CTE found in nearly 90 percent of brains donated by football players
July 26, 2017 by admin
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CHICAGO — Research on 202 former football players found evidence of a brain disease linked to repeated head blows in nearly all of them, from athletes in the National Football League, college and even high school.
It’s the largest update on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a debilitating brain disease that can cause a range of symptoms including memory loss.
The report doesn’t confirm that the condition is common in all football players; it reflects high occurrence in samples at a Boston brain bank that studies CTE. Many donors or their families contributed because of the players’ repeated concussions and troubling symptoms before they died.
“There are many questions that remain unanswered,” said lead author Dr. Ann McKee, a Boston University neuroscientist.
Among those questions: How common is this? How many years of football are too many? What is the genetic risk?
“Some players do not have evidence of this disease despite long playing years,” McKee noted.
It’s also uncertain if some players’ lifestyle habits — alcohol, drugs, steroids, diet — might somehow contribute, McKee said.
Dr. Munro Cullum, a neuropsychologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, emphasized that the report is based on a selective sample of men who were not necessarily representative of all football players. He said problems other than CTE might explain some of their most common symptoms before death, such as depression, impulsivity and behavior changes. Cullum was not involved in the report.
McKee said research from the brain bank may lead to answers and an understanding of how to detect the disease in life, “while there’s still a chance to do something about it.” There’s no known treatment.
The strongest scientific evidence says CTE can only be diagnosed by examining brains after death, although some researchers are experimenting with tests performed on the living. Many scientists believe repeated blows to the head increase risks for developing CTE, leading to progressive loss of normal brain matter and an abnormal buildup of a protein called tau. Combat veterans and athletes in rough contact sports like football and boxing are among those thought to be most at risk.
The new report was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
CTE was diagnosed in 177 former players — nearly 90 percent of brains studied. That includes 110 of 111 brains from former NFL players; 48 of 53 college players; nine of 14 semi-professional players; seven of eight Canadian Football League players; and three of 14 high school players. The disease was not found in brains from two younger players.
A panel of neuropathologists made the diagnosis by examining brain tissue, using recent criteria from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, McKee said.
The NFL issued a statement saying these reports are important for advancing science related to head trauma and said the league “will continue to work with a wide range of experts to improve the health of current and former NFL athletes.”
After years of denials, the NFL has acknowledged a link between head blows and brain disease and agreed in a $1 billion settlement to compensate former players who had accused the league of hiding the risks.
The journal update includes many previously reported cases, including former NFL players Bubba Smith, Ken Stabler, Dave Duerson and Ralph Wenzel.
New ones include retired tight end Frank Wainright, whose 10-year NFL career included stints with the Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens. Wainright died in April 2016 at age 48 from a heart attack triggered by bleeding in the brain, said his wife, Stacie. She said he had struggled almost eight years with frightening symptoms including confusion, memory loss and behavior changes.
Wainright played before the league adopted stricter safety rules and had many concussions, she said. He feared CTE and was adamant about donating his brain, she said.
“A lot of families are really tragically affected by it — not even mentioning what these men are going through and they’re really not sure what is happening to them. It’s like a storm that you can’t quite get out of,” his wife said.
Frank Wycheck, another former NFL tight end, said he worries that concussions during his nine-year career — the last seven with the Tennessee Titans — have left him with CTE and he plans to donate his brain to research.
“Some people have heads made of concrete, and it doesn’t really affect some of those guys,” he said. “But CTE is real.”
“I know I’m suffering through it, and it’s been a struggle and I feel for all the guys out there that are going through this,” said Wycheck, 45.
In the new report, McKee and colleagues found the most severe disease in former professional players; mild disease was found in all three former high school players diagnosed with the disease. Brain bank researchers previously reported that the earliest known evidence of CTE was found in a high school athlete who played football and other sports who died at age 18. He was not included in the current report.
The average age of death among all players studied was 66. There were 18 suicides among the 177 diagnosed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Trump Says Keeping Syrian Refugees In Region Is ‘Best Way To Help Most People’
July 26, 2017 by admin
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden Tuesday.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden Tuesday.
Alex Brandon/AP
In a joint Rose Garden press conference Tuesday, President Trump stood beside Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and said the United States is helping Syrian refugees by supporting their needs close to home.
“Our approach supporting the humanitarian needs of displaced Syrian citizens as close to their home country as possible is the best way to help most people.” Trump said.
In April the State Department announced new funding in response to the Syrian crisis, with $167 million going to Lebanon in support of Syrian refugees, totaling $1.4 billion since the start of the conflict.
Hariri was expected to seek additional U.S. aid to help deal with the flood of Syrian refugees who now make up about a quarter of Lebanon’s population of 6 million people, reports The Associated Press.
Before the press conference, the leaders met in the Oval Office and Hariri said they “discussed the pressures Lebanon is facing as a result of 1.5 million Syrians displaced in our country. I outlined to President Trump my government vision for dealing with this crisis with the support of the international community.”
The Trump administration’s first travel ban barred all Syrian refugees from entering the United States. That portion was removed after an appeals court blocked the order and the Trump administration rolled out a second “watered down” ban.
An appeals court overturned that ban as well, but the Supreme Court allowed portions to go through, including a 50,000 cap on refugees allowed into the U.S. — a number reached earlier this month, meaning many will be turned away.
Trump and Hariri also emphasized their solidarity in fighting terrorism.
“(T)he Lebanese Army has been fighting continually to guard Lebanon’s border and prevent ISIS and other terrorists — of which there are many — from gaining a foothold inside their country,” Trump said. “The United States military has been proud to help in that fight and will continue to do so.”
He did not specify what level of support Lebanon could expect. Reuters reports, “Lebanon’s military has received hundreds of millions in military assistance from the United States and Britain in recent years, as part of efforts to bolster Lebanon against a threat from militants across the Syrian border.”
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah is based in Lebanon and Reuters says U.S. lawmakers are considering increasing sanctions on the group, which some Lebanese officials fear could harm the country’s banking industry.
Trump called the militant group “a menace.”
At the end of the end of the leaders’ prepared remarks, they took reporters’ questions and were asked about the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar.
“We believe that dialogue is the best way (of) improving this relationship between Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” Hariri said. “I believe that maybe the United States also could help in solving this issue in the Gulf.”
Trump did not comment on the ongoing feud. NPR’s Jackie Northam has reported that the U.S. response to the crisis has been confused, “You have President Trump … publicly siding with Saudi Arabia. And then you have the State Department … criticizing Saudi Arabia for the blockade of Qatar,” she said.
Trump was also asked about Syrian President Bashar Assad and Trump brought up the airstrikes he ordered on a Syrian airfield in April, following a deadly chemical attack that the international community says Assad launched on his own people.
“I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do,” Trump said. Then he mentioned the red line President Barack Obama had drawn in 2012 regarding Syria’s use of chemical weapons.
“Had President Obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, I don’t believe you’d have Russia and I don’t believe you’d have Iran to anywhere near the extent and maybe not at all in Syria today,” Trump said.
Obama did seek congressional approval to launch airstrikes in Syria in 2013, following the use of chemical weapons, but was rebuffed. A year later, the United States launched airstrikes on Syria for the first time.