CTE... If anyone can add to this or learn from it.

[SeattleFightFan]

If people have questions let me know. I am almost finished medical school and have a particular interest in CTE / TBIs because of MMA. I remember having a discussion about this with a neurologist, and basically the key point was that for the general population, the cardiovascular benefits outweigh the neurodegenerative risks. The second point was that rest after concussions and that minimizing contact in training are both essential.

can you elaborate on this please? thanks.

 

[grihenrumet]

The brain was not designed to be wobbled and rattled with that level of impact as even small impacts can cause a lot of damage down the road. I think there will be HUGE problems with MMA fighters in the future.

Yeah that's why fighters should be treated way better then they are by mma orgs especially the Ufc there's was the Ferttita's and Dan F White still with his fake snow and expensive lady boy hookers while Ufc fighters give their blood sweat and pain to the fans make's me sad and angry

 

[therealdope]

Seems the opposite is true

https://www.everydayhealth.com/neurology/ways-concussions-are-different-women-why/

https://www.wired.com/2012/05/women-teens-take-longer-to-recover-from-concussions/

https://consumer.healthday.com/cogn...r-time-recovering-from-concussion-698760.html

This I believe. thanks for posting.

 

[DMikeS4321]

I'm 25, and already on parkinsons medication,

my neuropsych doctor got me on parkinsons meds to help with my cognitive functions and mood last september.

I had a really serious concussion when i was 6 or 7 and then had another minor one when i was in a car accident, and about 4 to 6 from training, also got beaten up by a group of guys once,

when I was 21 and got an MRI, my neurologist said I had the brain of a 40 year old

I've got another memory test coming up so i'm interested to see if i've improved on the meds.

Good luck, my friend....

 

[DMikeS4321]

1/3 of fights equals one traumatic brain injury a year.

In Hockey they play so much more, so I'm wondering if that is taken into consideration.

Helmets now. The best judge would what hockey players from the 60's and 70' behave(ed) like as they got older. Gordy Howe seemed clear up to the end, Bobby Hull I haven't heard from. Those guys used to play without helmets. The damned goalies used to play without masks! Tough guys, but I don't remember any of them seeming dull or slurring their words.

 

[fightsnob]

If people have questions let me know. I am almost finished medical school and have a particular interest in CTE / TBIs because of MMA. I remember having a discussion about this with a neurologist, and basically the key point was that for the general population, the cardiovascular benefits outweigh the neurodegenerative risks. The second point was that rest after concussions and that minimizing contact in training are both essential.

Could you clarify if the location of the sustained injury/origin of the CTE matters? I have read that it doesn't, and this seems extremely counter-intuitive to me

 

[DMikeS4321]

That's just sad to watch man. It's kind of got me scared about my past playing football. I know I had several concussions. I hope only playing from 10-18 wasn't enough to do permanent damage.

Don't want to freak you out, but the eariler you start, the worse it can be. I got KTFO when I was a senior in high school, the guy just flat blind-sided me. I'm 65 now, and every time I have trouble with a name or a word, I think about it. I'd have killed that f*cker if I ever saw him again, but no such luck.

 

[AminoAcid]

so to you all bad things are equivalent right? if i go to bed without brushing my teeth now and again, thats just as bad for me as stepping in front of a train, since i'll die in the end anyway?

great philosophy man, you should start a cult. nah not a cult, maybe a podcast tho

Ahaha, what?


Fighters are aware of brain damage and the consequences. They know they won't live a long, healthy life, like somebody who works in a cubicle might. Instead of being well till around 65, they might start degrading at 50.

That's all I'm trying to say. Humans are animals, and animals scavange, hunt and get involved in confrontations - which often times leads to fighting.



But you are correct, when you say it wouldn't matter if you died from getting hit by a train, or from old age - it wouldn't change the context of the universe one bit, and that goes for everyone. You may however, improve safety regulations and as a result the deaths by people getting hit by trains may decrease.

 

[Judoka1532]

Don't want to freak you out, but the eariler you start, the worse it can be. I got KTFO when I was a senior in high school, the guy just flat blind-sided me. I'm 65 now, and every time I have trouble with a name or a word, I think about it. I'd have killed that f*cker if I ever saw him again, but no such luck.

Yea man I feel your pain. I've never been knocked out (knock on wood) but I've had football concussions bad enough to where I felt dizzy and had headaches for several days. I'm only 29, but it just seems head injury protocol wasn't really a thing until a few years ago. I hit helmet to helmet 4 days a week for about 5months for 4 years in high school. I do have trouble remembering some things (like taking out the trash, grabbing my food when I leave, etc). I hope I'm just adhd because this is something I don't even want to pretend I have. When I would have a head injury, it was almost discouraged to sit out so I frequently got back in as soon as possible and hit some more.

 

[OneManGang]

Sparring - the real danger. Two fights a year and a 150 days of sparring. Go light and go easy. In Thailand they seldom spar hard in the Muay Thai camps.

 

[Judoka1532]

Sparring - the real danger. Two fights a year and a 150 days of sparring. Go light and go easy. In Thailand they seldom spar hard in the Muay Thai camps.

I imagine it's hard to absorb all of striking by going 50-70% all the time which is why a lot of guys probably train so hard. But the costs of it all is dangerous. I'm kind of familiar with combat culture too and sometimes it's hard to train not at 100%. But i'm with you, go easier on the head strikes.

 

[Fstepp]

The brain was not designed to be wobbled and rattled with that level of impact as even small impacts can cause a lot of damage down the road. I think there will be HUGE problems with MMA fighters in the future.

I for one feel for Justin Gaetje and Diego Sanchez in the future.

 

[therealdope]

Helmets now. The best judge would what hockey players from the 60's and 70' behave(ed) like as they got older. Gordy Howe seemed clear up to the end, Bobby Hull I haven't heard from. Those guys used to play without helmets. The damned goalies used to play without masks! Tough guys, but I don't remember any of them seeming dull or slurring their words.

The size and speed of current NHLers are incomparable to those of the Hull/Howe era. The amount of hard hitting modern players face is enormous. You don't have to look very far for young guys in the NHL who were found to have CTE. Derek Boogerd had one of the worst cases IIRC.

They think they've diagnosed 4 college players from one school with CTE.

https://www.tsn.ca/four-junior-hockey-players-diagnosed-with-cte-researcher-says-1.730445

 

[Sano]

I for one feel for Justin Gaetje and Diego Sanchez in the future.

The entire old guard that used to do several fights in a day, and generally just getting brutalised will be messed up in a few years.

Other than that, Nick, Nate, Diego, Lauzon, Gaethje, Henderson, Shogun, JDS, Hunt, Bigfoot, Nog's and a lot of the guys we don't hear about that much anymore (mid level guys) will probably be pretty fucked too. Hope not though.

 

[fightfan84]

my buddy fought in the ufc was lined up for a title shot and got a concussion in training, hes still a bit fucked up from it. Hes back to running an MMA gym now, but the whole experience and how the ufc treated him kind of turned him off of it all

 

[Alphaboy]

Are we all enablers for watching MMA?

 

[dragomanrd]

I feel like if a fighter gets knocked out or suffered a hell of a beating they should stay away from any contact training for at least a year.
Ik it's pretty much impossible for the sport and it will suck bad for us, fans.
But I do really worry about their lives.

I'm no doctor though, so, what's your opinion in this subject?

I think it's important to make a distinction between CTE and concussions / TBIs. When a fighter gets knocked out or gets rocked, this is more suggestive of a concussion. Undoubtably, this contributes to CTE, however the "Return to Play" guidelines would probably be your best bet on when to return to training. It generally proceeds stepwise in the following order. To proceed to the next step you must be asymptomatic, while becoming symptomatic puts you back a step.

1 - Rest and daily activities
2 - Light aerobic exercise
3 - Sport specific exercise with no head contact (running, skating, etc.)
4 - Non contact drills with resistance training (hitting pads, hitting the bag, drilling BJJ moves)
5 - Full contact practice
6 - Return to competition

To comment on how long you should wait depends entirely on the person and severity of the injury. For someone with their first mild concussion, 2 weeks might be appropriate. For a professional fighter whose had multiple concussions, it should probably be on the order of 6 months. Generally fighters too short breaks between fights, which means their breaks between training camps is even shorter. Recently, Frankie Edgar comes to mind...

With respect to CTE, the number of professional bouts (typically more than 20) appears to be more important than the number of "knockouts". This is basically because it is sub-concussive blows doing the accumulative damage. For example, I wouldn't be surprised at someone like GSP, whose only had one KO loss and relatively few knockdowns but logged a lot of octagon time, to have CTE later on.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[P0NYBOY]

I feel there is "CTE mania" and that all brain injuries are being diagnosed as "CTE".

I don't think people are being exacting enough in the diagnosis.

 

[WaylonMercy5150]

 

[silvasurfer5253]

yeah MMA's a young sport so its not as familiar a subject as it is in boxing where its more of a known quantity. Expect to see it A LOT in the next 5-10 years when the shit really starts showing up in guys we been watching the past decade. Gonna be brutal, MMA is waaay more rough than boxing for the most part.

Spot on man. It’s going to be crazy, and the athletes just keep getting better. I think it’s already to the point, that competing at the highest level almost guarantees CTE