Unites States: A new study by the Boston University CTE Centre has suggested that playing football might increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
The researchers analysed data from an online survey sponsored by the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and found that participants who had a history of playing organised tackle football were 61 percent more likely to report a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis or parkinsonism, an umbrella term for symptoms like tremors and rigidity that cause movement problems.
The report, published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, also found that participants who played football at higher levels were nearly three times as likely to have parkinsonism compared with those who played at the youth or high school levels.
According to the National Institute on Ageing, Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that causes unintentional or uncontrollable movement, including shaking, difficulty balancing, and stiffness.
Most people develop the disease after the age of 60, and symptoms typically begin gradually before slowly worsening over time.
Mr. Michael Alosco, a study author and the centre’s co-director of clinical research, noted that his team’s “interest in Parkinson’s disease didn’t stem from football. It came from boxing.”
“Since the early 1920s, there’s been a link between boxing and Parkinson’s disease. Now, fast forward to today. Both boxing and football have this commonality: a lot of exposure to repeated hits to the head. So we wanted to see. Well, is this also a relationship we see from playing football,” Mr. Alosco expressed.
“Research on the link between football and Parkinson’s disease is limited. And unlike other studies on sports and brain disease, this one focuses on amateurs as well,” the author further added.
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