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Post by Admin on Sept 3, 2019 17:16:47 GMT -4
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Post by Promise Okereke on Sept 4, 2019 3:37:06 GMT -4
CTE and the NFL
CTE has being widely recognized with athletes who have succumbed to erratic behavior and memory loss following repeated concussions, yet the NFL and NFL team owners are still largely in denial towards this. Why?... probably to protect their multi-billion dollar industry and interests?... it could also be the fact that players & ex-players experiencing symptoms of this condition are scared to talk about it to avoid “looking weak”. CTE can only be diagnosed at autopsy, and symptoms though very similar could be mistaken for various mood disorders as there is presently no test to definitively diagnose this condition in a live patient. Therefore continuous awareness is what is needed, the more Ex-players are willing help with studies and talk about life after the NFL and symptoms they may face the closer we are to getting the definite answers we need. Even with the incomplete understanding of CTE at this moment the NFL should endeavor to make the game safer, because the love for the sport would make individuals play it neglecting the possible ramifications down the line, quite similar to how people still smoke cigarettes knowing it increases the risk of developing lung cancer.
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Post by Jose E Romero on Sept 4, 2019 9:00:05 GMT -4
Alabama boy, 14, allegedly kills 5 family members
Violence is an ongoing topic that has made many headlines in the past. The underlying reasons why people commit such atrocities is different in every case. Having said that, it could all be prevented if the red flags are identified or the person seeks help. Some laws could be enforced to help prevent people from acquiring firearms, making their end goal harder but, overall if the thoughts to hurt another person is present that wouldn’t matter. If we pay more attention to the behaviors people in our surroundings are exhibiting, maybe the corresponding interventions could be made helping prevent future violence.
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Post by Paola Laracuente on Sept 4, 2019 10:09:17 GMT -4
14 year old boy allegedly confesses to killing 5 family members in Alabama Home:
It is both very sad and confusing reading news like this one. One would ask why things like this happen? How could such a young mind murder his family? Assuming it was not self defense, there is no absolute logic to such action. I believe many factors can influence a childs behavior, one definitely being his environment. In a world where media is freely accessible to children, it is hard monitoring what your child is watching on TV, facebook, or instagram. Video games are often violent and can foster ruthlessness, cruelty and savagery on kids minds. I believe that there should be more attention directed towards detecting aggressive behavior in young children and attempting to correct such early on.
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Post by Kristy Martin on Sept 4, 2019 10:21:42 GMT -4
While chronic traumatic encephalopathy can cause suicidal thoughts, emotional instability, memory loss, impulsive behaviour, difficulty thinking and substance abuse, it does not explain Larry Johnson's aggressive behaviour as a child. Did the brain trauma over years cause Larry Johnson's symptoms or did it cause them to compound/exasperate some underlying psychiatric issues? We all know that aggression in young persons, as well as gun violence has been an ongoing problem in the USA. From children, like the 14 yr old boy in Alabama and school shootings that are all becoming too common. Who's responsible? Society, parents, brain injuries, genetics, government or all of the above? Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this.
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Post by Alexandra Salas on Sept 4, 2019 10:32:15 GMT -4
Alabama boy,14,Allegedly killed 5 family members
My first thought when I read this article was has this child ever presented with Conduct disorder-like features in the past? If so, was he ever evaluated? It even got me to question if he has never had this homicidal insticts, what made him kill his family members? Did something changed at home he wasn't hapy about? All of these inquiries are important to evaluate the "Alabama boy" in more depth to verify if this is a pattern of behavior he has been having and not being attended to or to have a more clear idea of what could have been going on in his mind when he murdered his family.
Larry Johnson and CTE
Larry Johnson's story serves as awareness to all people who play any kind of sports that involves head collision. His symptoms of suicidality, long and short memory loss, erratic and violent behavior, brief intense episodes of headaches, and considerations of violence toward others and himself could indeed indicate he might be suffering from CTE; however, he has been demonstrating aggressive behavior since young age. He started playing football at 9 years old, and he used to tackle "broken family" players from behind as a psycological strategy, showing no empathy. So, makes me think if he was having some kind of conduct disorder that was overlooked and develped into an antisocial disorder, or if he is a CTE patient. Or maybe football head injuries worsened his aggressive behavior by affecting his brain's frontal lobe behavior control area.
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Dwayne García Vélez
Guest
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Post by Dwayne García Vélez on Sept 4, 2019 22:16:00 GMT -4
Larry Johnson and CTE
To be an angel and a demon, a blessing and a curse; that is the constant struggle that Larry and many other athletes experience on a daily basis. I first became aware of CTE after watching the movie Concussion were Emmet Omalu, a Nigerian neuropathologist took a blow against Americas' sweetheart; The National Football League. I find it difficult to pinpoint if those that suffer from CTE are simply genetically predisposed and are just awaiting on some external trigger to actually develop the symptoms or are simply a result of constant head trauma alone. However, a common denominator in many of the victims of such disease is constant high speed head collisions, that being from NFL, soccer players, boxers, rugby, hockey and wrestling. I personally think that sports are a huge part of entertainment, and the NFL specially is the most important sport in all of the USA, being so important as to take place or take the place of Sunday's church day for many. Being a multibillion dollar industry I understand that it is here to stay, that many fans are entertained with NFL or hockey for that matter, but I also think that what is on the other side of the screen are human beings, just like you and me, and we need to take care of them, their wellbeing as well as their mental and physical health. I would come up with better gear and equipment that is able to dissipate high speed head and body collisions; I would also enforce different rules and regulations to protect the players, which are the reason we are being entertained in the first place. Most importantly, I would continue to raise awareness of CTE and mental health in general; which is a growing epidemic that has been under the radar for so long and continues to be overlooked; I would continue to encourage athletes, actors, celebrities and anyone with a platform were they can reach out to as many people as they can, to continue to raise awareness and break with the social stigmatization of mental health, and to encourage those people to seek help.
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Post by George Felemegos on Sept 4, 2019 22:38:42 GMT -4
CTE
Concussions have been a mainstay of many sports and has been turned a blind eye to by so many in the industry. There needs to be more reports and individuals coming forward and pushing the coaches and the teams management to make a change. Raising awareness through the public, starting with the younger generation, those that still have not been permanently harmed. If enough people are aware of the consequences of CTE, a change can be made and preventative measures can be put in place to avoid permanent and fatal damage to the brain.
Though some may try to derail the progress set forth by others, by trying to give other reasons for all the symptoms of CTE, it shouldn't get to the point where the research is disregarded. There are countless of studies that have proven a strong correlation between head injuries and detrimental damage to the brain, yet those with a stake in the industry will do whatever it takes to shut the researchers down. More players and more families need to come through and bring the non-scientific point of view into account, and that might help make a bigger change.
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Post by Wadia Hamed on Sept 5, 2019 0:11:23 GMT -4
A former football player with CTE and a 14-year-old boy who kills 5 of his family members, it may seem like two different cases, but both have the same problem. The experiences these two individuals encountered in their upbringing may have led to the circumstances they face today. While Larry Johnson’s CTE may be the result of his NFL career, did his aggressive behavior as a child make him more prone to the condition. Did his aggression and desire to be the toughest cause him to ignore symptoms of brain injury? Did he brush off headaches and dizziness during games so he would not appear weak? The same goes for the 14-year-old. Something must have had happened during his raising. It is hard to believe he woke up one day and without any provocation killed 5 of his family members. The point is that many symptoms and signs of mental illness appear at a young age, and with better education to the public, preventing these undesirable situations may have been possible.
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Post by Valerie Padilla on Sept 5, 2019 8:07:44 GMT -4
Why are there so many mass shootings in the US? Is the real issue related to mental health or to a need for fame? I believe that it is a combination of mental health problems and the desire of social media fame. Nowadays most teenagers are blinded by social media numbers and by that desire of making a name for themselves at any cost. I believe that this starts at home. Some parents don’t recognize the red flags or don’t want to seek help for their child. Some do it because of the stigma and some people don’t even know where to find help. We don’t have an option, we have to start paying attention to the red flags and start providing appropriate medical attention to these individuals because if we don’t we’ll live in a country were we are afraid of stepping out of our own house. (Yes, is also a gun control issue).
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Post by Clint Cox on Sept 5, 2019 17:30:27 GMT -4
I find CTE a very interesting topic. After doing a bit of reading, there has already been over 600 brains donated to a "Brain Bank" for scientific examination and over 360 were found to have CTE. Hopefully with more donations and discoveries we will learn to better understand this condition and find preventive measures as well as possible treatment. I do know that many high schools have begun hiring Athletic trainers to their sport departments. Maybe these ATs will be able to advocate for the students/players and this will decrease the amount of injuries occurring at such young ages. I also believe that this should be something that is better taught and explained to parents, coaches, as well as physician and nurses. Especially since sometimes parents tend to push their children to play sports when the child may not really want to.
As far as the article about the child shooting his parents, it will be interesting to learn whether there was a motive or a "cause" for the child's actions. I do agree though, sometimes people are just evil and not necessarily have a diagnosable illness.
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Post by Daniyal Saeed on Sept 5, 2019 22:18:23 GMT -4
Given the lack of information regarding this case, we can only speculate as to what motivated the boy's decision to kill his family. In cases of familicide, it is thought that motivating factors are somewhat different than other cases of murder. They may include the desire to stop the suffering of others (in cases of parents murdering children) or a desire to protect the family from some other greater perceived threat. The latter may point towards some extreme paranoia or psychosis. This situation seems unusual because it is the 14 year old carrying out the act rather than an adult, and this fact may hint at what motivations were present. This would be an interesting case to read more on as more details become available.
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Post by Phu Do on Sept 12, 2019 23:44:18 GMT -4
Public has become more aware of CTE thanks to the media. Every prospective NFL professionals now have become better informed of risks and benefits of what it takes to make it in the NFL. I hope awareness of CTE will lead to changes on the business side and on the field. There will be protective measures implemented in contracts and on the field.
However, I was just curious what would Larry Johnson and Aaron Hernandez have done differently with their lives had they known the possibility of CTE? Attempt to reach for stardom and wealth regardless or let their lives fade away?
Medical students find themselves in a similar situation because medicine, to a certain degree, is a high-stakes game too! Borrowing $300K with 7% capitalized interest, saving money in order to spend on… “hit-or-miss” studying materials and standardized exams full of teasing questions, learning close to a point of impossibility, being looked down upon by non-understanding patients and doctors who made lame comparison of them with other students who might have had 5-10 year of experience working in healthcare field or have physician parents, etc.
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Post by Royce Darbonne on Sept 19, 2019 11:05:30 GMT -4
After learning of CTE once Aaron Hernandez's autopsy was positive of such findings, this changed my perspective of the NFL and its related concussion protocol. I was happy to learn that they have a thorough concussion protocol to follow, in order to give these athletes adequate time to recover. However, these external signs of recovery are much different from changes that constsntly ocvur on the molecular level within the brain for extended periods after such trauma. This subject of matter made me question not only the impact this has on NFL players, but also college, high school, and pee-wee players. What impact does this have on youth that begin playing football at an early age?Especially with the brain still in its ages of maturity and creating new synapses each day.
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Post by Jazmine Dozier on Sept 30, 2019 11:29:11 GMT -4
I have never been a big football fan and the discovery of CTE has reinforced this. After the autopsy report of Aaron Hernandez revealed the extent of his CTE had caused his brain to age to that of someone twice his age, I realized just how dangerous this sport is. The extent of his brain damaged had caused him to develop the rage that could very well be responsible for the crime he committed, to which he was serving time in jail. But just how much of his CTE was responsible for his change in personality? One could argue all of it. Which is why more studies and research should be allocated to this disease. It may have been the cause of a person's ruined career and life.
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