Sports offer many benefits to everyone, but a highly concerning aspect of contact sports is their potential for life-altering outcomes.

A recent event in New York City has now brought a brain disorder to the headlines once again. A man, who claimed to have had football-related brain injuries, killed a number of people in a Manhattan skyscraper. He left a note blaming the football league for his disability. How many people like him might be out there right now suffering? Let’s take a look at some things we should be emphasizing and we may be underscoring.

The emphasis on exercise and sports activities has increased over the years because we know that there are definite health benefits, both physical and mental, from engaging in these activities. But other concerns must be brought to light now that we are seeing the dangerous side of sports. Where should we be looking?

On Friday evenings, a teenager dons his or her football helmet while anticipating the major game ahead. A female soccer player guides her ball during practice time. A hockey player experiences forceful contact with the boards during play.

Football players experience everyday sports moments, but all of them might develop a life-threatening brain condition called CTE. This disorder may play out, hidden, in the brain for years. No one would suspect that young children’s games could have devastating results for adults 30–40 years later.

What is CTE?

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a brain disorder that gradually destroys brain cells. Rust slowly damages metal in a way that reflects this condition. The brain actually shrinks in size, followed by cell death in specific areas. However, the dangerous aspect of CTE doesn’t immediately become clear because doctors can’t detect it before a person dies. After death, an autopsy needs to examine the brain to confirm CTE.

CTE develops when the human head receives numerous successive brain impacts from contact. We know that the brain, during these impact hits, moves around inside the skull and hits the bony structures. It then suffers from problems because of these repeated hits, which don’t need to be major impacts to cause issues.

Visually, you can imagine how the brain inside the skull moves like a pinball while each head impact gradually causes additional harm. Some professionals call this a second or third impact injury, where the brain is jostled forward, then backward, and possibly sideways, so that it receives injuries over major areas.

How Common is CTE?

The numbers are shocking. Scientific studies indicate that CTE affects 92% of NFL players whose brains were donated to research. The research may be questioned because the sample that was used may have been biased in its selection. That doesn’t, however, mean that CTE isn’t a serious condition that could be affecting 50% of the players.

The research team discovered CTE symptoms in athletes who were as young as 17 years old. And it’s not a matter of playing for many years, even as a weekend athlete. Research indicates that playing football for 2.6 years increases the chances of developing CTE by half. Where does the damage begin? The onset of CTE often begins during the middle school or high school years. How many kids are encouraged to join these sports teams because it will be good for socialization and learning cooperation with a group?

Which Sports Are Most Dangerous?

The sport that poses the greatest danger to athletes is football, followed by tackle football. Young athletes who received CTE diagnoses accounted for three-quarters of all patients. How many young kids have experienced concussions on the practice field or during games? And we have to ask how many concussions are permissible, if they are permissible at all? Just giving a child a time-out after a blow on the field may not be sufficient. Can one substantial head impact be enough to cause CTE? We don’t know.

Besides tackle football, other sports also present risks:
• Ice hockey — body checking and fights lead to head impacts
• Soccer — heading the ball and collisions between players
• Rugby — similar to football with lots of contact
• Wrestling — head impacts during takedowns and grappling
• Boxing — direct hits to the head are part of the sport

Adults who take part in football and boxing experience the highest incidence rates of this disease. And new research findings have started to alter the current understanding of sports-related brain injury prevalence.

Girls and Women at Risk

People used to believe CTE primarily affected men because they engaged in more contact sports. Now, we have discovered that this belief is not accurate. Soccer and basketball teams experience more female than male concussion incidents among their student-athletes. Female soccer players experience the greatest number of concussions compared to athletes in other sports.

A female Australian football player Heather Anderson received a CTE diagnosis after her death at age 28. Scientists propose that women face higher brain injury susceptibility because their smaller neck muscles cannot absorb impacts as effectively.

Research into CTE among women is currently developing. The SHINE research initiative currently investigates former professional female soccer players to determine how CTE manifests differently in women versus men.

How CTE Develops and What It Looks Like

CTE does not become visible immediately. A long-term destructive process takes many years before it becomes noticeable to the human eye. The disease happens in stages:

The first symptoms of CTE include dizziness, headaches, and confusion in Stage 1. Stage 2 brings memory loss, mood changes, and impaired judgment to the patient. Stage 3: Trouble thinking clearly, personality changes. Stage 4: Severe dementia, problems moving and speaking.

CTE patients commonly experience depression, together with episodes of anger, memory problems, and concentration issues. A portion of these individuals develop violent behavior or experience suicidal thoughts. Several retired athletes have died by suicide due to persistent symptoms after their playing careers. Remember Aaron Hernandez?

Treatment Options: Managing the Damage

CTE has no existing cure, which makes it a challenging condition to treat. The damage to brain cells persists because they cannot recover from the injury. Doctors can treat symptoms through various methods to enhance the quality of life of patients.

The treatment strategy targets individual symptoms, which include:
• Memory problems receive treatment through medications, which are used to treat Alzheimer’s disease patients.
• Depression and mood swings receive treatment through antidepressants and mood stabilizers.
• Sleep problems: Melatonin and sleep aids
• Thinking problems: Cognitive therapy and brain training exercises
• Physical symptoms: Physical therapy for balance and movement issues

Specialists, including neurologists, psychiatrists, and therapists, need to collaborate to achieve the best treatment outcomes. The treatment for CTE must be personalized for each patient because each person experiences distinct symptoms.

Protecting Our Children: The Best Defense

Since we cannot cure CTE the best course of action is prevention. Here’s what experts recommend:

Youth football players should avoid tackle football until they reach their 14th year of age, according to some experts, while others suggest starting at age 12. Are there any helmets that are safe? When we look at the design of helmets, we see padding, plastic, and shape, but that does nothing for the brain inside the skull. You can still get a brain whiplashes from a tackle regardless of the equipment you’re wearing.

Soccer players should not perform heading maneuvers in their youth league games. Contact drills in practice sessions should be minimized.
The rules of all the games need to be re-evaluated with this new knowledge. And any player who experiences a head injury needs to be taken out of the game right away.

Warning Signs to Watch For:

• Headaches that won’t go away
• Confusion or memory problems
• Mood changes or depression
• Balance problems
• Changes in sleep patterns

What Parents Can Do:

• Choose flag football over tackle football for young kids
• Research leagues that put safety first above winning priorities
• Learn the signs of concussion
• Don’t rush kids back to play after an injury
• Consider the long-term risks, not just short-term fun

The Bottom Line

The prevention of CTE requires immediate action because this condition remains preventable when we act promptly. Research shows that brain damage occurs from multiple head impacts, which accumulate as time progresses. We must take immediate action to safeguard our children before they reach adulthood.

Sports activities provide multiple advantages to players including teamwork and fitness together with discipline and joyful experiences. Any sporting competition demands consideration of whether the excitement of competition outweighs the permanent brain damage risks. A researcher stated, “We need to stop hitting kids in the head.”

The good news is that awareness is growing. Rules are changing. Equipment is improving. Parents together with coaches and athletes must establish brain health as their top priority instead of chasing victory.
Your present-day decisions determine the path your child will follow in the future. Children need you to protect their developing brains from harm.