CTE in the NFL

[rowan]

Rugby front rowers need not concern themselves, as one is required to have a brain in the first place . . .

But, seriously, this is quite alarming and could certainly apply to rugby players now with the increasingly hard hits of the pro era.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, was found in 99% of deceased NFL players' brains that were donated to scientific research, according to a study published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA.

The neurodegenerative brain disease can be found in individuals who have been exposed to repeated head trauma. The disease is pathologically marked by an buildup of abnormal tau protein in the brain that can disable neuropathways and lead to a variety of clinical symptoms. These include memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, aggression, depression, anxiety, impulse control issues and sometimes suicidal behavior.

It can only be formally diagnosed with an autopsy, and most cases, although not all, have been seen in either veterans or people who played contact sports, particularly American football.

"There's no question that there's a problem in football. That people who play football are at risk for this disease," said Dr. Ann McKee, director of Boston University's CTE Center and coauthor of the new study. "And we urgently need to find answers for not just football players, but veterans and other individuals exposed to head trauma."

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/25/healt ... index.html

[morepork]

I've seen non-invasive metrics for this long term damage presented at conferences for the past decade. The post mortem markers presented by this recent study feature in many neurodegenerative diseases (tauopathy particularly) and will have a lot to say about how repeated trauma that fucks up cerebral glucose metabolism accelerates dementia. In another decade these poor munters will have contributed to a new broadly applicable definition of susceptibility that will contribute to development of therapies.

[rowan]

I'm not squeamish generally but I cringe these days when I watch the rugby highlights packages with all the big hits. It wasn't like that in my day. These professional rugby players are tackling (if you can call it that) like NFL players - without all the protective equipment. Obviously it's designed to hurt as much as possible and intimidate the opposition. Plus the fans love it, hence the abundance of highlights reels (entire web sites are devoted to it). But it's the worst possible advertisement for the game, and at this rate I doubt rugby will see it through to the end of the century before it's banned outright.

[morepork]

I'm not squeamish generally but I cringe these days when I watch the rugby highlights packages with all the big hits. It wasn't like that in my day. These professional rugby players are tackling (if you can call it that) like NFL players - without all the protective equipment. Obviously it's designed to hurt as much as possible and intimidate the opposition. Plus the fans love it, hence the abundance of highlights reels (entire web sites are devoted to it). But it's the worst possible advertisement for the game, and at this rate I doubt rugby will see it through to the end of the century before it's banned outright.

The NRL outlawed shoulder charges for this reason, and game didn't die. Rugby is trying the same, albeit with kid gloves, and the NFL has the resources to legislate leading with the head as being a definition of illegal. This is especially important at club/junior level. I've been proper sparked out at junior level a few times, and that shit simply cannot stand. It takes weeks to get your act together after such episodes. Education is a massively positive force when implemented lower down the food chain. In this professional era, repeat head trauma should be part of contract negotiations at some objective level.

[rowan]

WTF

The National Institutes of Health and the NFL are ending their partnership, specifically the study of concussions, effective in August. The league and the NIH have long been at odds, as the NIH has conducted numerous studies into the effects of football on the long-term health of the athletes. The two sides have had a stormy relationship since its inception in 2012, as the nature of their agreement revolved around showcasing the negative aspects of the league while attempting to aid those aspects.
In what was initially a $30 million pledge to the NIH from the NFL, $16 million has gone unspent. According to ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, the NIH has decided to let the agreement dissolve without renewal due to a 2015 conflict where "the NFL backed out of a major study that had been awarded to a researcher who had been critical of the league."
Of the failure to renew, the NIH released the following statement via ESPN:
"The NFL's agreement with [the funding arm of the NIH] ends August 31, 2017, and there are no current research plans for the funds remaining from the original $30 million NFL commitment."
This news comes on the heels of a recent study that found brain damage in 110 out of 111 ex-NFL players, including a kicker and a punter, positions that were previously thought "safe." It is also a mere two days after commissioner Roger Goodell responded to a letter from House members inquiring on if the NFL would honor its commitment of $18 million in funding to the NIH. The league responded that "We are currently engaged in constructive discussions with the [Foundation for the National Institutes of Health] regarding potential new research projects and the remaining funds of our $30 million commitment," in a written letter through a spokesman.
The letter continued to say that "In September 2016, the NFL pledged $100 million in support for independent medical research and engineering advancements in neuroscience-related topics. This is in addition to the $100 million that the NFL and its partners are already spending on medical and neuroscience research."
It would appear that the constructiveness of the discussions was a point of contention between the league and the NIH. In a previous Congressional study, it was reported by the New York Times that the NFL was attempting to influence the results of the NIH's findings. "[Congress's] investigation has shown that while the NFL had been publicly proclaiming its role as the founder and accelerator of important research, it was privately attempting to influence that research," the study said. "The NFL attempted to use its 'unrestricted gift' as leverage to steer funding away from critics."
This decision was reportedly made by the NIH months ago, per Fainaru-Wada and Fainaru. It marks the end of what was deemed the biggest donation in the NFL's history, despite many fans seeing it as a hollow gesture. In addition to their words on being unsure where the rest of the money will be spent, the NIH added that:
"NIH is currently funding concussion research directly. If [the] NFL wishes to continue to support research at NIH, a simple donation to the NIH Gift Fund to support research on sports medicine would be favorably viewed, as long as the terms provided broad latitude in decisions about specific research programs."
The league has long denied any accusations of tampering with research findings, but the partnership has been scrutinized since day one. The next play for the NFL and the NIH will be important, as the partnership is ending in the midst of a firestorm. It should be enlightening to see where the research goes as "independent" research.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl- ... ion-study/

[morepork]

The NIH realised pretty soon on that the NFL was injecting massive bias into the research. So they puled out. There is plenty of TBI research going on in other studies.

[cashead]

The NFL has already been financially hurt by this, and that's probably what's motivating them to do this head-in-the-sand act. Let's see how they act after another class-action lawsuit and a Jovan Belcher or Junior Seau case.

[rowan]

A little OT in terms of the CTE issue, but this piece on Kaepernick is worth a read: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/mi ... ng-justice

[rowan]

Not CTE-releated but sad news about former 49ers Super Bowl match-winner Dwight Clark, who has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). I still remember that catch in the closing seconds of the "88 Super Bowl!

“This is one of those tough battles that if you beat this, you’re in a very small percentage. I’m just hoping that it plateaus at some point before I get all the way to the end,” Clark said in the interview. “Where I can’t move, and talk, and all that. But my wife (Kelly) has been incredible. She’s taken over the gigantic load of having to do everything because I can barely pick up a bag right now.


“I’m losing strength and I’ve lost 80 pounds, if you can believe that. But I’m still able to use my hands a little bit. Walk a little bit. But this stuff is no joke, man. They need to find a cure to this thing because it is torture. It’s just going through all the different phases. I wake up every morning and I take that first step to see if it’s going to work. And it’s ‘OK, still walking today.’ ”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 797247001/

[rowan]

Not CTE-releated but sad news about former 49ers Super Bowl match-winner Dwight Clark, who has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). I still remember that catch in the closing seconds of the "88 Super Bowl!

“This is one of those tough battles that if you beat this, you’re in a very small percentage. I’m just hoping that it plateaus at some point before I get all the way to the end,” Clark said in the interview. “Where I can’t move, and talk, and all that. But my wife (Kelly) has been incredible. She’s taken over the gigantic load of having to do everything because I can barely pick up a bag right now.


“I’m losing strength and I’ve lost 80 pounds, if you can believe that. But I’m still able to use my hands a little bit. Walk a little bit. But this stuff is no joke, man. They need to find a cure to this thing because it is torture. It’s just going through all the different phases. I wake up every morning and I take that first step to see if it’s going to work. And it’s ‘OK, still walking today.’ ”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 797247001/

It was actually early "89 when that game was played. Kiwi Riki Ellison (great nephew of first All Blacks captain Thomas Ellison) was starting linebacker.

[morepork]

Penn State researchers have taken the first steps in validating a saliva-based molecular metric for head injury assessment.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamape ... le/2663880

Study undertaken in children/young adults verified the altered expression of non-coding RNA species (micro RNA/miRNA) that are involved in epigenetic modifications responsive to head trauma. Epigenetic modifications have long term consequences as they affect developmental pathways of relevance to the function of neural networks that are the basis of cognitive integrity. If this holds up, there is potential for a very objective metric for assessment, particularly in children for which current subjective tests based on patient self-assessment criteria are problematic.

[rowan]

Since we don't have a WTF?! thread I'll just toss this one in here:

Forget concussions, financial troubles in Pacific Island rugby and figuring out how to pick a World Cup host without pissing everyone off – World Rugby have shown clearly where their priorities are by apparently banning players writing on the tape on their arms.

Yes, that massive problem in rugby that definitely needed solving – players putting personal messages on their wrist tape – has seemingly been dealt with (somewhat) swiftly by the highest ruling body in the game, according to tweets by players competing in the opening round of the World Sevens Series in Dubai. Because we all remember the massive controversies that wrist tape has caused like…hmmm, what are they again?

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/brillian ... wrist-tape

[Which Tyler]

Penn State researchers have taken the first steps in validating a saliva-based molecular metric for head injury assessment.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamape ... le/2663880

Study undertaken in children/young adults verified the altered expression of non-coding RNA species (micro RNA/miRNA) that are involved in epigenetic modifications responsive to head trauma. Epigenetic modifications have long term consequences as they affect developmental pathways of relevance to the function of neural networks that are the basis of cognitive integrity. If this holds up, there is potential for a very objective metric for assessment, particularly in children for which current subjective tests based on patient self-assessment criteria are problematic.

Is that the same saliva testing that the Premiership clubs have been doing all season?
I'd assumed that that was in conjunction with a UK university

[morepork]

Penn State researchers have taken the first steps in validating a saliva-based molecular metric for head injury assessment.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamape ... le/2663880

Study undertaken in children/young adults verified the altered expression of non-coding RNA species (micro RNA/miRNA) that are involved in epigenetic modifications responsive to head trauma. Epigenetic modifications have long term consequences as they affect developmental pathways of relevance to the function of neural networks that are the basis of cognitive integrity. If this holds up, there is potential for a very objective metric for assessment, particularly in children for which current subjective tests based on patient self-assessment criteria are problematic.

Is that the same saliva testing that the Premiership clubs have been doing all season?
I'd assumed that that was in conjunction with a UK university

It's an overlapping set of markers, both assayed in saliva. The Birmingham-based study is partnered with an industry entity, so they will be using a very specific subset (read proprietary) markers, but they are essentially looking at the same biological phenomenon.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?te ... concussion

The Penn study is a bit more comprehensive, but in essentially the same thing.

[rowan]

How a Tongan player's death swept under the carpet highlights need for change in Polynesian player welfare

Shocking story: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 90911.html