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Should Teen Football Players Be Tested for Alzheimer's Gene?
Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT Should high school kids get a genetic test for the risk for Alzheimer?s disease before they?re allowed to play football? Two prominent scientists who study both Alzheimer?s and the traumatic brain injury suffered by some football players raise that ethically charged question in an editorial out Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. We all carry a gene called APOE which comes in three forms. If we carry one copy of the form called E4, it triples our lifetime risk for Alzheimer?s. About 10 percent of the U.S. population falls in that category. If we have two copies of E4, the lifetime Alzheimer?s risk is 15 times greater. About 2 percent of us have that genetic makeup.Phineas Gage Brain Map Study Spotlights Neuroscience's Most Celebrated Case
Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT It's easy enough to understand the ghastly accident that befell poor Phineas Gage in Cavendish, Vermont on Sept. 13, 1848: the 25-year-old railroad worker was using an iron rod to tamp down blasting powder when the stuff exploded, sending the 43-inch-long, 13-pound rod through his left cheek and out the top of his head. What's not so easy to understand is why Gage survived the accident--or the precise reason for the dramatic change in his personality afterward. John Harlow, the doctor who treated the once-affable Gage, wrote that he "could not stick to plans, uttered 'the grossest profanity' and showed 'little deference for his fellows,'" Smithsonian magazine reported in 2010.Brain Ailments in Veterans Likened to Those in Athletes
Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT Scientists who have studied a degenerative brain disease in athletes have found the same condition in combat veterans exposed to roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, concluding that such explosions injure the brain in ways strikingly similar to tackles and punches. The researchers also discovered what they believe is the mechanism by which explosions damage brain tissue and trigger the wasting disease, called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., by studying simulated explosions on mice. The animals developed evidence of the disease just two weeks after exposure to a single simulated blast, researchers found.Army Launches Review of PTSD Diagnoses After Complaints Some Were Overturned
Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT Army leaders are launching a sweeping, independent review of how the service evaluates soldiers with possible post-traumatic stress disorder following recent complaints that some PTSD diagnoses were improperly overturned. The Army said Wednesday it will review the diagnoses at all of its medical facilities going back to October 2001. And top Army leaders said they will develop a plan to correct any decisions or policies necessary to make sure that soldiers are receiving the care and treatment they deserve.Researchers Compete for Athletes' Brains
Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT Let?s start with what we don?t know. We don?t know if Junior Seau suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a disease that causes depression, mood swings, and erratic behavior in those who have suffered multiple concussions. We don?t even know for sure if Seau suffered from multiple concussions. His ex-wife thinks there might have been many. A former teammate guesses as many as 1,500. If Seau?s family allows his brain to be studied, as some organizations are reporting they have, we don?t know what the results will be? or if the family will even choose to share the results with the public.New Study Examines Head Injuries in Girls' Lacrosse Using Video Analysis
Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT This spring, girls? lacrosse players across the country will take to the field in what some have called ?the fastest sport on two feet.? To help keep these players safe from injury, Mason researcher Shane Caswell embarked on a new study that used video analysis to take a closer look at the common interactions of the game that lead to head injuries, such as concussions or contusions, in high school girls? lacrosse players. Published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, the study finds that most head injuries result from stick-to-head contact during aggressive play near the goal at the varsity level. In addition, the researchers determined that most of these head injuries resulted from unintentional stick contact, which suggests that head injury in girls? lacrosse may be an indirect consequence of play, in which players position themselves in hazardous situations either purposefully or inadvertently.Age and Sex Factors in Effects of Brain Injury, Concussion, Study Says
Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT Female and younger athletes show more symptoms of a concussion, and take longer to recover from its effects, a U.S. study has found. The research, out of Michigan State University, suggests that physicians and athletic trainers should now take both age and sex into account when dealing with an athlete who has suffered a brain injury. Ian Dawe, physician-in-chief at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, in Whitby, Ont., said the study findings concur with what he and other Canadian experts in concussion and traumatic brain injury are seeing. ?Women tend to have a higher mortality rate following a severe traumatic brain injury than men,? Dawe said Friday. ?Outcomes do seem worse and recovery seems to be longer from those severe injuries. It wouldn?t be a stretch to look at concussions and see a similar pattern.?Woodruff's Struggle 6 Years On
Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT It's been six years, and sometimes Bob Woodruff's brain still doesn't allow him to find the words. The famed ABC broadcaster ? the one-time anchor who was nearly killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2006 ? recently broadcast live from the John Edwards trial. Appearing on ?Good Morning America,? he stood outside the courthouse, looked into the camera and tried to say that one of the trial's witnesses ?went in and testified.? Instead he said this: ?He went in and terrified.? Such are the dangers of going on live TV while still recovering from a severe brain injury that affects memory and word recognition.
