HJAR Jul/Aug 2023

CTE 14 JUL / AUG 2023 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I struggle with the idea of enrolling a child in an activity that causes CTE. If you wouldn’t hit your own child in the head hun- dreds of times a year, why let someone else do it? So much of the work and focus on CTE has been done at the NFL level for elite athletes. These guys are well aware of the impact CTE has had and is having on their ranks. What should America know about the potential effect CTE may be having on play- ers who never made it to the pros? And how real is the dose response? The latest study showed that for foot- ball players, your odds of developing CTE increase by about 30% per year you play. It’s a risk for anyone who plays football at any level, and the greatest risk is for those who find success on the field and keep playing. You were a football player. You know the thrill of being inside that helmet, all the hoopla, and fun surrounding the game. What game do you sug- gest parents and school districts consider that would fulfill all the joy that football provides, minus the inherent brain trauma? While playing tackle football in high school or later might be the right sport for many people, it’s not the only place that pro- vides joy, camaraderie, friendships, and life lessons. I benefitted just as much from bas- ketball, theater, science Olympiad, Math- letes, track and field, and community ser- vice programs. Thank you, again, for your time today. What is next on your radar? We are very close to learning how to diagnose CTE in living people. When we can diagnose CTE in young people, I antic- ipate that will inspire the changes to sports we need. We believe this is an important part two of US Healthcare Journal’s “CTE: Football’s Aftermath” series, which was inspired by the brain donation and subsequent pathology of this Journal’s co-founder, former college football player, Smith “Wally” Hartley, who died at 54 with a brain filled with neurodegeneration, including Glioblastoma and CTE. There is no doubt CTE is a game changer for football. It might just end the game, since nobody can figure out how to stop the brain from moving inside the skull, even when it is protected by a helmet. We now know how bad concussions are, but it is the subconcussive hits, inherent to the game, that are now thought to cause CTE. Is a brain- damaging game played in youth worth the risk when there are so many wonderful games to play that don’t cause short- or long-term brain damage? Broken neurons from head hits do not heal. The mind may work around the damage by forcing the brain waves to alter course … but those broken neurons never stop calling out to the brain for repair. And the brain responds by sending a protein called tau to the damaged cell. It cries for help for decades after the damage is done, and in doing so, blocks important brain currents, destroying the brain … slowly … over decades. Anyone signing the release form for a kid or young man to play this game should be absolutely aware that we are setting kids up for potential, irrevocable, long-term brain damage. And school systems should know, you have a simmering liability issue on your hands. n