Tuesday, September 29, 2009

News Flash: Concussions Aren't Good For NFL Players

Yes, it’s true. A new study provides data that football players smashing their heads into other players isn’t really good for them.

Duh.

Study Indicates Higher Rate of Dementia in Former N.F.L. Players – NYTimes.com.

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.

The N.F.L. has long denied the existence of reliable data about cognitive decline among its players. These numbers would become the league’s first public affirmation of any connection.

The findings could ring loud at all levels of football, including youth and college programs, which often take cues from the N.F.L. on safety policies and whose players emulate their professional heroes. Hundreds of on-field concussions are sustained at every level each week, with many going undiagnosed and untreated; few concussions are as well known as that of Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Florida, who was hospitalized after a blow to the head in a game last Saturday.

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