NFL Concussion Breakthrough: New Hope For Dementia-Plagued Football Players — and You
The violent collisions that make football so exciting come with a big price: Every year between 100,000 and 300,000 concussions occur among players. Some of these victims go on to develop severe mental problems such as chronic headaches, depression or dementia.
Currently, more than 300 former NFL players, including four members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, are suing the NFL over physical and mental problems they believe were caused by concussions they suffered during their careers. The NFL, they say, didn't do enough to protect them from harm.
For the first time, however, researchers are starting to understand exactly what happens to the brain after repeated concussions — and the new findings may lead to ways to prevent and treat head injuries like those commonly suffered in football. And it could help those suffering from non-football-related dementia.
In an article in the scientific journal “Surgical Neurology International,” Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., and Joseph Maroon, M.D., describe for the first time the physical and chemical chain of events in the brain that occur after a concussion. A shocking one in three retired NFL players has some cognitive impairment.
Dr. Blaylock and coauthor Dr. Maroon, team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers, revealed in their report that a complex chain reaction may occur in the brain when it is exposed to hard impact. The trauma, say the doctors, stimulates protective cells in the brain to release chemicals called cytokines and excitotoxic amino acids. The chemicals, in turn, interact with certain receptors on the brain’s neurons, stimulating them. If the brain continues to produce the amino acids after the injury, they overstimulate the neurons and trigger a response called excitotoxicity.”
The result: Brain cells are rapidly destroyed and neurological symptoms develop.
“The analogy I like is that a concussion is equivalent to having a splinter jabbed under your fingernail,” said Dr. Maroon. “Immediately, the body’s innate immune system, in the form of white blood cells, are drawn to the site of the injury and release cytokines that create pain, redness and swelling in an effort to wall off the effects of the foreign body.
“In the brain, you don’t see the redness, swelling and pain except in the form of headache or cognitive dysfunction.”
What does this mean for head-injury sufferers? “The current treatment for post-concussion syndrome is treating the symptoms,” explains Dr. Maroon. “Very few are treating the underlying cause — inflammation.”
Dr. Maroon stresses that football players who suffer concussions should not resume playing until all lingering symptoms have gone away. A computerized assessment system called ImPACT helps evaluate the brain function of athletes both before and after concussion. Dr. Maroon urges parents of young football players to ask whether their children’s team provides this test.
Because low magnesium levels are linked to excitotoxicity, it is important that football players and others at risk of concussion take supplements of the mineral, says Dr. Blaylock, visiting biology professor at Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss., and author of “The Blaylock Wellness Report.”
He recommends 500 mg of magnesium citrate/malate twice a day. The mineral, Dr. Blaylock says, “has dramatic benefits in treating head injuries” and “it has a strong, protective effect on the brain.”
What’s more, magnesium appears to protect against mental deterioration that is unrelated to football or head injuries.
Dr. Blaylock notes that researchers have found that Alzheimer’s patients have significantly lower magnesium levels than those without the disease.
Dr. Blaylock also suggests that other supplements may help prevent long-term brain problems: Curcumin (250 mg to 500 mg twice a day dissolved in olive oil), DHA (500 mg a day), vitamin E (400 IUs a day), multivitamin (once a day), resveratrol (100 mg a day), and R-lipoic acid (100 mg twice a day with meals).
Between the lawsuits and the article by Blaylock and Maroon, head injuries have become a hot topic among football fans. Tony Dorsett, a retired Dallas Cowboys and Hall of Fame running back has detailed the NFL's lack of compassion and concern for his safety, recounting being forced to play with a broken back, and showing brain scans that reveal damage in the areas of his brain associated with memory.
Other players remember a stream of pain pills and muscle relaxants being distributed before and after games, all to be washed down with beer. One of the medications, normally used after surgery, is especially risky if used with head injuries. Others recall being given smelling salts after being knocked out on the field and then sent back out to play, knowing they'd be harassed if they didn't.
The NFL has refused to comment on specific allegations, but the organization will air a television commercial during Sunday's Super Bowl highlighting the steps they have taken to make football safer.
Editor's Note: Renowned Neurosurgeon Explains How to Save Your Brain From the Ravages of Alzheimer's.
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