Professional athletes face high risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

Professional football players, rugby players, and boxers are at extremely high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, or other forms of dementia, reports salute.eu.

Technically, the condition is called CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), and several studies have investigated it, CE Report quotes ATA.

However, it should be noted that the risks of contact sports have been known for almost a century.

In 1928, American pathologist Harrison Martland published a scientific article in which he argued that “boxers have long recognized a specific condition that occurs among professional boxers, which, in the ring’s jargon, they call being ‘punch drunk.’”

What are the symptoms? Unsteady walking and mental confusion. In some cases, being “punch drunk” has progressed into dementia, later classified as pugilistic dementia, because it occurs in athletes who have suffered repeated head trauma.