'Heading' a soccer ball could cause brain injury: study

[Celebration]

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111128/soccer-heading-brain-damage-111129/20111129/?hub=EdmontonHome

The issue of head injuries has been a topic of debate in sports such as hockey, football and boxing. Now, researchers are raising concerns about the brain health of players in another sport: soccer.

Researchers in the U.S. recently completed brains scans on soccer players who regularly "head" the ball and say they found subtle signs of brain damage in many of them -- raising concerns about whether the practice is safe, especially in chldren.

Using a form of brain imaging called diffusion tensor imaging, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York studied 38 amateur soccer players with an average age of 31, all of whom had played soccer since childhood.

They found that those players who said they head the ball frequently had changes in their brains that were similar to those seen in traumatic brain injury patients.

Given this, it should not be part of the game, at least through high school.

[lbrtbell]

1. Soccer needs to just go away

I like sports, but we don't need to bring soccer, and the associated hooliganism, to the United States.

[sharp_stick]

2. Yeah cause it's soccer that causes hooliganism

isn't it? Talk about weird and completely out of the box associations.

I suppose the guys that kicked the shit out of the Giant's fan in LA were just jacked up ManU fans trying to get a fix or something.

BTW soccer is already here, I'm kind of surprised that someone that "likes sports" didn't know that.

[madrchsod]

5. i coached youth soccer for 17 years....

soccer isn`t going away at any level...

[TexasProgresive]

3. This is really amazing.

It amazing me that the media continually reports old news as news.

From the National Academies Press:

Is Soccer Bad for Children's Heads?:
Summary of the IOM Workshop on Neuropsychological Consequences of Head Impact in Youth Soccer
Size: 36 pages, 8.5 x 11

Publication Year:2002

https://download.nap.edu/login.php?record_id=10362&page=%2Fcatalog.php%3Frecord_id%3D10362

[Celebration]

4. just more confirmation

of earlier studies.

Yet nothing is done. Why?

[saras]

6. Because brain damages isn't harmful to our society's economic success

America didn't have a problem integrating stupid people until our economy failed. As long as they approximately do what they are told, their suffering is entirely local, and it doesn't negatively impact important bottom lines at all.

[Odin2005]

7. They needed a study for THIS???