The following is an outline for the mechanisms of damage from minor head trauma:
- A mild traumatic brain injury occurs when the skull is pressed into the brain
- The impact damages blood vessels lining the skull, causing some to burst or leak
- The body responds, in part, by producing molecules called reactive oxygen species, which mistake the injury for the intrusion of a foreign body
Useful at fighting bacterial infections, such as E.Coli, the reactive oxygen species swarm around the injury and instead of healing it, cause damage by tearing up the glial limitans within membranes separating the brain from the fluids around it. Fluids carrying reactive oxygen species from the damaged blood vessels leak through the new holes in the membrane and come into contact with brain tissue, destroying it.
It is believed that this process is what plays a fundamental role in the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the disease that has been found in the autopsied brains of deceased retired NFL footballs players which has led to litigation against the NFL by thousands of former players who sued over the alleged mistreatment of concussions for decades by NFL doctors. CTE and the concussion epidemic are the reasons the MFL has agreed to pay $765 million to those players.
The NFL has stated in federal court documents that it expects nearly 1/3 of retired players to develop long term cognitive problems and that the conditions are likely to emerge at a younger age than in the general population.
Despite the NFLs disputes over the years against evidence that its players had a high rate of severe brain damage, the findings were found and prepared by actuaries hired by the league and provided to the United States District Court Judge presiding over the settlement between the NFL and 5,000 former players who sued the league, claiming that it had hidden and downplayed the dangers of concussions from them.
The findings are forecasting that the players will develop these long term cognitive problems at a notably younger age than the general population. The findings also confirm what scientists have said for years: that playing football increases the risk of developing neurological conditions like chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that can only be identified in an autopsy.
Due to this research, the league may be pressured to acknowledge the connection between football and brain diseases. However, an NFL spokesman’s lawyer said the findings were inflated due to the fact that they were solely based on medical diagnosis reported by the players who sued the league. He said the findings do not reflect the prediction of the number of players who will suffer traumatic brain injuries. They are intended to show the Court that even if unexpectedly high numbers of players were injured, there still would be sufficient money to play the claims.
The actuarial numbers were released by the NFL and representatives of retired players who are suing the league.
When you buy a product from a store, you expect that item to do what it’s intended to do–not injure you. Defective products injure thousands of consumers every year, and unfortunately this happens across industries, from automotive, to medical devices, to children’s toys, and more.
