September 14, 2012 Posted by Matthew Dolman in Blog

Florida Brain Injury Attorney Discusses Ling Between Football and Degenerative Brain Disease

A new study has used statistical data gathered from the death certificates of former NFL players to show that the death rate from degenerative brain diseases—such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease—is about 300 percent higher than the predicted rate among the general public. The study focused on players that had played five or more years in the NFL between the years of 1959 and 1988. Ten of the 334 certificates that were used listed one of those three degenerative brain disorders as the cause of death confirming a rate 3 times higher than that of the average male public. It has been previously suggested that NFL players suffer from this sort of disease abnormally more frequently, but this study is concrete evidence of the disturbing trend. As a brain injury lawyer, this study interests me due to the effects of repeated head trauma that is readily ascertainable.

These results can be tied to repeated head trauma in a couple of ways. It’s been suggested that a condition called CTE could be the true underlying cause of some of these brain disease related death. CTE is a condition that has been gaining attention because of its close association with football players who suffer repeated traumatic brain injuries. Certain doctors believe that any number of the degenerative brain disease deaths could have been a misdiagnosed death from CTE. In order to determine that the death was actually due to the repeated brain injuries, a special chemical test of the brain must be conducted posthumously. This test is not standard as CTE is not commonly included in the list of conditions that pathologists use to classify a death.

You may wonder how this study may relate to the everyday average person, and the truth is that traumatic brain injuries can occur to anyone (not just pro football players). Car accidents and motorcycle crashes can often cause devastating head injuries that effect victims for the rest of their lives. These are injuries that need to be medically treated properly, which often requires extensive amounts of money. The fact is that accident victims who suffer head trauma need the services of a qualified personal injury attorney to ensure that their rights and best interests are protected. That’s where the experienced Tampa brain injury attorneys at the Dolman Law Group come in.