College football players are not healthy, says study

College football players may appear healthy, but this is not the case. A significant number have abnormalities in coordination and inflammation, according to a new study.

December 16, 2021

Source:

Northwestern University

Summary:

Collegiate football athletes with a decade or more of experience with the sport have related abnormalities in inflammation, energy production and coordination that are apparent before the football season and across the season, a new study has found. The abnormalities are related to routine repetitive head impacts from tackling and blocking.

College football players may appear healthy and successful on the field, but a number of biological measures say otherwise.

A new study between Northwestern Medicine, Pennsylvania State University and other collaborating universities has found collegiate football athletes with a decade or more of experience with the sport have related abnormalities in inflammation, energy production and coordination that are apparent before the football season and across the season. The abnormalities are related to routine repetitive head impacts from tackling and blocking.

Most head trauma studies tend to focus on injury being severe enough to cause a clinical concussion, as opposed to assessing the routine effect of repeated tackles or blows to the head over a season. These findings argue that impact sport athletes, regardless of history of concussion, have chronic problems.

The brain, in simple, non-technical language. 

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These problems were found in measures that show abnormal regulation of inflammation, less coordinated movement and abnormalities in how cells produce energy. These three measures are significantly related to each other before the football season and to changes observed across the football season. They were also related to the number of head impacts a player received over the season.

"These findings support over a decade of reports about the negative effects of repetitive head impacts along with studies of animal brain injury," said co-senior author Dr. Hans Breiter, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "At this point, it appears the canary is dead in the coal mine."

"This problem affects much of youth and professional impact sports in the U.S., along with training of U.S. military personnel," said co-senior author Dr. Semyon Slobounov, professor of neurosurgery at Penn State College of Medicine.

A new study between Northwestern Medicine, Pennsylvania State University and other collaborating universities has found collegiate football athletes with a decade or more of experience with the sport have related abnormalities in inflammation, energy production and coordination that are apparent before the football season and across the season. The abnormalities are related to routine repetitive head impacts from tackling and blocking.

Most head trauma studies tend to focus on injury being severe enough to cause a clinical concussion, as opposed to assessing the routine effect of repeated tackles or blows to the head over a season. These findings argue that impact sport athletes, regardless of history of concussion, have chronic problems.

These problems were found in measures that show abnormal regulation of inflammation, less coordinated movement and abnormalities in how cells produce energy. These three measures are significantly related to each other before the football season and to changes observed across the football season. They were also related to the number of head impacts a player received over the season.

"These findings support over a decade of reports about the negative effects of repetitive head impacts along with studies of animal brain injury," said co-senior author Dr. Hans Breiter, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "At this point, it appears the canary is dead in the coal mine."

"This problem affects much of youth and professional impact sports in the U.S., along with training of U.S. military personnel," said co-senior author Dr. Semyon Slobounov, professor of neurosurgery at Penn State College of Medicine.

The brain, in simple, non-technical language. 

Learn more by clicking here.

Beat Omicron, Get Vaxxed

                                                 

Learn more and order your copy by clicking here.

In this updated look at the Covid-19 vaccine we examine its rollout, one year ago. Now with the Omicron variant ravaging the world, getting the vaccine is more important than ever.  Stubborn resistance continues...and Covid variations will continue to happen unless we get everyone vaxxed.

How did that COVID-19 vaccine happen so fast? 

Years, even decades of research brought us to yesterday, the initial rollout of a vaccine for COVID-19, the most disastrous public health calamity in modern times.

In layman's terms, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are all about genetics, DNA, and cell biology. The vaccine utilizes our genetic processes and what they do...which is to create life in our bodies and in all living things. We lay people have known about genetics since high school, when we studied a little bit about Gregor Mendel and his experiments with peas. Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity and laid the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics. 

What James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered by 1953, and which revolutionized biology and medicine, was how each of our 30 trillion cells (except for mature red blood cells) is able to pack inside its nucleus the 20,000 genes that serve as the instruction manual for us and for all living things.

DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, is the material from which the 46 chromosomes in each cell's nucleus are formed. DNA contains the codes for the body's approximately 20,000 genes, which govern all aspects of cell growth and inheritance. Watson and Crick discovered that DNA has a double helix structure--two intertwined strands resembling a spiraling ladder. A gene is a distinct section of that DNA and contains the codes for producing specific proteins involved in our body function. In a very short-handed description, genes send information to single-strand structures called messenger RNA (messenger ribonucleic acid). It is the messenger RNA that leaves the cell's nucleus and begins the process of protein building, the essential work of life.

What the scientists and doctors at Pfizer accomplished was to harness the messenger RNA of the Corona-19 virus, which is the active agent of the of the corona virus. The scientists made a synthetic copy of the virus's messenger RNA instead of using a section of living, or dead, virus as has been typically done in previous vaccines. Also, it has been reported that the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines are less risky to the body and easier to make in mass doses...qualities much needed in an unprecedented pandemic.

As noted scientist and Nobel laureate Leon Cooper said, our investment in basic scientific research must be generous and ongoing. Advances that led to the creation of the personal computer, for example, relied on previous research on transistors, which relied on previous research in basic physics. Had the revolution in our understanding of genes and cellular biology not stood where it is, these vaccines, providing hope to a despairing world, would not have been possible.

Contents 

FOREWORD: HOW A TINY VIRUS CHANGED THE WORLD…..1. LET'S GET BACK TO NORMAL, WHEREVER POSSIBLE….2. THIS IS NOT THE SEASONAL FLU-- IT'S MUCH MORE DANGEROUS….. 3. OUR LUNGS AND COVID-19: A CLOSER LOOK…..4. HOW DID THE COVID-19 VACCINES GET DEVELOPED SO FAST?.....5. THE VACCINES ARE SAFE: THE ROLE OF CLINICAL TRIALS…..6. IMMUNITY: A SMART SYSTEM AND ITS SECRETS…..7. A POWERFUL ACHIEVEMENT: DR. JONAS SALK CONQUERS POLIO…. 8. TAKE PART IN HISTORY...BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE HAPPEN….. 9. SCIENCE SAVES MONEY, SAVES LIVES…..10. THE AGE OF THE GENOME BODES WELL FOR HUMAN HEALTH…..11. FAQS ABOUT THE COVID-19 VACCINES EPILOGUE: LIVING UNDER THE UNIQUE STRESS OF A PANDEMIC 

Online review:

"You might have read articles here and there about the Covid vaccines and the miracle of their development in less than a year. But here in book form, all the ingredients of this remarkable story are brought together in one place by author Dave Balog. Mr. Balog has a medical background, but he writes in clear, easy-to-understand prose that any reader will appreciate.

"Specifically, fundamental questions about the virus and the vaccines are answered in the book such as how did the vaccines get developed in record time, how was safety ensured -- particularly given the speed involved -- and the implications not only for the management of future pandemics, but also for overall public health in general.

"Mr. Balog's book is titled, "Get The Covid-19 Vaccine ASAP." Many people, but by no means everyone, know this. The nine chapters, however, explain why vaccination is so urgent in the face of a still evolving disease, the dimensions of which are detailed therein in no uncertain terms."

                                               

Learn more and order your copy by clicking here.

About the author 

David Balog, a freelance science/medical writer, served as an editor at the Charles A. Dana Foundation from 1995-2006. There he worked for William Safire, language columnist for the New York Times. David created, wrote, and edited the Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science through four editions. More than 50,000 copies were distributed to elementary schools, middle schools, colleges and to professionals and the general public. He worked with leading brain scientists and doctors, including Nobel laureates. David was also a contributing editor of the Dana Sourcebook of Immunology. and has created the Healing the Brain series of books and videos. Please visit www.HealingTheBrainBooks.Com to learn more. David is a graduate of Hamilton College, where he received a BA in History.

New book helps parents and youth in "coming out" process

204 pages, illustrated with art and photos, 2021

Independently published through Kindle Direct Publishing

$5.95 introductory price. (Also available as Kindle book, $2.95)

Available directly on Amazon.com by CLICKING HERE

In the author's words: "This is a book that I wish I could have given to my parents. We never could have the conversation that I was gay...and years of needless stress and hiding followed."

Sadly, parents and youth still struggle with the issue of coming out. It is like crossing the Rubicon, a moment of endless anxiety with potentially traumatic aftermaths. 

The author, r, with his father.

As Nobel prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, M.D., has said, "the problem is urgent, particularly for transgender people of color who suffer horrifically high rates of depression, substance abuse, suicide, and murder.” Speaking on a PBS special series, Dr. Eric Kandel also said, “Brain science can be a liberating influence in our lives. As we understand the biology of our own gender identity and sexual orientation better and become more comfortable with ourselves, we must become more empathic to somebody else's identity and orientation.” 

The book begins with a look at how all parents influence their children’s lives. This is especially important for gay youth, who struggle mightily with self-esteem and confidence. In Chapter Two we share  the stories of LGBTQ people, and their parents, told in their own voices. Gay people and parents share their experiences, positive and negative:

• Matt, from New Jersey calmly talks his mother out of crashing the car as he answers yes to he question whether he is gay...at least until he can get out of the car.
• Ben, a researcher, gives his first presentation after transitioning from woman to man and hears a comment that the "presentation was good, but I like his sister's work better."
• Mary, the mother of a suicide victim, discovers that she was wrong to condemn her son on regligious grounds and comes to say that he was "perfect, just as he was."
• Pastor Jackie from Kansas, mother of two gay youth, urges parents to search deep inside you and ask why you are troubled so much.

Next, the book addresses the progress and the previous shortcomings of research into understanding how the brain develops and controls human sexuality. It is an important field, and one watched closely, because many lay people think there should be a simple answer and brain science is about clarity and explaining complexity and nuance.

Resources for parents and gay youth and adults include support organizations, other books, and movies dedicated to portraying the lives of family member who work to overcome stigma and trauma.

About the author:

David Balog created, wrote, and edited The Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science through four editions. More than 50,000 copies were distributed to elementary schools, middle schools, colleges, and to professionals and the general public. He worked with leading brain scientists and doctors, including Nobel laureates, throughout 12 years at the Dana Foundation.

This book is a publication of A Thousand Moms, a Schenectady, NY-based organization devoted to supporting the emotional and developmental needs of LGBTQ youth in foster/adoptive care.  athousandmoms@yahoo.com