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Posted

What's the rate of incidence they found in non-players?

 

(They DO have a control for this study, right?)

 

I believe it was mentioned that they only tested players who believed that they had CTE as well.

 

These are excellent points and highlight the need to interpret results from any such studies very carefully before jumping to conclusions.

Posted

I believe it was mentioned that they only tested players who believed that they had CTE as well.

 

That was going to be my second point. It's pretty much a sample self-selected for CTE.

Posted

What's the rate of incidence they found in non-players?

 

(They DO have a control for this study, right?)

my first thought, thanks

 

That was going to be my second point. It's pretty much a sample self-selected for CTE.

my second thought, thanks
God, we think alike, we're like twinsies.
Posted

what is the % of people with CTE who NEVER played football ?

 

It depends. In real life, pretty low. In the Watkins thread, I'm pretty sure it's pushing 90%.

 

my first thought, thanks

my second thought, thanks
God, we think alike, we're like twinsies.

 

 

Except only one of us had our hand up a cow's ass today.

Posted

what is the % of people with CTE who NEVER played football ?

I would like to take guys like myself, who have lived pretty rough, played thru HS and that was it. See what we have and then get some panty-waist like Beerball and see how his brain fairs.

Posted

"...As such, many of the players who have donated their brains for testing suspected that they had the disease while still alive, leaving researchers with a skewed population to work with."

 

While it's good that research is being done on the problem, the nature of the sample population is a concern.

 

The researchers need to do some testing on the general population or even football players who did not exhibit the issues their test group did.

 

Inflammatory headlines sell papers but don't provide much directional insight...

 

Posted

 

It's not, but the context is important: as the article itself notes "As such, many of the players who have donated their brains for testing suspected that they had the disease while still alive, leaving researchers with a skewed population to work with." Unstated also, is the complicating factor that a number of former players have trouble adjusting to life outside football and self-medicate with booze and drugs, which may cloud the picture, and no one wants to talk about it for fear of the "blaming the victim" tag.

 

To understand how prevalent this really is, one would really need to survey all living NFL football players, especially linemen, to determine how many have symptoms that seem to be associated with CTE. Then, examine brains from asymptomatic (however many there are) and symptomatic people. Does everyone who spends a few years bashing their head into another guy's midsection develop CTE? Does CTE develop without marked symptoms in some people? If so what makes them different? Understanding this would be hugely helpful and might expedite avoidance of the problem or suggest treatment, but in the current environment no one has the stomach to take this on. It would have to come from the NFLPA because the league isn't gonna touch it.

 

The human organism is a complex thing. It's sort of like Alzheimers, if one examines the brains of people diagnosed with Alzheimers, one is likely to find the amyloid plaques and neurofibrullary tangles typical of the disease. But the formation of these is thought to precede the development of symptoms by years, and in some cases may develop without symptoms - it's hard to tell, because most people who pass away without particular mental symptoms want to be buried without having holes chopped in their skull. Or as we science geeks like to say, "Correlation is not Causation"

Posted

Football is a violent game. It's not surprising to hear that older players are having issues with CTE. Hopefully more players get access to various levels of treatment and they get out of the game without playing those last couple of years where extensive damage can occur. I remember listening to an interview with Kyle Turley talking about medical Marijuana helping out a lot of former players dealing with the pain of playing and with CTE symptoms. They also said other methods of treatment are becoming more available which is good, however the funding for former players treatments aren't at the levels where they should be.

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