BOSTON, MA — A new study finds head injuries from contact sports can cause brain cell loss long before the onset of CTE.
Jonathan Cherry and his team at Boston University studied the donated brains of dozens of men under 50.
They found that inflammation, loss of brain cells, and blood vessel damage, was present in the brains of those who had played contact sports, even in the men who never developed CTE.
Cherry says repetitive head impacts cause brain injuries much earlier than researchers first thought.
“Using a lot of imaging techniques, there are ways in which we can look at the brain and see these changes,” cherry tells CBS Radio in an interview. “They are not primetime yet, but they are definitely getting really close where we can identify people who might have these things with imaging and blood tests, as well.”
He says we have to rethink our approach to youth sports.