Is Watching Football Immoral? Part 2: Football, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Glaucoma. Is there an association?

 

Many years ago, I posted a very unpopular post asking the question if watching football was immoral: Contact Football immoral?. The post received almost a thousand hits but I have found over the years this question is very unpopular in the US and frankly disgusts some. 

But I still see the consequences of frequent head tackling in my practice. The issue is there are no randomized, controlled, double-blinded prospective studies to show even a causation of football (or boxing even) with chronic brain injury.

Studies, such as the one below from 2017 show a possible association of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) with football. While very disturbing (Among the 111 NFL players, 99% had brain injury in the form of CTE), it shows a possible association and not causation. Also few people and almost no football lovers know that CTE is associated with a miserable live: suicidal behavior, dementia, declines in memory, executive function; mood swings; bouts of anger.

This is enough for me to really try to avoid watching head-banging sports.

My interest is all things eyes: what about the risk of glaucoma which can lead to blindness? Is glaucoma a form of traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy? What is the incidence of glaucoma in football players? Is there an association? What if a person has a gene for glaucoma and then plays football: does the micro head trauma over years increase that person's risk of this blinding disease? I suspect it does, but there are no studies looking at this that I could find thus far. 

US Football is a billion-dollar industry. They need to find out. 

In the meantime, I still view watching football as watching the gladiators in Rome, except in Rome even among those that did work as professional gladiators, it was a fast death. Football, on the other hand, may lead to a slow painful death for its players down the line and tough times for their loved ones. 

References:

https://time.com/4871597/degenerative-brain-disease-cte-football/

Several studies have linked CTE to suicidal behavior, dementia and declines in memory, executive function and mood. Professional athletes may be at higher risk for CTE because of their high likelihood for concussions and other traumatic brain injuries; up to 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur in the United States each year. In 2016, a health official with the NFL acknowledged the link between football and CTE for the first time.

In the new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers looked at the brains of 202 deceased people who had played football at various levels, from high school to the NFL. (The brains had been donated to a brain bank at Boston University for further study.) The researchers analyzed the brains for signs of CTE and also spoke to family members about the players’ histories.

They diagnosed CTE in 87% of the players. Among the 111 NFL players, 99% had CTE.