How CTE Affects the Brain
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In CTE, a protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spread throughout the brain, killing brain cells. CTE has been seen in people as young as 17, but symptoms do not generally begin to appear until years after the onset of head impacts ( Ann McKee 1). Everyone that has CTE has something in common, Repeated hits to the skull that shakes the brain and Tau slowly forms over time. In the early stages of CTE Tau begins to form on the brain in small spots and then eventually kills brain cells. In stage 2 of CTE Tau begins to form on the top frontal lobes, and the …show more content…
He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, class of 1997. When in the middle of the offensive line blocking for the Quarterback he took a massive amount of hits to the helmet. Over time the hits built up and he started to show symptoms. After his career was over in 1990 he struggled with concentrating, and frequent memory loss. Webster did an interview with Gene Atkins and you can tell he is showing all of the symptoms. After his death in 2002 the medical field erupted over what they saw is now called chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.
CTE was discovered in 2002 after the death of Football Hall of Fame center Mike Webster was diagnosed, and is a brain disorder due to repeated head trauma. The only way to avoid it is to limit head contact in sports, military, or abuse victims. CTE is a serious issue that is being dealt with at this moment companies are designing helmets to reduce the force of impacts to the head. Hopefully this disease can be solved as it is a slow killer and is a struggle to deal with if you are
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In CTE, a protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spread throughout the brain, killing brain cells. CTE has been seen in people as young as 17, but symptoms do not generally begin to appear until years after the onset of head impacts ( Ann McKee 1). Everyone that has CTE has something in common, Repeated hits to the skull that shakes the brain and Tau slowly forms over time. In the early stages of CTE Tau begins to form on the brain in small spots and then eventually kills brain cells. In stage 2 of CTE Tau begins to form on the top frontal lobes, and the …show more content…
He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, class of 1997. When in the middle of the offensive line blocking for the Quarterback he took a massive amount of hits to the helmet. Over time the hits built up and he started to show symptoms. After his career was over in 1990 he struggled with concentrating, and frequent memory loss. Webster did an interview with Gene Atkins and you can tell he is showing all of the symptoms. After his death in 2002 the medical field erupted over what they saw is now called chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.
CTE was discovered in 2002 after the death of Football Hall of Fame center Mike Webster was diagnosed, and is a brain disorder due to repeated head trauma. The only way to avoid it is to limit head contact in sports, military, or abuse victims. CTE is a serious issue that is being dealt with at this moment companies are designing helmets to reduce the force of impacts to the head. Hopefully this disease can be solved as it is a slow killer and is a struggle to deal with if you are