US: Contact sports tied to disease that causes dementia

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) - Contact sports such as hockey or football are linked to an increased risk of a disease that can trigger conditions like dementia or Parkinson's disease, researchers said Wednesday.

Lewy Body Disease (LBD) can lead to motion and thought impairment like tremors and difficulty walking.

Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine say LBD is independent of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), another neurodegenerative disease that is linked to contact sports that has led to lawsuits by former NFL players.

LBD is known as one of the most common causes of dementia in the elderly. According to a 2014 study by the National Institutes of Health, 1.3 million Americans are impacted by LBD.

Research was published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology.

"We found the number of years an individual was exposed to contact sports, including football, ice hockey and boxing, was associated with the development of neocortical LBD, and LBD, in turn, was associated with parkinsonism and dementia," corresponding author Thor Stein said in a statement.

Researchers examined 694 brains from three different organ depositories to see how contact sports can impact the brain over time. According to the study, athletes who participated in over eight years of a contact sport had the greatest risk of LBD. The risk was found to be six times higher than athletes with less time in those sports.

Athletes who suffered from both CTE and LBD were at significantly higher risk of dementia than athletes with CTE alone.

The link between neurodegenerative disease and contact sports dates to the 1920s, when doctors first discussed the symptoms of “punch drunk” boxers that would later be diagnosed as CTE.

The researchers behind the new LBD study say that the findings help reveal more of the long term risks of contact sports.