Brain damage caused by head balls?

US researchers warn against too frequent headballs in sports

30.11.2011

The discussion about possible health consequences of head balls has been going on for years. The assumption of the ball with the head is suspected to cause damage to the brain and in the long term to cause significant impairments of the mind.

Face of legendary sayings of German professional footballers like: „Milan or Madrid - main thing Italy“ or „One third more money? Nah, I want at least a quarter.“ seems the suspicion that one or the other footballer has taken too many headballs and these might have harmed his brain, quite obvious. A comprehensive study by US researchers at Yeshiva University in New York concludes that amateur footballers, who often use headballs, actually show signs of craniocerebral trauma in the brain. The results were presented by researchers around Michael Lipton at the Congress of the North American Radiology Society (RSNA)

Traumatic brain injury through headballs?
As part of their study, the US scientists interviewed 38 men who have been playing amateur football since childhood about the amount of headbands they have taken each year. In addition, Michael Lipton and colleagues studied the nerves and tissue in the brain of amateur footballers using so-called diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The evaluation of the MRI examination showed that the headballs for the nerve and brain tissue are not without consequences. For example, the amateur footballers, who use their ball picking heads most often, have shown damage in five different areas of the brain, US researchers said at the RSNA Congress. Among other brain areas were affected, which are important for attention, memory and behavioral control, so Lipton and colleagues on. The proven brain damage, according to the scientists were similar to the damage that otherwise only occur in traumatic brain injury, ie in severe concussions, stressed the US researchers. Such damage to the brain, for example, after traffic accidents is a relatively common consequence, the sufferers suffering from symptoms such as memory lapse, dizziness, headache, nausea and vomiting.

Impairment of the nerve and brain tissue by head balls
The brain damage, however, varied greatly among amateur footballers depending on the amount of headballs played. Thus, the impairments of the nerve and brain tissue occurred only at a number of at least 1,000 to 1,500 headballs per year, said Michael Lipton and colleagues. Such a lot of headballs (three to four daily) should, however, be the exception even with dedicated amateur footballers. Nevertheless, the current findings clearly refute the statement of 2003 by the British sports medicine Paul McCrory, who had claimed that headballs were unlikely to damage the brain. McCrory figured the balls would not strike the head with sufficient force to cause a concussion. The US researchers have now found out that it is not the impact of a single impact that causes brain damage „repeated minds can set in motion a chain of reactions in the brain that results in damage to brain cells“ leads. Thus, the nerve fibers are not caused by a header but by the amount of ball assumptions with the head, said Lipton and colleagues.

Headballs can cause memory and attention problems
Researchers at the University of Regensburg in a study conducted this year on the effects of headballs on the brain came to the conclusion that after 15 minutes of headball training in either the female or male study participants, the attention or memory were impaired. However, some women complained after the completed header training over headache, which was rated as an indication of possible impairments. The lack of attention or memory deficits in neuropsychological testing may be due only to the relatively limited number of headbands the subjects performed in the 15-minute workout. Earlier studies had already shown that headballs can certainly cause memory or attention problems. For this reason, the US researchers in the current study not only recorded the damage to the brain with the help of MRI, but also carried out neuropsychological tests to determine possible impairments. Michael Lipton and colleagues were able to prove that the amateur footballers who use the head more often (more than 1,000 head balls per year), actually performed significantly poorer in memory tests and coordination exercises compared to the footballers who rarely take the ball with their heads. The US researchers therefore caution amateur footballers of all ages to be cautious and Michael Lipton proposed at the RSNA Congress a kind of headball regulations that limits the number of headballs, especially in children. A similar regulation already existed in baseball, where the number of strokes in the US Children's League was limited to prevent shoulder injuries.

Professional footballer without brain damage in headballs
Professional footballers, on the other hand, do not seem to need adequate protection, as a Norwegian study from 2005 found no neuropsychological head injuries in 290 players in the Norwegian Bundesliga. Even professional footballers in positions that go along with many headballs, showed no deficit in attention or memory. According to the researchers, this could be because professional footballers know how to play a header and thus minimize the risk of damage to the brain. However, clear statements can not be made on the basis of the Norwegian study, and especially for amateur footballers and children, special caution is required in the case of headballs in view of possible damage in the brain. (Fp)

Image source: Anika Lehnert