{"id":32657,"date":"2024-09-25T04:20:07","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T09:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32657"},"modified":"2024-09-25T04:20:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T09:20:52","slug":"brett-favres-parkinsons-diagnosis-reignites-questions-about-footballs-link-to-brain-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32657","title":{"rendered":"Brett Favre’s Parkinson’s diagnosis reignites questions about football’s link to brain disease"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre\u2019s announcement that he has Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/a> is bringing renewed attention to the potential links between collision sports and a risk of brain disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favre revealed his diagnosis on Tuesday while testifying before Congress about his alleged misuse of taxpayer money<\/a>. The hearing focused on a welfare scandal in Mississippi, but the subject of Favre\u2019s health arose because he discussed losing an investment in a company that he believed was making a \u201cbreakthrough concussion drug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ll understand why it\u2019s too late for me because I\u2019ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s,\u201d Favre said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favre played 20 seasons in the NFL, mostly for the Green Bay Packers, and retired 13 years ago. In a 2022 interview with \u201cThe Bubba Army\u201d radio show<\/a>, he estimated that he had suffered thousands of concussions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time my head hit the turf, there was ringing or stars going, flash bulbs, but I was still able to play,\u201d he said in that interview. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s kind of frightening about the concussion thing. It\u2019s the ones that seem minor that do the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sports that involve repetitive collisions \u2014 such as football, boxing and rugby \u2014 carry a risk of concussions and other head injuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that the brain can only take so much, and when there\u2019s this kind of trauma \u2014 not even just sports-related, but any kind of repeated trauma to the brain \u2014 we know it\u2019s going to affect it down the line,\u201d said Shannon Shaffer, a nurse practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic and liaison at Rune Labs, a neurology-focused software and data analytics company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early research has established a likely link between these activities and Parkinson\u2019s, as well as other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s<\/a>, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis<\/a> (ALS) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Multiple studies<\/a> have found<\/a> that a single concussion can raise a person\u2019s risk of being diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s by more than 55%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Favre\u2019s diagnosis and the link between football and neurodegenerative disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, a study found<\/a> that a history of playing football was associated with 61% higher odds of having Parkinson\u2019s symptoms or being diagnosed with the disease. A 2018 study<\/a> similarly found that repetitive head impacts from years of playing contact sports were associated with precursors to Parkinson\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Bruce, an author of the 2023 study, said it can be difficult to determine what role, if any, football played in a case like Favre\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say whether it\u2019s exactly because of the football or if it just increased his risk or odds of developing Parkinson\u2019s disease, or if there\u2019s other factors at play,\u201d said Bruce, who conducted the research at the Boston University Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Research Center. \u201cBut we\u2019re seeing more football players come forward. It definitely says something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neurologists who treated boxing legend Muhammad Ali concluded in 2022 that his medical history supported a diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/a>, but they could not link the disease to head trauma. Ali died in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkinson\u2019s is a neurodegenerative disease that causes nerve cells in the brain to weaken and die. It can lead to tremors, muscle stiffness, impaired balance and trouble walking and talking. To reduce the symptoms, patients often take prescription medications or receive deep brain stimulation, which sends electrical pulses to nerve cells in the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeated trauma to the brain is known to be a potential trigger for the disease, since it can cause inflammation that leads to the death of more nerve cells over time. But it\u2019s one of many risk factors, including older age, an underlying genetic susceptibility<\/a> and exposure to certain pesticides<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Kevin Crutchfield, a neurologist at Hackensack Meridian Health, said doctors typically rule out other factors before linking Parkinson\u2019s to football injuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe default isn\u2019t, \u2018Oh, you played football, you got Parkinson\u2019s,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crutchfield added that tens of thousands of men have played in the NFL and, to date, there\u2019s no tidal wave of Parkinson\u2019s diagnoses among them. But the disease isn\u2019t always easy to diagnose, and symptoms do not necessarily develop soon after a head injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thor Stein, director of molecular research at Boston University\u2019s CTE Center and a co-author of the 2023 study, said that in some cases, CTE can be a trigger for Parkinson\u2019s. Many former football players have been found to show signs of the brain disease, which can only be diagnosed post-mortem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more you get these repetitive hits to the head, the longer you are exposed to that, the greater your risk is for developing a number of different degenerative diseases, including both CTE and Parkinson\u2019s disease,\u201d Stein said. \u201cAnd more recently, surprisingly, we found that in those people who do develop these symptoms that it\u2019s often not the typical pathology, but often it\u2019s CTE that\u2019s causing their Parkinson\u2019s disease symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a July study of brain donors with diagnosed CTE<\/a>, Stein and his co-authors found that nearly a quarter had exhibited signs of parkinsonism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favre said in an interview with TODAY<\/a> in 2021 that he wasn\u2019t sure whether he had CTE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crutchfield said it\u2019s important for players to take breaks after a head trauma to avoid more serious brain injuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe brain is much more susceptible to recurrent hits if your brain hasn\u2019t had enough time to heal,\u201d he said. \u201cSo athletes hiding a concussion because they want to keep playing is not a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre\u2019s announcement that he has Parkinson\u2019s disease is bringing renewed attention to the potential links between collision sports and a risk of brain disease. Favre revealed his diagnosis on Tuesday while testifying before Congress about his alleged misuse of taxpayer money. The hearing focused on a welfare scandal in Mississippi, but the subject […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[30594,30592,30591,30593],"class_list":["post-32657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-brain-disease","tag-brett-favre","tag-collision-sports","tag-parkinsons-disease"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32659,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32657\/revisions\/32659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}