What Even Is CTE and Should You Be Worried?

Head injuries are something you have probably seen very frequently in sports like American football or boxing, and people often talk about the long-term effects of these head injuries and mention CTE. But what exactly is CTE, and is it something everyone should be worried about?

What is CTE?

CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which is a brain condition linked to repeated head impacts over time. CTE is considered a neurodegenerative disease, which means it causes gradual damage to brain cells. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CTE is associated with long-term exposure to impacts to the head. These impacts are commonly seen in sports like hockey, boxing, and American football, but could also result in other situations that also involve repeated injuries to the head, like military personnel or victims of physical abuse.

How Does CTE Happen?

Unlike a single concussion, the important thing that is emphasized with CTE is the repeated hits to the head, even if those hits don’t cause noticeable symptoms at the time. Over time, these impacts can lead to a buildup of abnormal proteins in the brain. This buildup of abnormal protein causes damage in brain tissue and cell death. This process happens slowly and may start years before the symptoms even start showing up.

What Are The Symptoms?

CTE can affect thinking and behavior. The most common reported symptoms are memory problems, problems with decision-making, mood changes, and difficulty concentrating. In more severe cases, the symptoms can interfere with daily life by worsening even more over time. However, it is important to remember that not all symptoms are directly caused by CTE and could be from other issues. This is because CTE cannot be definitely diagnosed in a living person and can only have a definitive diagnosis through an autopsy of a deceased person by examining their brain tissue. It’s identified through p-tau proteins in the neurons around blood vessels. Recently, there have been newer noninvasive ways of seeing what’s happening in the brain of a living person through imaging and observing certain proteins in different parts of the brain.

Should You Be Worried?

Although CTE sounds extremely serious, not everybody who plays sports with head impacts or people who have had head impacts develops CTE. Research from the National Institutes of Health suggests that the risk of developing CTE is mostly linked to repeated head trauma and not just a single injury. This means that well-balanced and even occasional participation in head-impact sports is less likely to develop CTE or other similar conditions. To add on, scientists are still learning about CTE, with there being many parts they don’t completely understand, like why some individuals develop it, and others don’t as much.

How Is CTE Prevented?

Although there isn’t a guaranteed way to prevent CTE, reducing repeated head impacts and injuries is the most important step. Other steps include using proper safety equipment, reporting and treating concussions, and following rules that are designed to reduce the number of head injuries. To explain the last one, many sports organizations have introduced stricter safety protocols to reduce brain damage in recent years.

Final Thoughts

CTE is a serious brain condition that is linked with repeated head injuries, but doesn’t affect everybody in the same magnitude. It develops over time, even before its symptoms start to show up. While it’s important to be aware of the risks, especially in contact sports, it’s also important not to make a definitive diagnosis because it can only be made definitively through autopsy examination. Scientists are still studying to fully understand CTE and how it develops. But for now, the best solutions are proper safety measures, awareness, and making informed and calculated decisions when it comes to activities that involve head impacts.

Sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/traumatic-brain-injury/about/repeated-head-impacts.html?

National Institutes of Health: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/effects-repeated-head-trauma-young-athletes