The competition to study the brains of former NFL players is ugly; almost as ugly as the league's decades of denying that concussions lead to long-term health issues. But the fight over the late Junior Seau took it to a whole new level—and a key player was controversial Chargers doctor David Chao
A new study, published by researchers at UCLA in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, shows evidence that Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) can be detected in living patients via positron emission tomography (PET) scans. CTE is a particular type of brain damage that causes depression, memory loss, and…
According to ESPN, former NFL linebacker Junior Seau had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) at the time of his suicide last May. In an interview with ESPN, Seau's widow and son claim that researchers at the National Institutes of Health informed them of the diagnosis after completing a thorough examination of…
Former football player and pro wrestler Chris Nowinski recently set up a massive research project with Boston University to examine the long-term effects of concussion damage on the human brain. Anyone can volunteer to have his or her brain posthumously donated to the study, and one anonymous Deadspin reader has signed …
Let no one say the Centers for Disease Control's PR department doesn't have a wicked sense of timing. They chose today, the day of the NFL Kickoff 2012 presented by Bud Light, to release a study confirming that no, football is not good for you, and yes, it will leave your brain a quivering porous mass that will make…
Ralph Wenzel played guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Diego Chargers over the course of seven NFL seasons from 1966 to 1973. At the age of 52, some twenty years after his career ended, he began experiencing "significant memory lapses and other cognitive problems." It was the opinion of his wife, Eleanor Perfetto …
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is a diagnosis for dead people. Last month, Junior Seau was found in his home in Oceanside, Calif., with a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. A familiar sequence unfolded: His brain was requested by both the Brain Injury Research Institute and Boston University's…
A year ago, just after former NFL player Lew Carpenter passed away at the age of 78, his family decided to donate his brain to a team of researchers studying chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease often found in athletes who have suffered repeated head injuries.
