Hot MedFax

You've seen them on TV.  The former pro football players looking confused and struggling to put a sentence together.  Or boxer Muhammad Ali with that blank look in his eyes. Researchers are slowly coming to the conclusion that, yes, repeated concussions may lead to Alzheimer's.  " A new study suggests that a history of concussion involving at least a momentary loss of consciousness may be related to the buildup of Alzheimer’s-associated plaques in the brain," newswise.com reports.   Study author Michelle Mielke, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher found, however that "i n people with a history of concussion, a difference in the amount of brain plaques was found only in those with memory and thinking problems, not in those who were cognitively normal." In the study, "o f the 448 people without any thinking or memory problems, 17 percent reported a brain injury and 18 percent of the 141 with memory and thinking difficulties reported a concussion or h...

If your son (daughter) is like mine, he loves to play soccer. But a disturbing new  report is finding that it's every bit as dangerous as football when it comes to your head. According to a story at newswise.com, researchers have found that "soccer players who frequently head the ball have brain abnormalities resembling those found in patients with concussion (mild traumatic brain injury)." The researchers studied soccer because it's the most popular sport in the world.  “Soccer is widely played by people of all ages and there is concern that heading the ball—a key component of the sport—might damage the brain," newswise.com quoted Michael L. Lipton , M.D., Ph.D., associate director of Einstein’s Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center and medical director of MRI services at Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, who led the study. Soccer players "head" the ball six to 12 times during games, where balls ca...