Do we need to take tackling out of youth football?

Follow me on Twitter @drClaire As we learn more about the frequency and effects of concussions in football, we are increasingly being forced to face the question: do we need to take the tackling out of youth football? A study published in the Annals of Neurology definitely begs that question. Researchers from Boston University examined the brains of 246 deceased football players, 211 of whom were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. They found that the younger the players started playing tackle football, the earlier they started showing symptoms of CTE such as neurological and behavioral problems. In fact, for every year before age 12 that the players started playing, they showed symptoms 2.5 years earlier. That’s really sobering. That means that a child who starts Pop Warner football in kindergarten at 6 could have real problems 15 years earlier than someone who started in middle or high school. Now, there are obvious limitations to this study. They didn’t have a control group, and it’s certainly possible that families of players with more serious symptoms were more likely to donate the players’ brains for study. But given what we know about the effects of repeated head injury, it makes sense. Given what we know about any repeated injury, it makes sense: when you injure a part of the body it can become weakened, and less able to heal completely from future injuries. When that part of the body is the brain, the ramifications are particularly worris...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Brain and cognitive health Children's Health Injuries Parenting Source Type: blogs