Playing Football May Increase the Risk for Developing Parkinson’s Disease
Watching Muhammad Ali struggle late in his life with severe tremors brought on by Parkinson’s disease was difficult for many to witness. When Ali learned the actor Michael J. Fox was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s, he called Fox to say, “I’m glad you’re in this fight with me.”
Ali died in 2016, but Fox has continued the fight through his Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and it recently linked up with Boston University researchers for a new study into the brain disorder affecting the central nervous system. The findings, released on Friday by Fox’s foundation and BU’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center, found a strong link between playing football and increased odds for reporting a Parkinson’s diagnosis or having disease-related symptoms. The research is an extension of the ongoing work the CTE Center has been doing examining the impact repetitive and frequent head trauma, especially from sports, can have on the brain. The results were published in JAMA Network Open.
The researchers say the study is the largest to date describing “the association between participation in football and the odds for having a reported diagnosis of Parkinson’s.” CTE Center researchers used a large online data set of people who have or are more likely to be concerned, or at risk, for Parkinson’s disease (PD). They found that the odds of participants with a history of playing organized tackle football increased by 61 percent for having “a reported parkinsonism or PD diagnosis.”