Gunman’s NFL grudge highlights brain-damage risk for youths

In every autumn, more than a million young American American wears helmets and pillowed shoulder pads to play high school football. However, this year, a man who plays football in Southern California, after claiming that he suffered from a degenerative brain disease, youth athletes are concentrated on the risk of repeated head traumas.

After killing the quadruple and receiving his own life, Shane Tamura, a former university player in high schools in two Los Angeles, left a three -page suicide note, claiming that the authorities suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

“Football gave me CTE, Tam Tamura wrote. “Please examine my brain.”

It remains unclear whether the 27 -year -old child really suffers from CTE, because the disease can only be diagnosed only through brain dissection. However, the claim is an increasing concern about the health risks of contact sports in high school, especially in football.

CTE, which is caused by repeated head injuries, including jolts and non -passionate effects, tends to be diagnosed for ten years or longer. However, Chris Nowinski, the founding partner of Legacy Foundation, a non -profit group that supports four -year high school football, athletes and other people affected by CTE and tremors, may expose a player to CTE.

“The probability of having a CTE is associated with the number of seasons,” Nowinski said. “The best window we have, 45 former high school players who died before 30 and 31% of CTE.”

The issue of chronic brain damage and youth football is a heated issue in Southern California.

Gov. last year faced with political pressure. Gavin Newsom promised to veto any legislation trying to prohibit young people from fighting football in the state. Referring to the freedom to decide which sports sports of their children can participate in, Newsom said he would work with legislators to strengthen the security in the sport.

California currently Protocols for student athletes Semors or head trauma during a game. These measures include the removal and evaluation of the student from a licensed healthcare professional.

California Youth Football Law also limits full -contact applications for Youth Football Teams for more than 30 minutes a day, not more than two days a week. It also prohibits full -contact applications for out -of -season youth football teams.

While such laws try to limit the risk of injury, experts say the threat cannot be completely removed.

Brain injury rehabilitation chief at Harvard Medical School. Daniel Daneshvar said, “Indeed, what is more important than anything, how long you’ve played, how many strokes you have played for the head and the intensity of these hit to the head you are experiencing: It is the thing that someone plays the biggest role in the risk of someone.”

“So he can get a high school player? Yes, Da Daneshvar said.

According to the authorities, Tamura accused NFL according to the authorities despite the fact that he did not play football beyond high school.

Experts, players like Tamura listed online actor profiles While performing aggressive and defense roles, it is particularly at risk for CTE.

“In the online collection profile, he says that there is also a defensive back and clearly a very good return, which will have twice exposure,” he said.

Experts may take two to six months for scientists to determine if the armed man really suffers from the CTE. However, such an exam will require the permission of the family.

Daneshvar, high school athletes playing football required more work and treatment, he said.

Daneshvar, “3.97 million footballers in this country, college and professional level players are less than 4%, so we are talking about more than 96% of people play at some youth or high school levels,” he said.

“Although they are likely to be at a lower risk, based on playing less than a person playing at the Collegiate Pro level, their numbers are larger.”

One of the most prominent cases of a young footballer who developed severe CTE is Aaron Hernandez, a strict end of the National Football League, which played for the New England Patriots for three seasons until his arrest of the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2013.

Hernandez was convicted in 2015 and when he died at the age of 27, researchers at Boston University examined his brain and diagnosed with CTE stage 3 caused by repeated head trauma.

“When you see someone with a step 1 and a few microscopic lesions, it is difficult to comment on how it can affect their behavior,” Nowinski said. However, like Hernandez, a person with a stage of 3, “You can be sure that there is no the same person in 27 when he was 15.

The disease begins with small lesions in the prefrontal cortex along the brain stem that initiate a chain reaction that slowly kills brain cells along the brain body. Nowinski said that this was a reaction that could continue to spread after a long time after stopping.

If scientists determine that Tamura has CTE, Nowinski stressed that brain disease does not mean that it causes itself or others to commit a crime.

“It is clear that most people who develop CTE are not killers and that most people have involuntary psychiatric keeping, and that they do not have extraordinary psychiatric symptoms,” Nowinski said.

However, other forms of brain damage could affect behavior.

“CTE is not the whole story, N Iowinski said, at least 15 changes associated with traumatic brain damage in the brain and recurrent traumatic brain damage in the brain. “Even in the absence of CTE, it does not mean that brain damage cannot direct it. And in many cases, we think that non -CTE changes are deeper than CTE changes in young people who are young,”

Nowinski, CTE’s diagnosis is a complex process and involves examining more than 20 regions of the brain.

First, the brain is protected for two weeks in formalin. When taken, it is examined for atrophy or old contusion patterns. The brain is then sliced and very fine sections are put on glass slides and painted with antibodies that help to make abnormal proteins visible.

There is currently No treatment for CTEBut Daneshvar said it shouldn’t be seen as fatal.

“We have many patients with symptoms that may be associated with CTE pathology, and we can define and treat their symptoms and become better,” he said. “If someone has a serious depression, there are drugs and interventions that we can do to help manage their depression.”

As another high school football season approaches, California laws Parliamentary bill 708, This will allow young players to wear padded helmet plug -ins, sometimes worn by NFL players. Such equipment is currently prohibited.