Brain-Pad

Scientists have found evidence connecting head injuries
in athletes to Lou Gehrig's disease, according to a report
to air on HBO's "Real Sports" on Tuesday night.

Dr. Ann McKee said in an interview with the television magazine
show that she found toxic proteins in the spinal cords of three
athletes who had suffered head injuries and then later died of
Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS. Those same proteins have been
found in the brains of athletes with chronic traumatic
encephalopathy (CTE), a disease linked to head injuries that
causes cognitive decline, abnormal behavior and dementia.

The findings are to be published in the Journal of Neuropathology
and Experimental Neurology.

McKee, a neurology professor at Boston University who has
studied CTE in athletes, noticed that an unusually high number
of football players seemed to be affected by ALS. The disease
attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, and destroys
the ability to move and speak.

She was able to study the brains and spinal cords of ex-Minnesota
Vikings linebacker Wally Hilgenberg, former Southern California line-
backer Eric Scoggins, and a boxer whose family asked that his name
be kept private.

She found the toxic proteins in the spines of all three. The proteins
were not present in the spines of athletes with CTE who didn't have
Lou Gehrig's disease. Nor had she seen them in non-athletes
who died of ALS.

- Tuesday, August 17, 2010