. The scientists….told the Boogaard family that they were shocked to see so much damage in someone so young. It appeared to be spreading through his brain….

“To see this amount? That’s a ‘wow’ moment,” [Dr. Ann] McKee said as she pointed to magnified images of Boogaard’s brain tissue. “This is all going bad.”

What’s particularly scary is that other current, young hockey players could have the disease…and how many will sustain blows to the head tomorrow that will start the disease process. And yet, the NHL isn’t convinced that here is a link between hockey and CTE.  Hmmm…guess that means that they won’t be changing the rules about fighting on the ice. In fact, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told The New York Times:

“If you polled our fans, probably more would say they think it’s a part of the game and should be retained.”

There you go—the fans want the fights, so I guess we can tolerate a little brain damage. As Chris Nowinski, another co-director of the Boston University center, said:  ”They are trading money for brain cells.”

That says it all.

RESOURCES

To read our September blog about the call to ban fights in hockey, click here:  A Call to Ban Hockey Fights

To read the full article in The New York Times, click here:  Derek Boogaard–A Brain ‘Going Bad’

“]”]In the medical world, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a rising star, sure to become a household name. And the turning point in CTE’s infamy may have just been reported this week, with the report that former hockey great Rick Martin had CTE at the time of his death. First, some background:

CTE is a kind of central nervous system damage that happens when people suffer repeated head injuries, typically soldiers or athletes in high impact sports, such as football or ice hockey. Early symptoms of CTE include memory problems, difficulty concentrating, and disorientation. As the disease progresses, people with CTE show behavioral problems—poor judgment, aggression, sexual compulsiveness, erratic behavior, and drug and alcohol abuse—as well as increasing nervous system symptoms, including tremors, staggering gait, deafness, and dementia. Unfortunately, the only way to definitely diagnose CTE is to examine the brain of the affected individual during an autopsy.

The organization that is at the forefront of research into CTE is the “brain bank” run by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE). Some athletes who believe they may have CTE donate their brains to the brain bank for examination after their death. That was the case with former football pro Dave Duerson, who committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest to preserve his brain for examination and diagnosis. (To read more about Dave Duerson’s story, click here: Football Player Donates Brain to Research.)

WHAT’S NEW THIS WEEK

An article in The New York Times reported that former NHL star Rick Martin had CTE when he died last March of a heart attack at age 59. What makes this revelation a game-changer is that Martin was not known for being an on-ice fighter, and he only had one known concussion, way back in 1978. His head ht the ice, and he experienced immediate convulsions.

“Rick Martin’s case shows us that even hockey players who don’t engage in fighting are at risk for C.T.E., likely because of the repetitive brain trauma players receive throughout their career,” said Chris Nowinski, a director at the center and co-founder of the Sports Legacy Institute, which seeks to advance the study, treatment and prevention of brain trauma in athletes.

The thought is that although Martin had only one documented concussion, he had several more head impacts—trivial, but cumulatively damaging.

For everyone, the message is simple:  Protect your head!  This new information suggests that any blow to the head could contribute to long-term problems. You never know which blow with be the one to send your brain over the edge to permanent, progressive damage.

To read the full article in The New York Times, click here:  Former Star Had Disease Linked to Brain Trauma

If you have been following our blogs about football and concussion risks, then you know that this was bound to happen.

According to an article on CNN.com:

Seventy-five former professional football players are suing the National Football League, saying the league knew as early as the 1920s of the harmful effects of concussions on players’ brains but concealed the information from players, coaches, trainers and others until June 2010.

Not only did the NFL fail to inform the players of the risks, but they failed to protect the players from known risks.

Multiple concussions can lead to long-term brain injury, memory loss, depression, dementia, and a neurologic condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.), which mimics Lou Gehrig’s disease. The condition has become so wide-spread among football players that retired player Dave Duerson, who committed suicide at age 50, donated his brain to Boston University’s brain bank. (To read our blog about this, click here: Football Player Donates Brain to Research)

According to an article in The New York Times, published February 11, 2011:

Players who began their careers knowing the likely costs to their knees and shoulders are only now learning about the cognitive risks, too. After years of denying or discrediting evidence of football’s impact on the brain — from C.T.E. in deceased players to an increasing number of retirees found to have dementia or other memory-related disease — the N.F.L. has spent the last year addressing the issue, mostly through changes in concussion management and playing rules.

The N.F.L. has also donated $1 million to Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy [known to players as the "brain bank"], the research group that will soon examine Duerson’s brain.

At the brain bank, brains of 15 former NFL players have been studied — 14 of them show signs of degenerative C.T.E.

What the Suit Is About

According to the CNN.com article, the players contend that members of the NFL’s Brain Injury Committee denied knowledge of a link between concussion and cognitive decline. In addition:

“When the NFL’s Brain Injury Committee anticipated studies that would implicate causal links between concussion and cognitive degeneration it promptly published articles producing contrary findings, although false, distorted and deceiving, as part of the NFL’s scheme to deceive Congress, the players and the public at large,” the suit says.

“The defendants acted willfully, wantonly, egregiously, with reckless abandon, and with a high degree of moral culpability,” the former players charge in court documents.

Due to multiple and severe concussions, some former players have died…many currently suffer from post-concussion syndrome…and nearly all now have cause for serious concern. We’ll be watching how this suit proceeds and report back with news. We wish the players luck in their pursuit of justice and the truth, for their own sake, and the sake of future players.

To read the full article on CNN.com, click here:  Former NFL Players: League Concealed Concussion Risks

Decades ago, everyone knew that boxers had brain problems from taking too many hits to the head. The average person called it being punch drunk. Doctors called it dementia pugilistica, or dementia of fighters. Now, we understand that permanent brain injury can happen to anyone who takes a lot of hits to the head–people such as football, hockey, soccer, and rugby players. In fact, the problem has gotten so big that a new term has been coined: Athletes’ Dementia.

The medical term for Athletes’ Dementia is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

According to a Johns Hopkins Health Alert, the earliest symptoms of CTE are memory problems, disorientation and difficulty concentrating.

As chronic traumatic encephalopathy progresses, people begin to show poor judgment, erratic behavior, significant memory loss and some degree of Parkinson’s disease (impaired speech, difficulty with motor skills, slow movement and a loss of balance). In more advanced stages of CTE, patients experience tremors, full-blown Parkinsonism, a staggering gait, deafness and dementia.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is also commonly associated with psychological problems like depression, agitation, aggression and violence, loss of inhibitions, sexual compulsiveness, euphoria, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide.

Most of the time, the worst symptoms don’t appear until after the athlete has retired from professional play, and a 2009 study showed that the average lifespan of people with CTE is 51. Disturbingly young.

In February, we wrote about former football great Dave Duerson, who committed suicide. by shooting himself in the chest, not the head. That’s because Duerson’s final wish, expressed in his suicide note and in a voicemail message to his ex-wife, was that his brain would be given to the National Football League’s (NFL) brain bank.

The “brain bank” is the nickname of the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE). The CSTE was created in 2008 as a collaborative venture between Boston University School of Medicine and Sports Legacy Institute (SLI). Its is to conduct state-of-the-art research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Duerson shot himself in the chest so that his brain could be donated intact. (To read the full blog, click here:  Football Player Donates Brain to Research)

With a new name that is easier for the public to remember (and pronounce), Athletes’ Dementia will open the dialog about the long-term effects of sports on the brain–effects that previously had been underestimated. No doubt we’ll be hearing about dementia symptoms in players from a variety of sports. Let’s hope we hear about some real solutions and preventions before there are “brain banks” for all hard-hitting sports.

In a series of articles, The New York Times has been telling the story of Dave Duerson, a 50-year-old former Chicago Bear and father of four who killed himself earlier this month. Duerson’s final wish, expressed in his suicide note and in a voicemail message to his ex-wife, was that his brain would be given to the National Football League’s (NFL) brain bank.

Duerson’s death, and his final gift, will likely expand the national conversation about the effects of repeated concussion on football players’ brains…and what should be done to protect athletes of all ages.

The “brain bank” is the nickname of the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE). The CSTE was created in 2008 as a collaborative venture between Boston University School of Medicine and Sports Legacy Institute (SLI). Its is to conduct state-of-the-art research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)—a form of progressive dementia—through the study of neuropathology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, disease course, genetic and environmental risk factors and prevention. It’s research is done on donated brain and spinal cord tissue, with the hope that scientists can develop tests for diagnosing CTE in living people, and treatments for people who show signs of disease.

When Duerson took his own life, he shot himself in the chest, not the head, so that his brain could be donated intact.

According to The New York Times:

Players who began their careers knowing the likely costs to their knees and shoulders are only now learning about the cognitive risks, too. After years of denying or discrediting evidence of football’s impact on the brain — from C.T.E. in deceased players to an increasing number of retirees found to have dementia or other memory-related disease — the N.F.L. has spent the last year addressing the issue, mostly through changes in concussion management and playing rules.

Duerson was active in helping ex-footballers with disability. He served on a panel that helped administer the NFL’s disability plan and the 88 Plan, a care fund for families of players with dementia. There is no doubt that Duerson knew of the link between repeated head injury and dementia and neurologic disability…and it is likely that he believed he suffered from CTE. Friends say he had memory problems, and sometimes had a difficult time thinking of or writing the correct words.

Again, from The New York Times:

Duerson sent text messages to his family before he shot himself specifically requesting that his brain be examined for damage, two people aware of the messages said. Another person close to Duerson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Duerson had commented to him in recent months that he might have C.T.E., an incurable disease linked to depression, impaired impulse control and cognitive decline.

It will be awhile before we know whether Duerson suffered from CTE, or if he was suffering from depression without brain damage. Regardless of the outcome of the autopsy, Duerson’s death puts new focus on the effects of football on brain health and brain function. Pro athletes play under great risk, but some say the greatest risk is reserved for youth athletes, whose still-developing brains may suffer bigger consequences from smaller hits.

The conversation about how to prevent brain damage in athletes of all ages will be difficult. Fans love the raw aggression of the game, and those with money at stake may balk at taking the danger out of the game for fear of losing viewers and revenue. Will we see new safety equipment? New helmet designs? A change in the rules? This should be an interesting year for parents, coaches, football players, and the N.F.L.

Our hope is that Dave Duerson’s tragic death has meaning, that safety becomes the paramount concern, and that this is the last time a football player dies as the result—directly or indirectly— of what really is just a game.

Resources

Links for the two articles from The New York Times:

N.F.L. Players Shaken by Duerson’s Suicide Message (February 20, 2011)

A Suicide, a Last Request, a Family’s Questions (February 22, 2011)

To learn more about brain injury, check out the HensonFuerst website: http://www.lawmed.com/

The evolution of the “meaning” of concussion has just taken another step…and it’s a frightening step.

Back in the day, concussion was viewed as a mild bump on the head, getting your “bell rung.” No one paid it much mind; take the hit and get back in the game.

Recently, doctors have warned that concussion is more dangerous than that. In fact, pediatricians have been lobbying to have it renamed, from concussion to the more accurately descriptive “mild traumatic brain injury” (MTBI).

Earlier this year, scientists made the disturbing discovery that people who suffer repeated head injury (such as football players and soldiers) develop a type of brain damage that mimics amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This was the discovery of a new disease syndrome that causes brain damage, central nervous system damage, dementia, and eventually death. It is called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, and it is only caused by repetitive brain trauma.

Today, The New York Times reports that the autopsy of a 21-year-old college football player who died of suicide revealed that he had the early stages of CTE. This young man, Owen Thomas, had no history of depression, but suffered what was called a “sudden and uncharacteristic emotional collapse” before taking his life in April 2010. Thomas is the youngest football player, and first amateur football player, to be found with clear CTE. If he hadn’t killed himself, the brain injury wouldn’t have been discovered for years, if ever. But the circumstances of his death demanded autopsy.

Although there is no way to definitively link his suicide to the brain damage, the connection is certainly possible, if not probable:

“It’s not unreasonable that aspects of his behavior were related to the underlying brain disease that was detected,” said Dr. Perl [Daniel Perl, professor of pathology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences], adding that he was speaking as an experienced neuropathologist and not on behalf of his organization. “This is real.”

Dr. Perl added that this finding showed that CTE is possible earlier, and at impact levels lower than those experienced by professional football players.

Right now, no one knows how many hits…how frequent the hits…or how hard the hits have to be before “several concussions” becomes “irreversible brain damage.”  The only thing that is clear is that we need to do more to protect the brains of young athletes. If CTE was found in the brain of an otherwise healthy 21-year-old man, when did it start? In high school? Junior high? Pop Warner Youth Football?

Just last month, we reported about the virtual explosion in the number of head injuries experienced by children while playing sports: In just 10 years, kids ages 8-13 had double the number of concussion-related hospital emergency visits. Kids ages 14-19 had quadruple the number. Unless we take action now, some of these children may end up with permanent, debilitating brain injury.

What can we do? We wrote about that, too…just last week. (Click here to read that entry: The Head Game of Youth Sports.)  And you know what? We’ll continue to write about concussion and brain injury until there is nothing left to write about. Football season is here…let’s keep all players safe.

If you want to read the full article from The New York Times, click here: Penn Football Player Had Brain Disease, Autopsy Shows

One of the world’s leading brain injury researchers recommends that children under age 18 should sit out of sports participation for three months after suffering a concussion. This statement was made by Dr. Bennet Omalu, co-founder of the Brain Injury Research Institute at West Virginia University, on February 1, 2010, while testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the impact of injuries in collegiate and youth football. (See AP story here.)

Dr. Omalu was the expert who discovered the condition called chronic traumatic encephalaopathy (CTE), a form of degenerative, permanent brain damage which can be caused by repeated concussions.

In an earlier committee meeting (January 2009), Dr. Omalu explained that concussions cause damage to brain structures at the cellular and sub-cellular levels. After concussion, some genes get “turned on” and cause a type of protein (APP, or amyloid precursor protein) to accumulate in brain cells and nerve fibers. APP is strongly associated with Alzheimers disease and other degenerative brain disorders.

So concussion increases APP. And APP is related to brain degeneration.

Here’s the kicker:  After a concussion, it take 3 months for all the extra APP to disappear. That’s why Dr. Omalu recommends that children stay out of sports (and other vigorous activities that could reinjure the brain) for 3 months. Adults should probably also be sidelined for that long, but it would be next to impossible to regulate when a 250-pound star football player can run back out onto the field.

Logical, right?

Except that the sports most likely to result in concussion are the same ones that value toughness and a certain degree of violence. According a report in the New York TImes (12/10/2009),

“…one day after the N.F.L. decided that no player showing any significant sign of concussion could return to a game, several players at Tustin High School in California admitted they still wouldn’t tell a trainer if they got hurt.”

And, from the DailyMe…

In the immortal words of U.S. Representative Ted Poe, R-Texas, “I mean if Congress gets involved, it would be the end of football as we know it…. We would all be playing touch football out there.”

It’s one thing to voluntarily damage your brain if you’re an adult, but we need to protect kids from activities that could cause them a lifetime of misery…or even a premature death. A single concussion can have devastating consequences. A Bellevue, Washington boy, Zachery Lystedt, is still learning to walk again after a severe concussion he got playing football when he was 13.

It is imperative that doctors, schools, coaches, and parents all cooperate for the health of our children. Concussions need to be diagnosed properly–as mild traumatic brain damage–and treated with the same care, respect, and time we give to other serious injuries. A broken collarbone means 3 months of down-time from sports. A child’s brain deserves at least the same amount of time to heal.

(For more info on APP and neurodegeneration, click here.)