A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer's disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league's former players vastly more often than in the national population--including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.
Subscribe to Penn State Clips via EmailThe study was conducted for the National Football League (NFL) by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.
An NFL spokesman, Greg Aiello, said the study did not formally diagnose dementia, that it was subject to shortcomings of telephone surveys, and that “there are thousands of retired players who do not have memory problems.”
I doubt that the five million Americans suffering from Alzheimer's and their families will take comfort in knowing that the vast majority of Americans do not suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia.
The Michigan researchers found that 6.1 percent of players age 50 and above reported that they had received a dementia-related diagnosis, five times higher than the cited national average, 1.2 percent.
I doubt that Aiello's comments will give comfort to NFL Players. If the numbers prove to be correct about one of every 16 retired NFL players could be expected to suffer from early onset Alzheimer's and dementia. It is likely that those numbers are going to climb as players age.
To read Dementia Risk Seen in Players in N.F.L. Study ...go here.
The study might be of concern to parents of college and high school football players.
Original content Bob DeMarco, Alzheimer's Reading Room
Wireless Reading Device 
0 comments:
Post a Comment