WEBVTT - What's the Deal with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.080 Make your business official with Google and square Space. When 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.120 you create a custom domain and a beautiful business website 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:09.320 with Squarespace, you receive a free year of business email 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.840 and professional tools from Google. It's the simplest way to 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:17.040 look professional online. Visit squarespace dot com slash Google to 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.479 start your free trial. Use the offer code works w 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:22.919 O r k S for ten percent off your first 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.760 purchase Google and square Space Make it Professional, Make it Beautiful. 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.440 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:40.120 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:44.040 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Cherry. So this 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.360 is stuff you should know breaking news from two thousand 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.880 fifteen editions. No, this is still very relevant to sure it. 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.160 It definitely is. But I mean, like at the end 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.160 of last year the beginning of this year, it's certainly 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.600 made the rounds a little more. While with the um 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:05.160 movie Concussion, which is apparently like roundly criticized by everyone 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.399 involved in the study of CTE, I didn't see it 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.320 just because you know, it didn't look that good at 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.520 me as a movie. Well, apparently I really like did 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:17.000 a lot of oversimplification. It came to a lot of 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.280 conclusions about the science that haven't been reached yet and 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:24.559 may never be reached. That it was just kind of like, um. 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.920 But there are some really good documentaries out there, and 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.360 I want to tout one just right off the bat. 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.240 There's a two hour front line on this, a League 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.080 of Denial. Did you see it? Uh? No, Man, it 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.360 is good. I'm not quite sure when it's from, maybe 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.560 too sometime between two thousand and twelve and two thousand 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.080 and fourteen or fifteen, but it was based on this 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.840 book by the Fana brothers who wrote League of Denial, 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.560 the book UM, and it was just about their investigation 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:57.080 into what the NFL knew or didn't know about concussions 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:01.680 possibly leading to this this condition CTE. We can just 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.800 call it CT right well, practicing you say it once, 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.160 I'm definitely going to screw it, and then we'll just 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.160 say CT after that. Okay, the condition is called chronic 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:18.400 traumatic encephalopathy. Yeah, great, ta yeah CT Jumping on that 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.760 grenade for the team. Yeah, we've known about it for 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.160 a while. It's gone by other names farther back in 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.280 in the medical literature. Sure, and we did our own 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:34.399 uh in two thousand nine. Long time ago, we did 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.160 one on concussions called do concussions called early Death? Yeah, 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.120 remember that one, Um, And I don't even think we 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:43.680 I don't even know ct was on a radar at 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.160 the time. I don't know if maybe we might have 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.800 mentioned it. It started to really seep out into the 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.920 news around two thousand nine, so we probably mentioned it, 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.800 but I don't think we understood it or recognized it 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.720 like we do now, meaning like you and me. Yeah, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:07.720 just two yokels behind the mica. Uh so you didn't 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.640 mention the other names. Um. Back in the day, In fact, 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:15.200 we can go all the way back, shockingly to there 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:20.520 was a dude named Dr Harrison T. Martland and uh 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.680 he published an article in the Journal of American Medical 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.160 Journal of the American Medical Association, and he you know, 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.800 you've heard the term punch drunk in relation to boxers 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.280 like outside the ring, Like you know, he as as 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.200 big Ray, he's a little punch drunk. He was a boxer. 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:40.920 What are he was talking about, although he didn't know 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:46.600 it at the time, was CTE. Which is it? It's 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:51.000 really remarkable. It resembles if you had no idea and 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.080 you were just a doctor looking at at a brain 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.280 post more to my guess, let's really know. The way 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.200 to say it is in order to unfortunately, right now, 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.440 in order to study CT, you have to look at 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.560 a brain under a microscope, right, which is the only 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.200 I can't really do while the person is alive. So 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.040 if you didn't know any better, you would see a 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.840 brain and say, well, this person has a had had 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:19.760 a degenerative illness in the brain, neurological illness, and I 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:24.279 would say Parkinson's and dementia. It's all here. But the 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.320 striking thing is is it's not an illness. It is 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.960 literally from repeated blows to the head. Yeah, it's not 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.080 a disease causing or it's not caused by disease, right. Yeah, 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:40.000 it's a like a traumatic brain injury repeated. But some 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:45.040 people put themselves into a situation over and over again 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.839 where they're going to be exposed to the possibility of 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.600 traumatic brain injury, right, and chief among them as boxers. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.640 And this doctor Martlin was basically describing this in the 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.840 medical literature from what I understand, just the symptoms, right. 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.039 I don't think he was king at brains, was he? No? 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:05.400 I don't think he was or trying to identify. I 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:14.159 mean he called it punch drunk syndrome, but dementia pugilistic. Yeah, 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.440 it's uh, what he was looking at was CT, and 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:19.240 we now we now know that, we know we know 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.640 that now. But again he was just kind of describing 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.440 the symptoms. It wasn't until I think the science got 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.360 a little further that they really started to look at 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:33.240 brains and we understood the boxers were at risk for 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.799 what we understand now is CT. Yeah, they reached middle age, 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:40.000 they would be like a little more confused, maybe get 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:45.120 dizzy when they're walking around, be unsteady, maybe just slower 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:49.200 generally moving around, and they like, yeah, I got punched drunk. 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.120 Just basically just think of Rocky from Rocky four on 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:59.760 m I get them confused after Rocky three. So Rocky 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.560 three was Mr T. It was Rocky to Mr T. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.240 Rocky three, Rockie two was the rematch with Apollo, Okay, well, 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.839 then Rocky four was with Ivan Drago and Bridgete Nielsen. 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.880 I didn't even really all the way through. I don't 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:19.040 think what you didn't know? That's like lesser Rocky to me. 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.039 Uh well that was that was when I was running 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.640 around in the woods like shooting Rooskis with my fake 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.720 m c M sixteen as like as seven eight year old, 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.200 So this would have been like right there for me. Well, 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.119 and it was big time. I saw in the theater. 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:34.880 I'm sure, like I saw it right when it came 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.520 out on video. I'm sure. I talked to my parents 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.360 and he getting show time so I could see it. 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:44.680 He had burn Comie burn T shirts on. And then 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:46.680 the iron curtain fell and I was like, wait a minute, 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.000 none of the stuff that we were told holds up. Yeah, 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.200 people just trying to get by over there exactly just 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:58.360 like us. So where were we, Well, this is where 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.760 we were talking. I think it's really important to say that, yes, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:05.000 people knew there was such a thing as CTE. They 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.480 called it punch drunk syndrome for a very long time. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.880 But everybody said, boxers know that this is going on 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:15.360 there and millions exactly, they're getting paid millions of dollars 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:16.880 to do this, They're doing it on their own accord. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.960 And this is such a small tranche of the population 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.480 of the world. Really who cares and it we should 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.800 definitely say the medical establishment, especially in the United States, 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.440 that we care. We have been calling on the Boxing 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:37.800 Association and the government to ban boxing since the fifties, right, 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.640 But for the most part, America said, well, we love 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.040 a good fight, so we're not gonna go along with that. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.680 You guys keep boxing, And that was the way it 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:50.720 went until two thousand two. And ladies are boxing now, Yes, 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:56.120 they are bringing ct just like many. Uh yeah, I 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.640 mean that's not super new. But um, I think female 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.400 boxing has grown a lot. I think especially since Muhammad 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.080 Ali's daughter got into it. Oh yeah, she definitely brought 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.280 a lot of attent tremendously. Do you remember when the 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:13.040 Boxing Association tried to make female boxers wear skirts when 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:18.120 they boxed? Did they really? Interesting? The whole thing was 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.720 just like an onion set up, but it was real life, 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.720 and it was first of all, making any women in 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.640 any profession wear a skirt these days, it's kind of 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.200 untoward if you ask me. But secondly, choose the one 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.920 profession where you shouldn't attempt to tell a woman to 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.920 wear anything, let alone a skirt she doesn't want to. 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.600 Female boxing is the first one that comes to mind. 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.560 It's very interesting. Is a female boxing or women's boxing? 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:50.960 Probably both? All right? Okay, alright, So uh, two thousand two. 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.520 Let's flash forward a little bit, uh into the more 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.280 modern era. That was a neuropathologist still is name Bennett 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.400 um Malu. Who That's who Will Smith played, right, Wasn't 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.320 that about him? Right? Okay, I guess I should see that. 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.520 I'm not a big Will Smith fan. You should just 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.800 watch a fan of bad biopics. Watch The League of Denial. 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.600 There's he's interviewed extensively in it. Yeah, he's better. He 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:21.360 does a better Omalu than does So there was a 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.959 there was a man center for the Pittsburgh Steelers Hall 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.600 of Famer Mike Webster died of a heart attack at 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.640 age fifty, and he wound up uh in the care 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.920 of Amaliu for his autopsy, and he started looking around 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.120 the brain and said, there's something going on here that's 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:42.480 really weird. Uh. If you remember when we did um 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.720 well the concussions, then then what was the other one 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:50.440 that Alzheimer's recently where we talked about, okay, dementia, where 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.760 we talked about beta am Lloyd proteins. Yeah, so they 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:56.840 build up as like a plaque, right, Yeah, they build 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:59.040 up like a plaque and then these towel proteins come 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.440 along after and really do a lot of damage. He 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:06.079 noticed that Webster had a lot of these towel proteins, 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.400 but not the former beta amloid proteins, which is really weird. 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.480 It was weird in that he when he opened up 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.960 Mike Webster's um skull and started poking around his brain 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.880 like Mike Webster had been showing all of the classic 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:25.320 symptoms of Alzheimer's in dementia for many, many years now, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.560 long before he died of a heart attack at age fifty, 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.959 which is pretty young. So Amalu was like, surely I'm 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.040 going to find these beta amaloids, and he didn't, so 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.920 that the the lack of beta amloids made him dig 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.000 a little deeper and really start looking at Mike Webster's brain, 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.640 and that's when he found the tow proteins. And he's like, 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.000 what are these doing here? Especially by themselves? Well, yeah, 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.719 and that's like I said earlier, he everyone thought he 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.679 had Alzheimer's in dementia, but he just had dementia, which 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.800 is not the way it's supposed to work. So it 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.360 was a startling find, to say the least. And this 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:04.120 was I believe the first NFL player a former player 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.800 that is that had this disease and was diagnosed with it. Yeah, 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.800 morm Malo, who is I think like the forensic pathologist 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:17.520 with Pittsburgh Um diagnosed him with chronic traumatic and cephalic 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:21.280 and cephalopathy the like you said, the first football player 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:25.280 ever to have this, this diagnosis. Up to this point, 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.280 it had been boxers. Had he been a boxer, it 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.080 would have made zero news whatsoever. But the fact that 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.560 he was a football player, this is kind of weird. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.920 And well, we'll talk about why this was so strange 0:11:34.920 --> 0:12:01.240 and weird right after this, So, Chuck, we were saying 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:06.360 that Bennett omalu Um diagnosed Mike Webster with CTE and 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.320 when he did, it made huge waves. And the reason 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.160 why it was because Mike Webster was the first NFL 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.920 player to be diagnosed with this. But for a very 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.160 long time, for the pretty much the last decade, the 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:22.120 NFL had been fighting off this idea that concussions were 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.280 worse than just having like your bell wrong or whatever 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.760 cute thing you want to call, coming close to losing 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.600 consciousness because the acceleration of your brain smacking against the 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:38.520 inside of your skull has cognitively disabled you temporarily. That's right. Uh. 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:43.040 The NFL, Oh boy, this is we're getting into it now. 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:48.800 They have they have a long checkered history with trying 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:53.080 to protect players from injury and trying to protect their 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:59.560 own interests as either a a massive revenue generating UH 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:04.480 core operation and UH one that wants to keep its 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.720 players safe, but also not beyond that money well and 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.360 not beyond the hook for their injuries. Like oh yeah, yeah, 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:13.839 you're playing the NFL. You know what you're getting into. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.120 There's chances are And this was long. I mean everyone 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.280 always knew like, yeah, when you get old, you're you're 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:22.199 not able to walk that well, you're gonna have creaky 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.480 knees and a bad back and all the stuff that 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.199 comes along with getting you know, hammered on the field 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.880 each and every week. But they always did try to 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.400 sort of downplay this concussion. And it's only in recent 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.960 years that they've really made official a protocol for dealing 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.839 with concussions. Yes, it was always like, I want to 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:42.480 get back in the game, coach, and they're like, how 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:44.280 do you feel. You know where you are? Yeah, yeah, 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.400 I'm good, all right, get back in there, right right, um. 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.840 And it was a direct result of this initial diagnosis 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.840 from two two of CTE but by Bennett Omaliu of 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.360 Mike Webster right that all of this change we're seeing 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.600 over the last couple of seasons, which apparently having like 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.640 like great effects already as it comes from this moment 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:10.760 in time. Right and part and parcel of that diagnosis 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.360 was also a lawyer that had been hired by Mike 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.240 Webster or his family either right before he died or 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:21.040 right after he died, and Um the lawyer was trying 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.560 to build a case to get Mike Webster disability from 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:30.520 the NFL's um Disability Committee, and the disability Committee made 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.120 a decision based on the science that was presented to 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.760 them that said, yes, without a doubt, Mike Webster had 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:44.000 severe brain damage and cognitive impairment from his years of 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.040 playing football. And then it was the only time they'd 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.240 admitted it. They've been putting it off for years, and 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.440 it got buried. And from that moment on, the NFL 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:57.480 completely changed its its course and just denied, denied, deny 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.920 um and that was the state of affairs there for 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.560 for a while. But as that was going on, simultaneously 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.480 been in Omalu, who has been UM at times very 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.000 much vilified. He's put his foot in his mouth a lot. 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.000 He speaks publicly out of line. UM. He said once 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.000 that UM he would bet his medical license that O. J. 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:22.600 Simpson had ct has CTE UM and the implication being 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.760 that that's why he killed Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown. 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.440 I guess I should say allegedly. I don't know what 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.400 what what do you say if somebody gets off for 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.840 murder in a criminal trial but is convicted of it 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.800 in a civil trial. I don't know at any rate, 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.480 just just saying stuff that like a man of science 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.120 shouldn't do. But the thing is is, when you look 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:50.560 at the work that he's doing, his actual work is unimpeachable. 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.080 His public persona is kind of lacking. But at the 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.360 same time, the work he's doing stands up. And there's 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.600 plenty of other people who have kind kind of come 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.120 and joined the cause or we're already researching ct who 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.760 have really kind of redoubled their efforts to try to 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.240 figure out what's going on here. Yeah, Chiefly there's a 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:15.760 neuropathologist named Ann McKee that has joined up UH with him, 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.840 and they're they're sort of the main face of this 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.560 uh CTE campaign. At this point, she's in League of 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.240 denial as well. There there's just really interesting people because 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.800 they're very much dedicated to getting to the bottom of it. Yeah. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.040 And one of the big reasons why this is a 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.240 bigger deal than when you know, we're talking about boxing, 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:37.800 and you know how many people boxing is pretty niche sport, 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.360 but a lot of kids play football. And what they're 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:46.280 finding out is that children especially are at risk because 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.160 they think and this is this is all they said. 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.200 They're in the toddler phase of CTE research right now, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.800 so they're really learning a lot um like as we speak. 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.680 But um, one thing they think is a big factor 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:04.159 is the length of the neck two. Yeah, to brace 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.320 and deal with these hits to the head. Um. Obviously 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:09.040 that doesn't mean like, oh, you got a strong neck, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:10.720 you can just get hit in the head over and 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.840 over and over. But they're saying for kids, especially these 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.800 uh young boys and even girls now who play football 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:22.160 as like early teenagers, that's super dangerous. There's also there's 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.000 a brain research name Robert Cantu from Boston University UM, 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.440 and he was saying that in addition to the neck 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.880 being less developed, the mile in sheaths, which UM UH 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.439 protect our nerve endings are nerves, including our neurons in 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:42.000 our brain UM are less developed, so there's less protection UM. 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.520 And there's other factors to like, uh, girls are more 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:52.520 susceptible to uh cte than boys, and like if you're dehydrated, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.080 you're more likely to develop cte UM. There's a lot 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.360 of different risk factors, but it does seem to be 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.199 ages playing one of them. And the problem is is 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.240 if you send a kid in fourteen year old into 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.760 a game and they get a concussion where they and 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.080 they keep playing. Yeah, they may stop playing football after 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:17.480 high school, but decades later they could conceivably develop ct 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:22.800 They could develop ct without ever having officially had a concussion. Right. 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.800 You know they're doing these tests now with these uh 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:30.560 these sensors inside helmets, and you don't necessarily have to 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:35.760 have a concussion. It's all about this sustained abuse over time. Right. 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.679 So there's and it's not just football, no, it's not. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.639 There's a bunch of other uh activities I guess you 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:45.679 could say, including sports, but non sports too, activities like 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.639 getting in car crashes over and overhere to get well true, 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:53.600 but you know, obviously UH hockey rugby, wrestling, Uh, soccer, 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.439 all those header balls they say can have an impact 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.600 over time. Yeah. As a matter of fact, soccer internationally 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.040 and nationally is starting to um come under more scrutiny 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.040 because they're realizing, like, yeah, you don't have to get 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:12.919 a concussion to to develop CTE. Horseback riding the list, uh, lacrosse, skiing, Um, 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.400 most of those are sports based. But anything where you 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.720 are getting that sort of impact repeatedly over time is 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.960 gonna It's just it's it builds that damage up. It 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.840 seems like it's not like once you get over that concussion, 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.320 then you're back at square zero exactly. That's exactly right. 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:36.200 It's progressive, right. So uh, and what they're finding based 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.400 on some of these tests, like you were saying, there's 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:42.720 something called subconcussive events to where say like you're heading 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.720 a soccer ball, but you don't see stars afterward, or 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.560 you um are fine with bright lights. There's there's no 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:54.199 symptoms of a concussion. But as far as your brains concerned, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.960 it just took an impact and it as these things 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.800 accumulate a little subconcussive e, especially when an actual concussion 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.840 is thrown in or multiple concussions. That's what they think 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.560 is the mechanism behind the development of ct Alright, so 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.680 symptom wise, Um, if you're talking to the average everyday person, 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:20.040 they want to understand what it's like. Uh, there are 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.720 different stages their three. In stage one, Um, you're gonna 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.399 be dizzy and have headaches, and also, uh, your attention 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.000 span is gonna be cut down. Um, you're gonna have 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:34.800 that general difficulty concentrating on things. You're gonna be disoriented. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.639 You might be a little more aggressive and have that 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.320 impulse control, which and I know Amala probably shouldn't be 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.040 shooting his mouth off about o J, but um, I 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.119 mean that's possible. Like there have been all sorts of situations. 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.800 Real these NFL players of like their families are saying, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.800 you know, they're not the same person. They're aggressive, they're 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:56.919 getting in fights now which they never used to do. 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:02.320 They're depressed or suicidal. So uh, oddly they're not showing 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.280 I don't think they were conclusively showing that link yet, 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.760 but no, it seems to sort of be obvious, and 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:12.800 in fact we should say that there there has not 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:19.760 been a conclusive link between repetitive head injuries from sports, 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:24.960 from contact sports and c t E. The science is 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:30.240 still being worked out, and of course again there's never anything, 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.240 there's never there's no such thing as settled science. So 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:35.720 if that's what you're looking for, it's never gonna get there. 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.119 But what they're starting to do now is a mass 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:42.840 enough of a medical literature, um that that yes, the 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:48.200 the link will be conclusive basically all right, so second stage, um, 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.360 in addition to all the first your behavior might get 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:55.200 even more unpredictable and your memories even worse. And then 0:21:55.240 --> 0:22:01.080 finally stage three. Uh, all those former stages us even 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:05.800 slower movements, literally staggering, trembling, deafness, maybe you can't even 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.360 speak correctly. Yeah, the final stage is very sad. Right. 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:13.879 And so if you are a doctor and somebody comes 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.800 to you presenting like this, you're gonna be like, wow, 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.960 this this guy's got Alzheimer's, or you would have before 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:21.719 now you'd probably be a lot more likely to be 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:26.399 like my CTE. But we can't check. No, no, you can't. 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:28.480 And let's go a little into the brain. The only 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:33.600 way that you can diagnose ct E is postmortem, like 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:37.119 you're saying, right, um, And what they're looking for is 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.840 this accumulation of TOW proteins. And again they're not a 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.439 certain how this is going on, but this is what 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.720 they think, especially when they start to include research on 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.920 tow proteins from Alzheimer's. So, normally, in your brain, tow 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:56.280 proteins um give structure to what they're called microtubules, which 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:59.160 are inside the neurons and they basically act as little 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:04.040 transport chain insidety to your little brain cells. Right. Well, 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:10.040 these tow proteins um strengthen and de strengthen these microtubules 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.280 depending on whether the brain needs those microtubules at any time. 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:20.760 And there's some type of event called hyper phosphoration in 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:26.480 which the tow proteins actually become destabilized. They're they're weakened, 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.160 which is normal, but they're not able to regain strength, 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.320 which is also normal. So as they become weaker and 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:35.720 weaker and weaker, these TOW proteins actually kind of break 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:39.960 up and they start to accumulate within the neuron. They 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:43.720 accumulate in the accent which is where a neuron transmits 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:46.919 information there in the dendrites eventually, which is where it 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:49.639 receives information, and then they start to accumulate even in 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:52.040 just the neural body, and with all of this starting 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:55.240 to clog up, the neuron itself dies And when enough 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:58.480 of this stuff happens, a whole region of the brain 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:01.280 can start to die off, been wither. And that's when 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:04.720 you have all of these symptoms that are basically identical 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:10.199 to Alzheimer's. The the key is this there they have 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:15.560 associated the presence of this in former football players who 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:18.280 are known to have gotten concussions, who are known to 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:21.720 have gotten all of these subconcussive events on a daily basis, 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:27.000 with um what they're seeing in these same deed football 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:29.800 players brains. And at this point all they can do 0:24:29.880 --> 0:24:32.879 is say, yeah, man, like, of course this caused this, 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:36.119 but they can't say exactly how it's causing it. They 0:24:36.119 --> 0:24:38.560 haven't reached that point yet. All right, Well, let's take 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:40.200 a break and we'll come back and talk a little 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:42.639 bit more about where this is all headed and what 0:24:42.680 --> 0:25:09.600 the NFL is doing about it. Alright, So, one of 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:12.680 the big problems with c T e UM is that 0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:15.920