Tag Archives: Alzheimer’s Disease

CDC, NIOSH and Department of HHS Issue Statement

27 Jan

For many years the “government” has kept its collective mouth shut about happenings in sports.  Occasionally they will make statements regarding the health of players in sports; case in point steroids and PED’s.  The highest football league in the States and world has often had little resistance from “government” while doing business, until now.

The Department of Health and Human Services along with The Center for Disease Control and The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have released an NFL Notification about brain and nervous system disorders.  The NFL Notification can be found by clicking on the jump above.  Here are the highlights;

  • In general, brain and nervous system disorders were more than 3 times higher among players; 17 players died with Alzheimer’s, ALS, or Parkinson’s compared to 5 men in the U.S. (see graph).
  • More speed position players died from these disorders compared to the non-speed position players.
  • ALS was 4 times higher among players; 7 players died with ALS compared to fewer than 2 men in the U.S.
  • Alzheimer’s was 4 times higher among players; 7 players died with Alzheimer’s compared to fewer than 2 men in the U.S.
  • Parkinson’s was not increased among players compared to men in the U.S.

This is not “old” news rather, it is confirming what has already been known, but Continue reading →

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New Study; Posting for Reference

7 Sep

This information was not only new, but really took up time on the airwaves with its information.  For some this may be a head scratching, but for most in the know it was really confirmation of what the popular line of thinking has been.  Really, if you think about this in a vacuum, brain trauma is bad, and increased exposure over long periods of time is real bad.

Here is a recap from CTVNews in Canada;

Former NFL players appear to be at an unusually high risk of dying from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Lou Gehrig’s disease, suggests a new study that once again highlights the dangers of the game of football.

The study, which appears in the journal Neurology, found that the death rate from those three diseases among a group of former NFL players was about three times what one would expect from the general population.

The study looked at 3,439 former players who had at least five playing seasons from 1959-1988 with the NFL. The average age of the study participants was 57 and only 334 players – about 10 per cent of them – have now died.

Researchers compared the players’ deaths to a comparable group of American men and found that in 10 of the former NFL players, either Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Lou Gehrig’s disease (also called ALS) was listed as the cause of death.

That’s about three times the general rate for American men, the researchers reported.

I would also like to take this time to make sure we are not vilifying the NFL or football for that matter.  Sure the sport has plenty of brain injury, but concussions and repetitive blows to the head are not unique to the gridiron.  Soccer for one is a sport that is both understudied and had potential for chronic cases.  In the sport of baseball the catcher position is an area of concern.  Hockey, rugby, rodeo, Aussie Rules all have a place in this discussion.

Mostly, remember that kids are now exposed to sports at a much younger age then this study group, and the group also was playing before the 90′s – before everyone got bigger, faster and stronger.

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Alzheimer’s study may help answer questions about CTE

9 Feb

In response to an article published by the New York Times, the Sports Legacy Institute shared these words (on Twitter): “Mystery solved? Key Alzheimer’s study may have unlocked mystery of how CTE progresses.”  What’s being referenced is the release of information discovered by researchers at Harvard and Columbia, who found that Alzheimer’s disease spreads like an infection—not the spreading of virus or bacteria, but the spread of tau protein.

The involvement of tau protein has long been known to be a part of the process in this disease, but in understanding the ways in which such proteins expand over a period of time within the brain offers a variety of potentialities for neuroscience’s future.  The study was done with genetically engineered mice that could create abnormal tau protein, and over a two-year period, the neuronal makeup of the mice displayed a path of destruction headed by tau protein through networks of the brain.  What was most important to take from this study was the fat that the tau protein functioned through cell-to-cell transmission.

The new studies provide an answer. And they indicate it may be possible to bring Alzheimer’s disease to an abrupt halt early on by preventing cell-to-cell transmission, perhaps with an antibody that blocks tau.

This process has been heavily debated in the scientific community in recent decades, where there was no clear definition to the ways in which Alzheimer’s disease progressed.  Scientists did not agree on whether this process was because of cell-to-cell transmission involving tau protein, or it was because the protein found avenues of invasion through the inadvertent assistance of vulnerable neurons.  The unanswerable mystery of Alzheimer’s disease now seems to have found its answer, with regards to this particular question and finding.  It is now plausible to conceive a method in which the process of this neurodegenerative process could be sidetracked and treated with positive result. Continue reading →

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More Research From AAIC

19 Jul

A recent study to be presented by Chris Randolph in Paris at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference will be “piggybacked” on the information that came out yesterday.  In a Bloomberg News report by Elizabeth Lopatto there was a small preview of what Randolph will be disclosing, and it is not good news for those that are trying to bury their head in the sand;

The study, to be presented today by Christopher Randolph of Loyola University in Chicago, found that athletes who play American football showed symptoms of mild brain dysfunction at an earlier age than nonplaying peers. In addition, there was more illness among the retired athletes than in those who were about the same age.

“You don’t play football without getting a concussion,” said Cornelius Bennett, a former linebacker for the Buffalo Bills and head of the retired National Football League Players’ Association. “We’re taught in football that if you can’t play, you lose your job, and if you don’t report concussions, you have a better chance of keeping your job.”

Very interesting, the information and the quote from Bennett; the primary issue seems to be centered around professional football.  What we need to understand is Continue reading →

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Alzheimer’s Association Lets It Be Known

18 Jul

There has been a lot of press regarding the predisposition of the brain after playing in the NFL; for years the league has tried to keep a lid on it, claiming there is not sufficient evidence to support a NFL career and increased risk of degenerative brain function.  The NFL is not the only one with this issue; the military has also been intrigued by service and brain predisposition, however the military has been trying to helps its veterans by working hard on the issue.

All of this could change with the press release from Alzheimer’s Association, meeting this past weekend in Paris for their International Conference.  The Alzheimer’s Association is the world’s leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research.  The press release is titled “Brain Injury May More Than Double Dementia Risk in Older Veterans”, with the subtext of: Additional Study Suggests that Former Athletes with Concussions have Increased Risk of Cognitive Impairment, with Earlier Onset;

PARIS, July 18, 2011 – Older veterans who experienced traumatic brain injury showed a more than two-fold increase in the risk of developing dementia, according to new research presented today at the Alzheimer’s Association® International Conference 2011 (AAIC 2011) in Paris. Continue reading →

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Generation Alzheimer’s

5 May

In The Concussion Mailbag we received this from Diane Wright;

As you may have heard, there have been some amazing breakthroughs this past month in linking certain genes to Alzheimer’s, but there is still a lot of work to be done. This year, the first of the Boomer Generation turns 65. To bring urgently-needed attention to the risk facing the Boomers, Alzheimer’s Association released a groundbreaking study, Generation Alzheimer’s: The Defining Disease of the Baby Boomers.    

I thought that you would be interested in sharing this important information with the readers of The Concussion Blog, so I’ve put together a microsite, with all sorts of information to help spread the word:

http://alz-news.org

I think it is very interesting micro-site and anyone who may be suffering from AD should take a look.

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