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If your son or daughter is thinking of going out for a contact sport, you -- and they -- might want to think again. Concussions have been in the news lately, mostly because, in the past, it was not known they could be responsible for depression, possibly Alzheimer's, even death. Today we know all that but a new study has found that "E ven in the absence of a concussion, blows to the head during a single season of football or ice hockey may affect the brain’s white matter and cognition, or memory and thinking abilities," according to newswise.com. “We found differences in the white matter of the brain in these college contact sport athletes compared to non-contact sport varsity athletes,” the Web site quotes study author Thomas W. McAllister, MD, of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. “The degree of white matter change in the contact sport athletes was greater in those who performed more poorly than expected on tests of memory and learning, suggesti...

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...