Sports and dementia

I was watching the film “Ali” one night, and became inspired to do a bit of research on sports injuries and dementias. You can read my first post on “Ali” and boxer’s dementia here.

Do Sports Concussions Increase the Risk of Alzheimer’s

US Against Alzheimer’s September, 2013 podcast

A discussion with Dr. Mark Burns, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Laboratory for Brain Injury and Dementia at Georgetown University, about his research on the link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer’s disease. This call was made possible by the generous support of Shawn Taylor, board member of USAgainstAlzheimer’s Network.

“So what does all this mean for us? Right now what we have learned is that we’re beginning to understand why a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury might be increasing your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

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Float like a butterfly……Head injury and dementias

So, the film “Ali” is on TV and it has me thinking about the (Parkinson syndrome) dementia he would later develop as a result of his boxing career (and likely mixed with dementia pugilistica – boxer’s dementia).

And I started thinking about that line that someone says if they look like they got a beating, “yeah, but you should see the other guy!” And I started to wonder, what did happen with Ali’s opponents?

I had to look it up, because I don’t know that much about boxing. I like these little research projects. Sure, I missed half of the movie, but I think I learned a lot more!

So here’s what I found about Ali’s opponents in under an hour:

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