A new study has shown no one is free from potentially traumatic brain injuries, whether you’re professional athlete or even a teenager playing high school or college level sports.
Photo by Kenny Eliason, free to use under the Unsplash license. https://unsplash.com/photos/O4zhy0zLAQc
TheBlaze recently published a report discussing a study from The CTE Society, in which their researchers examined the brains of 152 young athletes who had passed away prior to the age of 30, all either by suicide or accidental overdose.
According to TheBlaze, “Scientists determined that in over 41% (63) of the cases the athletes had suffered from CTE. Nearly all of those had mild cases in stages I or II. Just three of the 63 were diagnosed with Stage III CTE.”
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For those not aware of what a CTE is, CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It’s a serious brain condition that is believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head or frequent shaking of the head. This kind of damage often happens in contact sports like football, boxing, hockey, and others.
When someone has CTE, their brain slowly gets damaged over time. They might have trouble thinking, feel moody or angry, or even have a hard time remembering things. The tricky part is that you can’t really test for CTE while someone is alive. It’s usually found by studying the brain after a person has passed away.
Out of 63 athletes who had CTE, 45 were men playing non-professional sports. The average age of these athletes with CTE was 26, but some could get it as young as 17. Football players were the most common in the study, with 48 out of 92 having CTE. This means 76% of all CTE cases in the study were football players.
Additionally, 37.5% of hockey players, 17% of soccer players, and 22% of amateur wrestlers in the study had CTE. Half of the rugby players studied had CTE, including a 28-year-old female soccer player who had serious head injuries before.
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