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CTE: The Hidden Risk of Playing Contact Sports

If you have ever played contact sports, you may have heard about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is caused by repetitive head injuries leading to a progressive loss in memory and other brain skills. The lack of proper skull protection has become a leading cause of brain problems in athletes. When playing sports, we focus on competition rather than the impact of repetitive injuries. Physical sports, like football, hockey, and boxing, have all been associated with CTE. When the brain hits the skull with an intense force, a substance in brain cells called tau proteins can malfunction in a way that leads to harmful changes in thinking, behavior, and mood. Tau proteins can collect between…

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 C.T.E. Study Finds That Young Football Players Are Getting CTE

Wyatt was part of the first major study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in athletes who died before turning 30. The findings present an uncomfortable truth for other football families: Even the young get C.T.E.

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The research, published in Jama Network Open and conducted by a Boston-based team, examined the estimated prevalence of the degenerative brain disease among NFL players who died from 2008 through 2023. Researchers found that the estimated rate of CTE among these players was substantially higher than the rates observed in brain samples collected from the general population.

Articles of Interest

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In response to widespread concern, organized sports organizations from Pop Warner to the NCAA to professional levels have developed and implemented concussion management protocols to help in the identification and management of concussions. Yet the massive attention given to concussion management and prevention has produced a level of public pseudo-awareness about CTE that currently outstrips what is scientifically known about the disorder.

I’m the Wife of a Former N.F.L. Player. Football Destroyed His Mind

He chose the sport, but he did not choose brain damage.

On C.T.E. and Athletes, Science Remains in Its Infancy

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Abnormal Levels of a Protein Linked to C.T.E. Found in N.F.L Players’ Brains, Study Shows

Experimental brain scans of more than two dozen former N.F.L. players found that the men had abnormal levels of the protein linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease associated with repeated hits to the head. Using positron emission tomography, or PET, scans, the researchers found “elevated amounts of abnormal tau protein” in the parts of the brain associated with the disease, known as C.T.E., compared to men of similar age who had not played football.

Athletic Combat and Real Combat: More Alike Than We Think?

Our brain, the seat of our consciousness, the essence of us, floats around in fluid inside our skull. When your head bumps into something at high speed, your brain can keep moving in that fluid and crash into your skull, sometimes with serious consequences.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Athletes: Progressive Tauopathy following Repetitive Head Injury

CTE is a neuropathologically distinct, slowly progressive tauopathy with a clear environmental etiology.

Concussion researchers spark hope with a new tool to diagnose brain damage

The stakes for this science are high. CTE is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that has been associated with everything from depression, anxiety, and aggression to progressive, Alzheimer’s-like dementia. So a diagnosis is not something to take lightly — and could be disastrous if gotten wrong.

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Just when you thought it was safe to trust the NFL to handle the issues of concussions and long-term brain damage appropriately, the league reverted to form and proved otherwise.

Concussions and Sports: Can We Have One Without the Other?

Anybody can sustain a concussion, but those who engage in contact sports have an increased risk of repeated and serious concussions that can manifest as dementia in later life.

Could This Spell The End For College Football? It Should

Parents send their kids off to college with high hopes and great expectations. Universities, in turn, have a responsibility to provide an education in an environment that supports and also challenges the students. Universities are not supposed to encourage activities that may result in permanent brain damage.

CTE & Football

Football has one of the highest injury rates of any sport and often leaves players with life-altering, career ending disabilities including CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

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Head injuries have been found to cause variant sexual behaviors, raising yet another concern over the effects of repetitive head trauma.

From Sacks to Suicidality: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and the NFL

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Pro athletes can have other conditions that make diagnosis difficult.

Here's What We Know About Football And Brain Injuries

Currently, CTE cannot be diagnosed in living people, but researchers are working on ways to identify the condition early. In a 2013 study of retired NFL players who had thinking and mood problems, researchers injected the players with a chemical marker, called FDDNP, which binds to the tau protein. The researchers found that FDDNP levels were higher in the brains of the former NFL players, compared with the brains of healthy people, suggesting that tau was in fact building up in their brains.

Inflategate

Don’t believe the pumped-up headlines. The latest study on CTE in the NFL doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.

League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis

FRONTLINE reveals the hidden story of the NFL and brain injuries.

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be a Cowboy or Canuck

Football is an exciting, violent sport. And, no offense to the Aussies and Canadians, so is rugby and hockey. Head related injuries have always been part of the game. But do they need to?

More Findings Of CTE In The NFL

Some NFL players are not waiting to find out what could be in their future.

Study Shows Toll on Brain in Former Football Players

Of the former NFL players in the sample, 110 of the 111 brains showed symptoms of CTE.

The CTE Study That Could Kill Football

Two things stand out in this study. First, the longer one participates in football, the higher the likelihood of CTE, which only can be identified after death -- so there's no way to fully know the extent of the damage until then, although as the study points out, there are behavioral and medical signs that something is amiss. And second, only one out of 111 NFL players studied DIDN'T have CTE is shocking, and might make the sport harder to watch knowing the long-term aspect of what you're seeing.

The Future of Detecting Brain Damage in Football

A new technique could revolutionize how a neurodegenerative disease afflicting contact sports is treated.

The NFL's CTE Clock Is Beginning to Tick in Real Time

Every disease has two core issues -- prevention and cure. With diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, healthy lifestyle management can minimize their occurrence, while we continue to wait for research to find cures. CTE, however, is an entirely different organism. It is a violence based disease and, for the most part, preventable. Avoid collision sports, fighting of any kind and combat, and your probability of contracting it is near zero.

They Love Football. They Try Not to Think About C.T.E.

For millions of Americans, watching college football is akin to breathing, especially on rivalry weekend. Do they worry about the physical price its players pay?

We Asked NCAA Football Players Why They’re Not Scared of Brain Damage

Even though every piece of research linking concussion to their potential next step—the NFL—is terrifying.

What a lifetime of playing football can do to the human brain

Football isn’t just a contact sport — it’s a dangerous game of massive bodies colliding into one another. And while it may seem obvious that this sport can do extraordinary damage to brains and bodies, it’s taken far too long for the NFL, the medical community, and football fans to fully reckon with this.

What to Know About C.T.E. in Football

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., has affected boxers since the 1920s, but it surged into the national consciousness in 2007, when The New York Times reported that Andre Waters sustained brain damage from playing football, which led to his depression and ultimate death by suicide.

What We Know About the NFL's Bogeyman, CTE

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy has been a known condition since the 1920s, but it remains one of medical science's great mysteries.

Resources

Concussion & CTE Foundation

The Concussion & CTE Foundation's mission is to support athletes, veterans & all affected by brain trauma.

Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada

CLF Canada’s mission is to advance the study, treatment, and prevention of the effects of brain trauma and associated mental health implications in Canadian athletes, military personnel, youth, and other at-risk groups.

Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center

In collaboration with other NIH-funded ADC’s and the non-profit Sports Legacy Institute, CTE Center conducts high-impact, innovative research on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and other long-term consequences of repetitive brain trauma in athletes and military personnel. The mission of the CTE Center is to conduct state-of-the-art research on CTE, including its neuropathology and pathogenesis, clinical presentation, genetics and other risk factors, biomarkers, methods of detection during life, and methods of prevention and treatment.