Head Injuries and Alzheimer's in Football Players

CNN has an interesting article today on the link between head injuries and Alzheimer's in [American] football players.  It makes you wonder how many cases of dementia could be prevented if we paid more attention to avoiding head injuries in the general population.

Comments

[Gail Rae Hudson]

Interesting! Provokes me to think about the connection between professional fighting and brain disorders, as well. Also makes me wonder about sports like ice hockey, soccer, etc. LOVE the following NFL quote:
"Hundreds of thousands of people have played football and other sports without experiencing any problem of this type and there continues to be considerable debate within the medical community on the precise long-term effects of concussions and how they relate to other risk factors."
Actually, hundreds of millions have played football, if you count high school sports. So, I'm thinking, only "hundreds of thousands" have not experienced problems? And, anyway, exactly what period in people's lives are they considering? Sounds like a quote from Big Tobacco!
So, it seems to me like there are three questions to be asked:
1. How do we adequately protect against brain (and other) injuries in violent, combative sports?
2. Is our propensity for being participants in and spectators of violent, combative action hard wired or cultural, or a combination of both?
3. Should we do anything about this propensity and, if so, what?

[Oran]

We have often wondered if my mother's dementia was not caused by the blows she received to her head while in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

[Don Moyer]

Here's more:

http://sites.google.com/site/dfmbin/Home/Untitled.pdf?attredirects=0