Concussions & Dementia Link

Concussions or other head injuries are causing more cases of dementia than previously thought.

Unfortunately this seems to be something that war vets, football players and even soccer players have in common. Hits to the head, especially ones that result in concussions, seem to be causing more cases of dementia, including Alzheimer's, than we had suspected.

This new information comes about as a result of two new studies. In one, veterans that had been diagnosed with a brain injury were over twice as likely to develop dementia years later. In the second study, researcher found out that 35% of former NFL players had signs of dementia later in life. That's almost three times higher than the 13% rate in the general population.

So, it seems that head injuries, even small ones, can take their toll over time. As a matter of fact, in a separate study even soccer players, when compared to swimmers who typically don't get any head injuries, did not perform as well on thinking type tests.

Experts think this has to do with how the brain tries to protect itself after an injury. This protection causes so called "plaques" to form and that leads to dementia. The bottom line here is that head injuries, especially concussions, take a bigger toll over time than we thought. That means they need to be taken more seriously and anytime an athlete, or anyone for that matter, suffers a head injury, they should be checked out if they have any symptoms. And until those symptoms *completely* go away, they need to stay out of the game.