Doubts raised over theory heading ball raises players’ dementia risk
A LEADING expert has claimed fears that footballers and rugby players are at greater risk of dementia are probably misplaced.
Dr Alan Carson, consultant Neuropsychiatrist at Edinburgh University’s Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, says the claims are not confirmed by science.
He has challenged the theory that repeatedly heading a football or the hits encountered in rugby can increase the likelihood of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Earlier this month, the revelation by the wife of former Celtic captain Billy McNeill, 77, that he is suffering from dementia, heightened theories the illness may be linked to his footballing career.
Liz McNeill said that he was diagnosed with the condition seven years ago and now struggles to speak.
In February, a research team at University College London published their findings after studying the brains of six footballers who who had developed dementia.
The post-mortems showed all six had Alzheimer’s, while four showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is caused by repeated blows to the head.
Dr Carson believes the idea of link between the sports and the conditions has spread in recent years because: “much of the debate has been played out in mainstream media rather than scientific journals”. He continued: “It is unlikely that concussion is a risk for neurodegenerative disease.
“Or, in the worst-case scenario, if it does increase the risk, it does so only marginally.”
Symptoms of concussion include loss of memory or consciousness and disturbance in vision, often referred to as people “seeing stars”.
The issue, which has recently come to prominence in UK sport, has become a major issue in American sports, notably the highcontact American Football with a series of retired stars being diagnosed or suffering from brain conditions.
Dr Carson said the thought that heading a ball may cause dementia is unhelpful and stated one in five people over the age of 75 have dementia and most “have never headed a football in their lives”. Tom McMillan, professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Glasgow, said: “Whatever course you take in life, there’s going to be risk associated with it.
“What we would like science to do is to be able to tell people what the risk is and we can’t do that yet in this case.”
Fraser Wishart, of the Professional Footballers’ Association Scotland, said: “Opinion is very much divided on this issue but what it clearly shows is that further wide-ranging medical research into the subject of dementia and football is required and we would be highly supportive of this.”