Dementia in Football.

[Buzzo]

Bet it gets a bigger reach than some ex pro who no one remembers. At least he is sticking his neck out to bring some light to the subject here. I didnt learn much that Ive not already seen with regards to NFL and Wrestling. But it is fascinating that its all coming to the surface now and hopefully going forward players will be better protected and given all the knowledge up front.

Hopefully the documentary will get more funding and shine a light on the ex pros from the 60's and 70's who have Dementia. It would be good if a harder hitting documentary style were to follow this up, the most damning stat really was despite the coroner reporting that Jeff Astle died from dementia brought on by heading a football 15 years ago there has been almost zero follow up work from the football authorities. They dont even know how many ex pros have it.

As mentioned my best mates Dad is an expro from the 70's and he was recently diagnosed, it is ****ing depressing to hear the guy that discovered Shearer, and the families of the other players talk and be able to draw so many parallells to someone I know myself.

It is well worth watching despite Shearer.

[Buzzo]

I'm no fan of Shearer but he handled it reasonably well imo and it was a very worthwhile programme.

Hopefully he has opened the door to allow some more pointed questions.

I feel that a more robust approach/documentary where people are held to task is now required. Shearers fear and nervousness was palpable as he went through the process, which is why the fact that he pulled his punch at the end seemed all the more disappointing.

As Alex says it needed a big name to pull the viewers in and hopefully that is what AS has done.

[Shaggy]

Hopefully he has opened the door to allow some more pointed questions.

I feel that a more robust approach/documentary where people are held to task is now required. Shearers fear and nervousness was palpable as he went through the process, which is why the fact that he pulled his punch at the end seemed all the more disappointing.

As Alex says it needed a big name to pull the viewers in and hopefully that is what AS has done.

Yeah that was disappointing. I think I'm in favour of banning heading in kids football. I think.

[Alex]

Hopefully the documentary will get more funding and shine a light on the ex pros from the 60's and 70's who have Dementia. It would be good if a harder hitting documentary style were to follow this up, the most damning stat really was despite the coroner reporting that Jeff Astle died from dementia brought on by heading a football 15 years ago there has been almost zero follow up work from the football authorities. They dont even know how many ex pros have it.

As mentioned my best mates Dad is an expro from the 70's and he was recently diagnosed, it is ****ing depressing to hear the guy that discovered Shearer, and the families of the other players talk and be able to draw so many parallells to someone I know myself.

It is well worth watching despite Shearer.

I know a guy in his late 50s suffering from dementia who spent his whole life playing football. Literally until 3 years ago. His wife is convinced is the football. Obviously no proof or hard evidence, but its worth thinking about.

[Buzzo]

I know a guy in his late 50s suffering from dementia who spent his whole life playing football. Literally until 3 years ago. His wife is convinced is the football. Obviously no proof or hard evidence, but its worth thinking about.

I thought the explanation using the jelly brain was the best example (they explain the same effect in Concussion (the film) using a ball inside a jar.

Its the cumulative effect that they cannot get any stats from. I felt that they presented more than enough evidence to support much more research.

It is a pretty stark fact that football is the only sport where the head is actively used to propel an object and that it also currently has no HIA protocols.

[Hollowman]

The chronic traumatic encephalopathy research from former NFL players is terrifying. 111 deceased pros donated their brains to science and 110 had CTE. It doesn't even have to happen in late life - Aaron Hernandez's corpse showed one of the most severe cases and he was only 27.

[Buzzo]

The chronic traumatic encephalopathy research from former NFL players is terrifying. 111 deceased pros donated their brains to science and 110 had CTE. It doesn't even have to happen in late life - Aaron Hernandez's corpse showed one of the most severe cases and he was only 27.

I have to admit that nearly all of my NFL CTE info is from Concussion and then reading some articles about Bennet Omalu. It is staggering though, and then reading how the disease manifests is utterly depressing. Based on that what Omalu uncovered you cant help but believe that to a lesser extent (as in less severe impacts, but then just as often) the same has to be true of football (Soccer).

[spud_gun]

The chronic traumatic encephalopathy research from former NFL players is terrifying. 111 deceased pros donated their brains to science and 110 had CTE. It doesn't even have to happen in late life - Aaron Hernandez's corpse showed one of the most severe cases and he was only 27.

CTE will be the downfall of the NFL. Not the Anthem protest or Trump.

One of the most frightening aspects to last week's Hernandez findings is that he played less than 30 games as a professional. Alot of the damage is seemingly being done in high school and college.

However comparing the NFL to football is like comparing apples and oranges.

I'm surprised that Rugby hasn't come under more scrutiny in this country. The handling of George Norths concussions should have been a watershed moment but sadly doesn't appear to have been the case.

[Buzzo]

CTE will be the downfall of the NFL. Not the Anthem protest or Trump.

One of the most frightening aspects to last week's Hernandez findings is that he played less than 30 games as a professional. Alot of the damage is seemingly being done in high school and college.

However comparing the NFL to football is like comparing apples and oranges.

I'm surprised that Rugby hasn't come under more scrutiny in this country. The handling of George Norths concussions should have been a watershed moment but sadly doesn't appear to have been the case.

Though it is an apt comparison the apples and oranges, ultimately if you chuck both at a wall even with different velocities and different amounts of times, both fruits will damage eventually.

Re. Rugby. There was some noise about removing tackling from the game under a specific age.

The HIA protocols are followed quite strictly now, but they are administered by the clubs, and as you say, the George North case shows how liberally they are applied depending on the player, the game and its importance. I am sure Scotland had about 3 players unable to return to the pitch in the game vs France this spring, massively frustrating at the time, but ultimately probably adding years to the players lifes.

Even last week I was reading John Barclays comments on his own recent concussion, and rehab from it. I cant imagine how many of these injuries have gone undiagnosed in the past.

Rugby has loads of issues to address and this is one of them. Throw in the multiple subs where effectively more than half the team can be replaced during the game and typically at around 60 mins a new front row come on. Meaning fatigue is being removed from the force of the tackle and the impacts are just as severe from start to finish for the guys that play the full 80.

That said, Rugby is light years ahead of where football is in terms of acknowledgement. Enforcing the protocols is where the issue lies.

(There was a Rugby doc on Dementia in Ex SRU players a few years ago by John Beattie).

[Buzzo]

New study to begin in January.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42094034

[Buzzo]

Dementia in football: Ex-players three and a half times more likely to die of condition

Former professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to die of dementia than people of the same age range in the general population, according to new research.

Experts at Glasgow University have been investigating fears that heading the ball could be linked to brain injuries.

The study began after claims that former West Brom striker Jeff Astle died because of repeated head trauma.

It compared deaths of 7,676 ex-players to 23,000 from the general population.

The sample was taken from men who played professional football in Scotland between 1900 and 1976.

However, despite the dementia risk, the study also found that playing the game increased average lifespan.

The long-awaited study was commissioned by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association after delays in initial research had angered Astle's family.

It began in January last year and was led by consultant neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart, whose report said that "risk ranged from a five-fold increase in Alzheimer's disease, through an approximately four-fold increase in motor neurone disease, to a two-fold Parkinson's disease in former professional footballers compared to population controls".

Former England international Astle developed dementia and died in 2002 at the age of 59. The inquest into his death found heading heavy leather footballs repeatedly had contributed to trauma to his brain.

But research by the FA and the PFA was later dropped because of what were said to be technical flaws.

Astle's family has campaigned for the football authorities to launch a comprehensive research programme.

His daughter Dawn said she was "relieved" the study eventually went ahead, with her father's case highlighted by former England captain Alan Shearer in a BBC documentary Alan Shearer: Dementia, Football and Me.

More to follow.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50124102

[Red_Polo]

Shocking but not surprising. Big issue here is the applicability to today's game. Will there still be a significantly higher prevalence given fewer headers in the game with a lighter ball?

[Buzzo]

Yeah, I think the lighter ball will make it less of an issue than the old leather bricks. I'd also say the ball spends less time in the air than it did in football in previous decades. That said, there must still be an accumulative effect.

I think the big issue for me, baring in mind my initial post, is compensation for families who have suffered due to no fault of their own. There is a lot of money in football now, some of it needs to be making its way to the families and individuals effected.

[Kenneth]

Trying to imagine the game without the head being a valid means of contacting the ball. I think you'd need a bigger pitch or less players for it to work.

[Zapater]

No surprise, it's a ****ing ball making contact with your head repeatedly which houses your brain. The velocity and torque of the ball on impact could definitely temporarily effect the brains positioning in the skull. It's pretty simple. As a boxing man, from first hand experience I can guarantee that misheading a ball can be more uncomfortable than being on the wrong end of a light jab.

Shocking but not surprising. Big issue here is the applicability to today's game. Will there still be a significantly higher prevalence given fewer headers in the game with a lighter ball?

These newer balls are lighter, but read something about the speed of the ball is significantly higher which could actually make things worse. I think the issue is more about the repetition. If someone makes 10 headers per week in a game, it might not seem like too many. But how many headers have you made in practice? ... since you were 7 years old, or whenever you started playing.

Regardless, there's no way of getting around it. It was and is part of the game. There's nothing sinister in it, some people will no doubt have neurological issues as a result of repeated, low impact head trauma. The best thing that football can probably do is educate people and they can make the choice if they want to participate or not. The fact that millions of people around the world know the dangers of combat sports and choose to actively participate leads me to believe that nothing too significant will happen on a grand scale.