Football has been at the center of the head injury debate, but soccer has now been linked with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease associated with head trauma.
According to a report in the New York Times, researchers at Boston University say the findings are the result of studies on the brain of a former Chicago Fire player, Patrick Grange, who died two years ago from ALS at the age of 29.
Dr. Mary Dombovy is vice president of Neurosciences at Unity Health System. She says the findings should come as no surprise when you consider what happens when a soccer player heads a ball. “The ball could be traveling at 40 miles an hour. And it’s making contact with your head. Not only that, but it’s probably causing your head to move around, so it’s probably shaking your brain around inside your head.”
Dr. Dombovy has advice for the parents of young athletes. "For the most part, if we're dealing with a youngster who has had several concussions and prolonged symptoms, most of us are not going to play professional sports. We're going to need our brains for another job. It really isn't wise to take that gamble with a child."
Dr. Dombovy says, in soccer, a serious injury can come from just one incident of heading the ball, or from repeated trauma. She says CTE can develop in a person’s brain over time and become worse with age. The symptoms are similar to Alzheimer’s Disease or other types of dementia, including memory loss and changes in mood and behavior.
WXXI-TV's Second Opinion show talked with a local college soccer player who suffered a concussion on the playing field. You can watch that interview here.
