August

CORRUPT
TO THE CORE

“It’s just criminal, really, what we’re doing. Shame on us.”
Mary Willingham, Learning Specialist

‘Shame on us’: Colleges fail unprepared athletes, UNC whistleblower says in Congress. @MurphinDC reports. https://t.co/ffdclom6im
— Dan Kane (@dankanenando) July 25, 2019

More damning is finding by @TedTatos and @NFLObjectors of deep discrepancies between unpublished work & peer reviewed work at UNC from 2003 to 2012. The CARE Consortium remains silent on a flaw that underpins their existence. Only a matter of time before media picks up on this...
— Stephen T Casper (@TheNeuroTimes) July 21, 2019

Football Injures the Brains of High School Players
-- virtually all of them
--in just one season
-- proportionate to hit exposure
--in various ways
--without a diagnosed concussion

Links to 17 abstracts, none by Boston U:https://t.co/E1S9hxbDUW pic.twitter.com/GzY3MIjfmc
— Kent Johnson (@37919KJ) July 30, 2019

PREVENTABLE

Strong statement from #MichaelAlosco to finish;

'If #exposure to repetitive #headinjury is necessary for the development of #CTE, then it is *entirely* #preventable'

For context, #youthfootball starts from age 5...

Conference theme: changing the #culture of #americansport
— Naomi Deakin (@DeaksND) July 28, 2019

"[T]here are many specific interventions for which, even under a skeptical appraisal of the weight of evidence, the costs of a false positive are smaller than the false negative costs of refusing to intervene."

TIME FOR AN INTERVENTION

The American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness sellout to the football industry is an abomination.
The vast majority of AAP member pediatricians whose first duty is to child health and safety- the ones without sideline passes- should demand reform.
— Kent Johnson (@37919KJ) July 2, 2019

College sports is a civil rights issue. You may not care about sports. That's totally fair. But we should all care about the athletes. https://t.co/ggGaj5ejGP
— Mekka Okereke (@mekkaokereke) July 26, 2019

TO STOP THE DAMAGE

https://t.co/knLdBGaXWv #football #braininjury #cte #braindamaged #afterthecheeringstops
— Cyndy Feasel □ (@CyndyFeasel) July 23, 2019

Coaches would receive disability benefits, what benefits do college athletes get when they are disabled? https://t.co/W9HCqJcyQO
— @AthleteRights_NC (@AthleterightsNc) July 19, 2019

while noticeable symptoms may subside, cognitive delays may never go away post-concussion.

“A concussion is brain damage. The brain’s design is incredible; up to a certain point it is able to compensate. But if you keep piling on the injuries, it loses that ability.”- Dr Molfese
— Kent Johnson (@37919KJ) July 15, 2019

Mayo Clinic: “66 brains from people who played contact sports had CTE. Of the 198 brains studied from people who had no exposure to contact sports at any point in their lives, none showed signs of CTE.” https://t.co/O02nFcSDTI
— Glen Hines (@Glen_R_Hines) July 17, 2019

#CTE linked with violence in many professional athletes https://t.co/gKXqK5T6nR via @KREM2
— Sheilla Dingus (@SheillaDingus) July 2, 2019

J. Pediatric Neurology Jul 2019:
"growing evidence that exposure to RHI in tackle football during youth is associated with a variety of short- and long-term changes in cognition, behavior, and mood, as well as to structural changes to the brain."https://t.co/kTn1lfTgNh
— Kent Johnson (@37919KJ) July 5, 2019

LOSING OUR MYELIN

By Dr. Jana - http://docjana.com/saltatory-conduction/ ; https://www.patreon.com/posts/4374048, CC BY 4.0, Link

A clinician describes shear following head injury and says it basically confirms much earlier work by Cajal. "It is likely that axonal changes are the basic lesion in all head injury." (1967) pic.twitter.com/S9hvcHekPi
— Stephen T Casper (@TheNeuroTimes) June 29, 2019

WHEN WILL WE LEARN?

If this were a developmental issue, we'd expect LD/ADHD athlete rates similar to that of the general pop. But fact that we're seeing diagnosis rates of 40-60% (e.g. UNC), points to an occupational cause, i.e., repeated impacts to the head from participation in collision sports.
— Ted Tatos (@TedTatos) July 20, 2019

"The NCAA’s corrupt business model is simple: have it both ways. The organization wants all the power that comes with being the boss, the owner, the employer, but none of the responsibilities that are expected in a healthy work environment."https://t.co/Un3uOy9p7O
— Nancy Skinner (@NancySkinnerCA) July 1, 2019

There has been clear and reasonable evidence that any collision sports entity could have acted upon since the 1950s.
— Stephen T Casper (@TheNeuroTimes) July 3, 2019

Controversially, helmets give some athletes a false sense of confidence. Yet the evidence is clear—they don’t prevent brain trauma.

More from @alanpearcephd. https://t.co/T0JO6FQS6L
— La Trobe University (@latrobe) July 1, 2019

I'm thinking about this as I am watching team USA the #WorldCup2019 semifinal game. We know very little about CTE in women, yet millions of girls and women play soccer around the world. This is a critically important study.https://t.co/lPjFEe34cY
— Julie Stamm, PhD, LAT (@JulieStammPhD) July 2, 2019

Headers should be banned ... at least until high school, and probably through high school. If students want play for private club soccer organizations that's fine. But public high schools are designed to enhance the brain's capacity for learning, not hinder it. https://t.co/9zrdf5jEFW
— Dr. Ken Reed (@KenReedLofF) July 9, 2019

SCHOOL SPORTS SHOULD BE AGE-APPROPRIATE

“I knew players could break their bodies. I didn’t know they could also break their brains”

Devastating what happened to this young man for sake of the Game.

Family has written a new book, “Hard Hit” to share their experience and hard truth.
— Jo Cornell (@JoCornell4) July 6, 2019

Louder for the people in the back:

A head hit can cause brain injury without producing concussive symptoms. Repetitive head hits are a risk factor for the development of accelerated neurocognitive decline, depression, & even early-onset neurodegeneration (CTE)#TBI #concussion
— pianobug (@pianobug) July 12, 2019

9 ex-athletes from a top N.J. private school have died since 2014. It's left a nagging question hanging over a community: Why? https://t.co/1kIdzUewZW
— Matthew Stanmyre (@MattStanmyre) July 12, 2019

"Most of the negative consequences of youth sports occur when uninformed adults make a big mistake: They impose a professional model on what should be a recreational and educational experience for children and adolescents." https://t.co/9XjXDRk3Pb
— Concerned Mom (@ConcernedMom9) July 30, 2019

BRAIN DAMAGE
IS THE OPPOSITE
OF EDUCATION

“It has been apparent for some time that subsidized football is inconsistent with our academic purposes,” President Francis Gaines wrote in an open letter to alumni and students in 1954.@37919KJ https://t.co/hF3vhZvH65
— Concerned Mom (@ConcernedMom9) July 13, 2019

In another article by @dhellingsports he points to several scenarios and asks, "are we talking about slave trade or college sports?"https://t.co/gPayakp9RH
— Sheilla Dingus (@SheillaDingus) July 14, 2019

Loss of brain connections after severe traumatic brain injury linked to poorer social cognition https://t.co/fuuCtd18E7
— PsyPost.org (@PsyPost) July 13, 2019

On average, what's the optimal number of schoolteacher-supervised hits to the head over 4 years to ensure that a high school boy will become a man?

(Poll provided by:
Amalgamated Pediatricians with Sideline Passes
and by
The Official Hospital System of Your Favorite Team)
— Kent Johnson (@37919KJ) July 14, 2019

The scolding tone of this sportswriter is ridiculous. And coaches pressuring kids? Outrageous. Schools and coaches are there to benefit kids..not the other way around.
— Jim Hoffman (@JimH5) July 25, 2019

THE ONLY SOLUTION
IS PREVENTION

It says something about the way doctors err to the least drama in their writings that, other than Mike Webster, few of the deceased are ever named, even though we know their names. The bias of “not naming” starts by ignoring how it is personal for someone. Someone we could name.
— Stephen T Casper (@TheNeuroTimes) July 16, 2019

"Some conferences have been informed that general liability claims cannot include head injuries going forward." @kimberlyarchie @37919KJ @NFLObjectors https://t.co/PQ1Jtm4bHw
— Concerned Mom (@ConcernedMom9) July 16, 2019

Seeing sports as separate and different is how you end up with the sports industry, especially football, having outsized influence on brain injury science and medicine, with predictably conflicted and shitty results—imagine Exxon as the top funder and voice on CO2 emissions
— Patrick Hruby (@patrick_hruby) July 26, 2019

Dementias beyond CTE including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's linked to sport, study finds https://t.co/yXBSg90Pnj via @telegraphsport
— Sheilla Dingus (@SheillaDingus) August 1, 2019

As CTE trials approach, could legal reckoning be coming to youth football’s leading institutions? https://t.co/F5QCQVFPr3
— O.C. Register (@ocregister) July 28, 2019

People who watched their dads die from preventable dementias know "how big" & "how small" & "how relevant, the issue is." Go talk to a parent with a deceased child. I mean there are ways to inform yourself before you opine about how much you think so and so league loves you.
— Stephen T Casper (@TheNeuroTimes) July 16, 2019

Good question https://t.co/eXtSqF2sAI
— Debra Pyka (@DebbiePyka) July 14, 2019

WE CAN CHANGE

Recreational brain damage may be losing its appeal.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) July 22, 2019

.@FootballDamage "... I believe that tackle football should be banned until 18 years of age and that it should not be sponsored by academic institutions." (Based on what will now know, how can academic institutions justify sponsoring the game?) https://t.co/w2hSQu97Vb
— Concerned Mom (@ConcernedMom9) June 23, 2019

INTENTIONAL INJURIES
ARE PREVENTABLE INJURIES

Youth flag football thriving in New England.
“It’s just that flag football is fun. It’s so fast-paced. You’re either the quarterback, running back or wide receiver on every play and that’s what kids want to do."
I guess kids don't want to be a linemen. https://t.co/FLmZAuIXrW
— Kent Johnson (@37919KJ) June 26, 2019

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