Football: Child’s Play, Adult Peril?
BU Today
Robert Stern, PhD, neurology, neurosurgery, CTE Center
Julie Stamm, PhD candidate
As the 100 million viewers tuning in to this Sunday’s Super Bowl can attest, Americans adore football. And for many, the love affair begins in childhood: Pop Warner Tiny-Mites start as young as age five, and many adults retain warm memories and friendships from their youth football days.
But a new study from BU School of Medicine researchers points to a possible increased risk of cognitive impairment from playing youth football.
Experts’ quotes:
“This is one study, with limitations,” adds study senior author Robert Stern, a MED professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and anatomy and neurobiology and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center’s Clinical Core. “But the findings support the idea that it may not make sense to allow children—at a time when their brain is rapidly developing—to be exposed to repetitive hits to the head. If larger studies confirm this one, we may need to consider safety changes in youth sports.”
“Sports are important, and we want kids to participate in football,” says Stamm. “But no eight-year-old should play a sport with his friends and end up with long-term problems. We just want kids to play sports more safely.”
Read the full article.