Soccer heading may cause brain damage

Soccer heading may cause brain damage

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/29/soccer-heading-may-cause-brain-damage/

Research by Dr. Michael Lipton, Director of Radiology Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine was presented recently at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting. The research found that players that headed the soccer ball more than 1,300 times per year start to suffer traumatic brain damage.

The researchers recruited 39 amateur soccer players in their late twenties and early thirties who play regularly. The players filled out questionnaires to help them estimate the number of headers they make each year. They then compared the brain scans of players reporting lower numbers to players with higher numbers of headers. Some of the players were reporting 5,000 headers a year from frequent practicing.

The study used diffusion tensor imaging, a type of magnetic resonance, that measures the movement of water molecules in the white matter. In a healthy brain, the water moves uniformly through the white matter. The regions of the brain showing damage were responsible for attention, memory, planning, and visual and spatial reasoning.

Interestingly, the study showed the damage was from increased heading and not from concussions. The researchers would like to investigate if young children are more vulnerable to the effects of heading.

Heading seems like it would be painful. The study at least has a guideline of when damage starts to occur. So if you can refrain from heading more than 25 times per week, you should be able to avoid damage to your white matter.