Boxing is a risky contact sport for both professionals and beginners. The latest scientific discovery warns that boxers who experience repeated head injuries may be three times more likely to develop Alzheimer's.
Boston University researchers found that lesions in the white matter of the brain can show up on MRI scans. Are white matter hyperintensitiesa they show up as bright spots on brain scans and can indicate conditions like high blood pressure. However, the scientists discovered that these markers are more common in athletes who practice contact sports longer or have more head injuries.
The ability to easily detect indicators of brain damage on MRIs could help doctors. This would favor the study and early detection of injuries induced by head impact.
Repetitive impacts increase injury
The benefits that sport can do for youngsters far outweigh the fact that they take hits under strictly controlled conditions. Normally, boxers routinely undergo medical examinations and brain scans, but some may resist.
In the study, the scientists studied 75 deceased people who had experienced repeated head impacts during their lives and had agreed to donate their brains to medical science after death, at an average age of 67.
The results show that white matter hyperintensities can capture long-term damage to the brain in people who have a history of repetitive blows to the head. MRI can be an effective tool to study the effects of repetitive head impacts on the white matter of the brain while the boxer is still alive.
The athletes were predominantly American football players, with the rest being athletes from contact sports such as boxing or soccer, or military veterans. The scientists also looked at each person's medical records, including brain scans that were done when the people were alive, and met with loved ones to assess cases of dementia.
Based on autopsy results, it was determined that 71 percent of the subjects, 53 people in all, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated impacts to the head that can lead to dementia.
Young boxers are at higher risk
Brain scans revealed that for every unit difference in the volume of white matter hyperintensity, the odds of having severe small-vessel disease and damage to the brain's white matter increased twice.
This was accompanied by a three-fold increase in the likelihood of having a severe protein buildup tau in the frontal lobe, a development that is a biomarker for several progressive brain diseases, including Alzheimer's disease.
Among athletes, having more white matter hyperintensities is associated with more years of boxing and other contact sports. In turn, this is related to worse scores on questionnaires about difficulties in performing daily tasks.