Alzheimer’s and dementia
These athletes are at risk
04/16/2025 – 12:32 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
The risk of head hits is very great in sport. There are some sports that can have serious consequences for professionals.
On Tuesday, hope for people with Alzheimer’s. The European Commission had first approved Alzheimer’s therapy that aims at underlying disease processes. The antibody Lecanemab is suitable for treatment in the early stage and the first medication of this kind that is approved in the EU, the Commission said. According to experts, however, only a very small part of the Alzheimer’s patients are eligible for this therapy (you can read more about this here).
Despite the restriction, it is also good news for sport. Because there are some sports that do not have a beneficial effect on the brain. The topic, for example, achieved great attention from a film with Hollywood star Will Smith in 2015. CTE was found in the autopsy of Websters.
CTE is the name for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, an illness in which the nerve strands of the brain scour. It is caused by the high and recurring number of head legs that, among other things, suffer football players during their career. The more often it leads to conceals, the greater the risk of damage to the organ. At some point the brain no longer plays along, there can be confusion, depression, depression and even personality disorders.
In a study from 2017, US scientists found new evidence of a connection between serious head injuries and American football. The brain disease CTE was detected in 110 out of 111 brains of former NFL players, which has now died.
For a long time, the belief lasted that it was mainly football players or boxers who could hit it. However, this has become more and more a fallacy in recent years. At the end of 2024, a study by the “CTE Center” from Boston University even suggested that ice hockey could replace football as a sport with the greatest risk.
In order to gain new knowledge, 77 brains of men whose primary sport was ice hockey were examined for CTE. CTE was detected at 54.4 percent. The quota was particularly high among ex-professional players. With 27 out of 28 players, the disease was detected. “Ice hockey players with a longer career not only had a higher risk of developing CTE, but also suffering more seriously,” said neurologist Jesse Mez. He was one of the authors of the study.
There are serious warning signals for the affected sports to do something. The NHL did not comment on the study. However, the world’s largest ice hockey league pushed changes years ago. Body checks in the age groups up to 13 years were banned in the United States. In Germany, the German ice hockey league (DEL) made it their task to pronounce harder punishments for checks against heads and neck.
The NFL introduced the “Concussion Rule” in 2009. It says that after a head hit, players are only allowed to go back to the pitch after an immediate examination and diagnosis on the edge of the field. Tackling against the head is also punished with a 15-yard penalty. In the youth area, too, attention is increasingly taken to educate and protective measures in order to avoid later long -term damage.