- Tau proteins develop at the site of injury and spread elsewhere in the brain
- England striker Jeff Astle died from dementia due to heading leather footballs
- World Cup-winning footballer Nobby Stiles suffers from Alzheimer’s disease
- Mice with brain injuries also have tau proteins throughout their brains
- Around 850,000 people in the UK and 5.7 million in the US have Alzheimer’s
One blow to the head causes the same brain damage as dementia, new research suggests.
A single injury from heading a football or being in a boxing match leads to the production of tau proteins, which have been described as the ‘hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease’, a Scottish and Italian study found.
These proteins accumulate both at the site of injury and elsewhere in the brain, the research adds.
This comes 16 years after the death of England striker Jeff Astle, whose inquest suggested he developed dementia as a direct result of heading heavy leather footballs.
Nobby Stiles, who played for England during its World Cup win in 1966 and suffers from Alzheimer’s, has previously criticised the Football Association for failing to properly investigate a link between the sport and degenerative brain disease.
Around 850,000 people in the UK have dementia, of which approximately 62 percent suffer from Alzheimer’s. Some 5.7 million have Alzheimer’s in the US.
One blow to the head causes the same brain damage as dementia, research suggests (stock)
Brain injury causes Alzheimer’s proteins
The researchers, from the University of Glasgow, analyzed the brains of 15 people who had suffered moderate or severe blows to the head as a result of car crashes, accidents or assaults.
All of the patients survived their injuries and died up to 18 years later from other causes.
None of them were ever diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or similar disorders, however, results suggest they had abnormal forms of the tau protein both at the site of their injuries and elsewhere in their brains.
Lead author Dr. Willie Stewart said: ‘There is a false assumption that being hit by a car produces a different brain injury to being hit on a rugby field thousands of times during your career.
‘Underpinning it, the biological processes are very similar if not the same. It is just the dose of the injury which is different.’
In a separate part of the study, published in the journal Brain, scientists from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan examined mice with brain injuries.
Results further suggest the rodents had the same type of abnormal tau protein, which also spread in their brains.
Heading a football causes five times more damage to women’s brains
This comes after research released yesterday suggested heading a football may cause five times as much damage to women’s brains as men’s.
Researchers, from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, New York, believe this may be due to women having weaker necks, as well as possible hormonal or genetic differences.
Sex hormones, such as testosterone in males, and estrogen and progesterone in women, influence brain size.
Men’s brains are on average 14 percent bigger and may, therefore, be better able to withstand blows.
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