The new and improved concussion thread

[LadyStanley]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-thoughts-future-hold-dubas-leafs/

"I was on the left post, kind of down and he cut into the middle. As soon as the impact happened, my vision changed. It was noticeable…scared me instantly, because my vision was different."

Lieuwen suffered a concussion, but the consequences were not similar to most we know.

“I’m very fortunate that I’m not experiencing headaches or dizziness. But I had serious deficiencies with my eyesight. There’s a long and a short story. The short one is that you’re reaching for a bar you can never get to. I just made the NHL, and I wanted to get back. It’s all you are focused on.”

Goalie Nathan Lieuwen talks about his concussion with Friedman.

 

[MaskedSonja]

I'm thinking, depending on what happens with the court case, going to be some really interested heated discussion between owners and nhlpa during next cba discussions as they pertain to who is responsible for what when it comes to concussions and related dialogue. The pa and owners I'm sure are not going to forget the sniping between the two leading up to the court case.

 

[cbcwpg]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ussion-lawsuit-tossed-met-20170605-story.html

Judge tosses suit against NHL over enforcer's death, on-ice violence

**

Feinerman said the plaintiffs also failed to provide proof that the NHL was negligent, either by promoting violence in the game or hiding a growing body of evidence on the long-term effects of concussions on its players.

 

[PuckProphet]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ussion-lawsuit-tossed-met-20170605-story.html

Judge tosses suit against NHL over enforcer's death, on-ice violence

**

Feinerman said the plaintiffs also failed to provide proof that the NHL was negligent, either by promoting violence in the game or hiding a growing body of evidence on the long-term effects of concussions on its players.

This plays into the owners hand short term but long term its is corroborating evidence... I read a recent article claiming 19 of 33 ex NHL players have personality disorders (tsn) Its been the position of the NHL that yea drinking , lack of sleep ,lifestyle contributes to brain disorders as much as playing hockey ..I tend to believe that .taking ten pills a day is not rational ....no NHL team dictates give them as many pills as they can take .. I believe any league that best marketing tactic is selling "hate" realizes many of us fans ...many players ...are a bit touched in the head ....Does not make people bad , just predisposed to various emotions thoughts or tendencies ....Such conditions make marketing the league or players a hard thing because as we all know there is the idea of hockey knowledge , the idea of being a diehard fan....A resentment Drives new fans off ....Lends itself to personality issues ....

I said short term because anyone who reads the NFL stuff anyone who reads this thread anyone who watches a hockey game realizes Of course there could be some brain injuries .... People think getting hit in the head is the only way to get a concussion is getting hit in the head ....NO getting hit , getting knocked down has an equal concussion danger ...just is .... like kidney disease 1 plus 1 equals 2 ( unless misdiagnosed which happens a lot ) unlike kidney disease being misdiagnosed is not a big deal have been concussion misdiagnosed means there is some other injury ....
I put my two cents in ....In terms of solutions ...I am curious hoe they league and players come together to address the issue if they do if the finger pointing stops .....
We can say someone should of done something or said something when a guy is taking handfuls of pills ...Plenty of blame ( the doc pleaded guilty ) who wants to say anything when we as fans the league the players are so intent on revenge or finger pointing rather than solutions ..... Human nature with a touch of personality

 

[Del Preston]

 

[Llama19]

 

[Fenway]

The results of this study are staggering and it could be the beginning of the end of football as we know it. It is going to get harder and harder for high schools and colleges to get insurance and if schools start dropping the sport, the NFL no longer has a pipeline. Obviously hockey needs to be concerned as well.


‘It’s impossible to ignore this anymore’: CTE study details devastating toll on football players

A big research challenge is that CTE can be diagnosed only by examining brain tissue after death.

For the study published Tuesday, the researchers sought to connect the condition of football players’ brains with their experiences during life. They thoroughly examined multiple sections from each of the 202 donated brains, and also interviewed the survivors at length and reviewed medical records.

The vast majority of donated brains — 177 in all — bore the telltale clusters of a protein called tau, the sign of CTE. And every participant whose brain showed CTE had experienced symptoms while alive.

Even those with mild CTE had suffered from disabling mental problems, including agitation, impulsivity, explosive tempers, and memory loss. More than half contemplated suicide. Suicide, in fact, was the leading cause of death among those with mild CTE.

“One of the large mysteries of this disease is why are people so affected even in the early stages,†McKee said.

The participants played football for an average of 15 years. More than 90 percent of college players in the study sample had CTE. Among the 111 National Football League players whose brains were donated, CTE was found in all but one.

 

[Fenway]

Boston University Research on 111 Deceased NFL Players Found That 99 Percent Had CTE

CTE was diagnosed in 177 former players or nearly 90 percent of brains studied. That includes 110 of 111 brains from former NFL players; 48 of 53 college players; nine of 14 semi-professional players, seven of eight Canadian Football league players and three of 14 high school players. The disease was not found in brains from two younger players.

A panel of neuropathologists made the diagnosis by examining brain tissue, using recent criteria from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, McKee said.

The NFL issued a statement saying these reports are important for advancing science related to head trauma and said the league "will continue to work with a wide range of experts to improve the health of current and former NFL athletes."

 

[Killion]

^^^ Wow. I mean, what can you say? Indisputable. Irrefutable empirical evidence and absolutely, this has got to
be making the NHL very very nervous indeed though Im sure it likely already has, and for quite some time now......

 

[LadyStanley]

https://sports.yahoo.com/latest-round-daunting-cte-reports-come-asterisk-013003329.html
Why the latest round of daunting CTE reports should come with an asterisk

For one, all participants studied had symptoms.

And right now the media hype is pushing the Bottom line, not the science, fully.

 

[cutchemist42]

I will say I still have thought, but I dont see myself ever finding the answers.

This only involved players who thought they had it so they donated their brains. Obviously you can only study the brain of someone who agrees to the donation. Without control groups representing ALL players of football, or other sports (rugby, soccer, hockey, etc) , or the general population as a whole. I really cant say how I feel about HOW bad this is.

 

[Llama19]

 

[Killion]

I will say I still have thought, but I dont see myself ever finding the answers.

This only involved players who thought they had it so they donated their brains. Obviously you can only study the brain of someone who agrees to the donation. Without control groups representing ALL players of football, or other sports (rugby, soccer, hockey, etc) , or the general population as a whole. I really cant say how I feel about HOW bad this is.

Yes, its truly incredible when you consider that initially when playing & suffering the after effects of a concussion the % of players who report it is already low in comparison to the real numbers, then post playing career go undiagnosed or in some cases misdiagnosed when they start encountering physical & or mental issues/disabilities. The numbers who then donate their brains, the % infinitesimal, barely a few snowflakes on the tip of a massive iceberg. I dont even know where you'd begin in "guesstimating" the actual numbers from amateur through pro but obviously the higher the level the individual's played at the greater likelihood that damage will be, is currently & was done. Tragic. I mean really, what can you say? When you step on the ice you accept by tacit agreement that ya, full contact sport, have to be careful, respectful, play safe. But if even then this has been happening helmets or no helmets, game you love, I mean, what the Hell? And theres just no easy answer, no remedy, no way to eliminate it entirely even in no-contact play when accidents are bound to happen. Someone loses control of their stick or falls awkwardly on the ice, into a post or the boards.... just... too depressing to think about. Like you cc, sort of left speechless.

I'd be stunned if thats not granted, moves forward. This is a big BIG problem, ominous. Serious storm clouds forming. The ramifications for the NHL, for all of hockey are going to be profound to say the least.

 

[Llama19]

NFL-NIH research partnership set to end with $16M unspent

To quote:

"NIH officials decided months ago to let the agreement expire in August with more than half of the money unused, following a bitter dispute in 2015 in which the NFL backed out of a major study that had been awarded to a researcher who had been critical of the league, Outside the Lines has learned.

The expected NFL-NIH breakup would mark an uneasy conclusion to an initiative often billed as the largest single donation in NFL history. In the end, the NIH has signaled its willingness to leave approximately $16 million on the table, a measure of the mistrust that built up following the league's unsuccessful efforts to rescind funding awarded to a group led by Robert Stern, a Boston University neuroscientist."

Source: http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/...nih-appears-set-move-bulk-30-million-donation

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/canadian-government-releases-guideline-concussions-sport/

The [Candadian] federal government has issued guidelines on concussions in sports to help with decisions on diagnosis management and treatment.

The guideline released on Friday is intended to ensure that athletes receive appropriate care if there’s a potential concussion.

Seven areas are addressed in the guideline including: pre-season education, head injury recognition, on site medical assessment, medical assessment, concussion management, multidisciplinary concussion care and return to sport.

Article does not go into specifics.

A good start.

 

[Fenway]

Chicago sportswriter who played college football is donating his brain

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/telander-as-cte-rocks-football-im-donating-my-brain-to-science/

Seven years ago, I watched as Dr. Ann McKee, the lead author of the recent CTE report, dissected a brain in her lab in Bedford, Massachusetts. The brain had just come in, and it was from a former NFL player.
As I observed McKee in her scrubs, holding a glimmering 18-inch knife to begin the slicing, I felt conflicted, uncertain, nearly vertiginous from the dual realities I was witnessing: the conflict of sanctity merged with everyday banality. On the table was a once-sacred human essence, yet it looked for all the world like so much ground hamburger ready for industrial examination.

Dr. McKee showed me the parts riddled with CTE, the rotten edges where the tangled tau protein had destroyed healthy tissue.

‘‘Normal people don’t get CTE,’’ McKee said. ‘‘It is ugly. It is ridiculous.’’

Of the men she had examined, including NFL players Wally Hilgenberg and Tom McHale and their CTE-riddled brains, she said of their former lives, ‘‘It’s amazing to me that they are functioning at all!’’

So my buddy Mike Adamle and I, teammates for four years on the Northwestern football team, were riding our bikes last spring in Evanston when we stopped at a friend’s house not far from Ryan Field.

Adamle, a star running back who played six seasons in the NFL, is showing the early signs of dementia from head trauma, and he has been very open about his struggle with memory, enunciation, sleeplessness and the emotional changes CTE brings.

On the spot, we decided to pledge our brains to the concussion group. We called foundation director Chris Nowinski in Boston and said we were in.

Nowinski himself has suffered many concussions as a college football player, then as a pro wrestler. I later would ask him if he, too, had pledged his brain.

‘‘Oh, yeah,’’ he said.

Just 38, Nowinski has post-concussion symptoms from his sports career.

 

[Killion]

Dr. Ann McKee, the lead author of the recent CTE report, dissected a brain in her lab in Bedford, Massachusetts...

Actually pretty vile, beyond spurious, really disgraceful, appalling... the attacks Dr.Mckee & the College with which she is associated has been assailed & attacked.
Honest research, no agenda hidden or otherwise short of getting to the truth..... And ya, Houston we have a problem... Shoot the messenger.

 

[Llama19]

 

[Llama19]

Doctors hoping to use blood, saliva to test for brain injury

To quote:

""What we're looking for is indeed something that's going to help us be more objective,†said Dr. Javier Cardenas with the Barrow Neurological Institute. "The idea is that it is going to be more precise."

Working with other partners, including the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Cardenas is part of a team researching if certain bio-markers can identify a concussion or stage of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)."

Source: http://www.abc15.com/news/region-ph...-to-use-blood-saliva-to-test-for-brain-injury

 

[Llama19]

 

[Llama19]

 

[ratbid]

I just found this thread and reading through it is actually terrifying.

I'm a PhD researcher in Ontario (as well as former amateur boxer) and I work with a very large concussion group. We work closely with the Eric Lindros foundation as well as have several researchers working directly with tissue samples taken from deceased NFL players.

It's absolutely disgusting to hear someone like Goodell saying things like that about player safety. I'm not saying concussions are anything new or novel, but the advancement in athlete training and "protection" has absolutely seen a massive spike in head injuries. It's terrifying the amount of teenagers and younger coming in with bad concussions, only to have their parents/coaches tell them they should "play through it". A lot of that stems from things at the top like the things Goodell has to say. All sports have their risks and benefits, but at this stage the risk is growing too large to outweigh the benefits for a number of these sports and something needs to be done.

 

[cbcwpg]

http://nationalpost.com/pmn/sports-...case/wcm/0837d597-0346-4bc1-a240-e3527d4deed4

Kind of OT... but related because of the context.

Two lower courts in British Columbia have dismissed the suit because Canada’s top court has previously ruled that unionized employees must use labour arbitration — not the courts — to resolve disputes that arise from their collective agreement.

Bruce’s lawyers filed leave to appeal to the high court last Friday. In court documents, they argue the CFL collective agreement is unusual because athletes individually negotiate their pay, have no long-term disability insurance plan, are excluded from occupational health and safety regulations and are not entitled to workers compensation.

 

[cbcwpg]

https://www.thenational.ae/sport/ru...lay-on-in-pursuit-of-playing-for-uae-1.619866

NUMBERS

1.94 – Amount of head injuries on average per 1,000 tackles, according to World Rugby research

2.6 – A tackler is 2.6 times more likely to suffer a head injury than the player being tackled

5 – Representatives from five sports - rugby union, rugby league, American football, ice hockey, and Australian rules - met in Dublin in March to work out a unified approach to tackling concussion

25 – Per cent of match-day injuries are concussion, according to an English Premiership rugby study

76 – Per cent of head injuries happen via a tackle – as opposed to scrum, ruck, lineout, etc – according to World Rugby data

*****

Not sure what, if any solution there is. Contact sports are inherently risky and it doesn't matter the sport.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://nationalpost.com/pmn/sports-...ions/wcm/658a87f0-c9ef-448f-bfab-6bcdb3159784

Wickenheiser backing development of video games to treat concussions.

Interviewed at concussion symposium, in advance of Logan Couture's casino charity event in London, ON, raising funds for brain injuries.


http://www.lfpress.com/2017/08/16/collaboration-key-to-concussion-battle-lindros

Lindros also interviewed at symposium.



http://www.lfpress.com/2017/08/16/l...n-research-gets-full-support-in-its-first-try

Looks like they raise more than $100k for research from early returns.