To what extent should athletes suffer from life changing head injuries to win it all in their sport and for the entertainment of their audience? Over the last 50 years, awareness has been brought by athletes who were victims of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and the diseases under Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy(CTE).ALS progressively affects bodily function until the point when a victim can’t control their body.Lou Gehrig was the first relevant victim of ALS with his influential farewell speech giving exposure to the dangerous disease to America. His death revealed the dangers of ignorant treatment of concussion, which radically changed sports from the 1940’s to now.While the body is neutralized, the mind is fully functional, causing
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Gehrig was a hall of fame baseball player who has the record for most consecutive games played, which ironically led to his death. Gehrig would sometimes miss catching the ball at first base and the ball,thrown at an average of 75 miles per hour, would hit his head and knock him out to the floor. If it occurred today he would be told to rest and sit out, however Major League Baseball(MLB) was ignorant of the risks at the time and continued to let him play. It would periodically occur time again and to the point where his head was swollen enough that his head grew a hat size. His doctor diagnosed him with ALS in 1939, revealing a virtually unknown disease to the public and he died in his sleep on June 1941. It took the death of a sports figure to bring awareness that head trauma injuries in sports can be life threatening to the athletes. Ever since his death, concussion policies were placed on every professional sport to require them to rest after receiving concussions to lower the risk of the athletes being diagnosed with ALS or any other diseases that stem from traumatic brain …show more content…
In an extreme case, a blow to the head can cause a concussion, which causes the victim to be temporarily unconscious by the brain impacting the skull .The trauma builds up progressive degeneration of brain tissue causing toxic proteins such as Tau to be formed which is linked to CTE causing the victim to experience memory loss, aggression, depression and impaired judgement; these symptoms result in diseases such as Parkinson's, Dementia, Huntington's and Alzheimer's. CTE was first found in boxers and Muhammad Ali was one of them. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, it affects certain brain cells that give out dopamine allowing people to move, resulting in Muhammad Ali having uncontrollable shaking with his body.CTE should receive the same media and research attention as in a shocking research by Boston University, 96% of deceased NFL players died with CTE and in certain aspects CTE is worse than ALS. Imagine cooking then forgetting the stove was on causing a house fire, hanging out with family one day then having no memory of them the next day and having memory wiped out clean pertaining to family and friends. This is the life of a CTE victim, they require intense supervision by a guardian similar to ALS and professional sport leagues must provide pensions for the victims as well as research.
Gehrig was a hall of fame baseball player who has the record for most consecutive games played, which ironically led to his death. Gehrig would sometimes miss catching the ball at first base and the ball,thrown at an average of 75 miles per hour, would hit his head and knock him out to the floor. If it occurred today he would be told to rest and sit out, however Major League Baseball(MLB) was ignorant of the risks at the time and continued to let him play. It would periodically occur time again and to the point where his head was swollen enough that his head grew a hat size. His doctor diagnosed him with ALS in 1939, revealing a virtually unknown disease to the public and he died in his sleep on June 1941. It took the death of a sports figure to bring awareness that head trauma injuries in sports can be life threatening to the athletes. Ever since his death, concussion policies were placed on every professional sport to require them to rest after receiving concussions to lower the risk of the athletes being diagnosed with ALS or any other diseases that stem from traumatic brain …show more content…
In an extreme case, a blow to the head can cause a concussion, which causes the victim to be temporarily unconscious by the brain impacting the skull .The trauma builds up progressive degeneration of brain tissue causing toxic proteins such as Tau to be formed which is linked to CTE causing the victim to experience memory loss, aggression, depression and impaired judgement; these symptoms result in diseases such as Parkinson's, Dementia, Huntington's and Alzheimer's. CTE was first found in boxers and Muhammad Ali was one of them. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, it affects certain brain cells that give out dopamine allowing people to move, resulting in Muhammad Ali having uncontrollable shaking with his body.CTE should receive the same media and research attention as in a shocking research by Boston University, 96% of deceased NFL players died with CTE and in certain aspects CTE is worse than ALS. Imagine cooking then forgetting the stove was on causing a house fire, hanging out with family one day then having no memory of them the next day and having memory wiped out clean pertaining to family and friends. This is the life of a CTE victim, they require intense supervision by a guardian similar to ALS and professional sport leagues must provide pensions for the victims as well as research.