Wellness & Fitness

Sports and dementia

dementia

Question: What is the link between sporting and dementia? I have been an active rugby player but lately scared as I see more and more sportsmen and women getting diagnosed with the condition upon retirement.

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Muhammad Ali is, without doubt, one of the most recognisable sportsmen of the 20th century. On February 25th, 1964, he fought and defeated Sonny Liston in one of the most memorable events in my then impressionable mind. The following year, he achieved the same outcome, this time defeating Liston in the first-round knockout in 90 seconds.

In one of the most famous sporting moments of all time, George Foreman and Mohammed Ali met in the so-called Rumble in the jungle fight on 30th October 1974, in Kinshasa Zaire. The world champion ruled supreme, and all his fans were happy. Ali confirmed his greatness in the sporting world.

Ten years later (1984) a new disease was made known to science. Ali had developed dementia pugilistica or dementia of boxers. The damage to the champion’s brain was now visible. When he carried the Olympic Torch in 1996 (Atlanta), his movements were slow, robotic and his face was expressionless.

To the doctors, there was no doubt. He had developed Parkinson’s disease, a condition associated with the damage of certain parts of the brain. Radiological examination later carried out confirmed that he had the consequences of severe trauma to his brain.

Since that tragic discovery, focus was turned to other contact sports and whereas boxing remains the most visible culprit in this regard, many contact sports, including rugby have come into sharp focus.

Football and in particular the fact of heading the ball are recently the subjects of intense discussion. A recent study for example has shown significant damage to the brains of girls who head the ball during football games, emphasising the importance of the already existing practice of reducing incidents of heading the ball during games by children.

By its very nature, rugby is a body contact sport that often entails a great deal of trauma to the head and perhaps unlike Mohamed Ali, care must be exercised in the regulation of this most enjoyable of sports.

Herein lies the challenge. Are we to advise against sport? What would the health consequences of banning sports be against the benefits we all get from sports? Happily, that is not the question before science today. The benefits of sports and physical activity, in general, are beyond question and for the removal of doubt, exercise is good for your health.

The point you raise in your question is whether rugby might have harmed you or not. The answer to this question may not be available to us today because it can take years or even decades for the damage to becomes evident. If you are concerned, as you seem to be, a check with your neurologist might be a good idea, and he might be able to follow you up as you grow older.

Just so that you and others know, there are signs that could indicate that you are heading in the direction of the condition now generally referred to as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which is a chronic progressive disease, which for now has no cure.

Some of the early features include memory loss and confusion. At first the memory loss might be for what one might consider as small things. Lost keys, missed appointments, and moving on to getting lost in familiar places and not remembering the names of one’s children and or spouse in severe cases.

Others develop confusion and have difficulties in conversations that in the early stages are simply annoying to the listener but with time, the person becomes confused, and conversation can be difficult or impossible.

For others, the problem might be that of impairment of judgment. In the early stages, one might be unable to manage his finances as he is unable to understand fully the value of money and becoming either too generous with tips or even very mean. In later stages, the problems could lead the person to expose himself to danger or even embarrassment by for example passing urine in the full view of a church congregation!

Aggression, depression and even suicide can all be complications in this condition. Some other people come to attention because they have problems with impulse control in which case a person could on the impulse and for no reason buy a ticket to Bombay, and upon getting there wonder why he made such a silly choice of things.

All this might seem to indicate that sports is a bad thing, but this is far from the intention of this answer. The correct position is that in arriving at whatever decision one does, or more importantly what sports regulators decide, science must be at the centre of such decisions and changes are indicated in some cases, best exemplified by the tragedy that visited my childhood hero, Mohamed Ali.

Dr Njenga is a psychiatrist and mental health consultant. [email protected]